Commemorating All the Faithful Departed

Please join us for All Souls Day Masses at 9 am and 7 pm on Wednesday, November 2 in the Saint Thomas Activity Center.

All Souls Day gives us the privilege of praying for the repose of the souls of all the faithful departed, especially our relatives and friends. Coming after the celebration of All Saints, and at the beginning of the month of November, when in the Northern Hemisphere, all the world around us seems to be dying, preparing for the great hibernation that winters cold and freezing temperatures will bring.

This is a point of great personal meditation for us. We make sure we offer extra prayers for the dead, along with good works and most especially the Mass. Every one of our actions has consequences. Our good actions have the result of gaining us merit, which will determine how glorified we will be in heaven. Our bad actions have the consequence of sin. However, even after we have sought forgiveness and God has forgiven our sins, the consequences of the effect of our sin remain. If we spoke ill of another and hurt their reputation, if we wrecked a vehicle, if we killed someone—these sins have effects that linger, and justice demands that we atone for those consequences.

We do this either in this life or the next. If we wait, then we do so in Purgatory, where all those consequences of our choices are burned from us until we are refined as gold again.

On November 2 we also have the opportunity to receive a Plenary Indulgence for any specific soul we choose, by visiting a church, assisting at Mass, praying the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Glory be to the Father, and including the Holy Father’s prayer intention. Within 20 days before or after, we must also confess all mortal sins, receive absolution, attend Mass and receive Holy Communion in a state of grace.

May we not pass up these opportunities to help those who have gone before us. We may be certain to pray for those who have no one else to pray for them. These will be the souls who are there to welcome us to heaven when it is our time. Also, by your generosity now with the dead, hopefully those left after us will do the same for the repose of our souls.