During the month of November Holy Mother Church
celebrates two important feasts: All Saints Day on November 1st, and
All Souls Day on November 2nd.
All Saints Day commemorates those who have gone before
us that are saints in heaven, both known and unknown. This includes the saints
we all know and love, such as St. Francis of Assisi, St. Anthony of Padua, St.
Therese Lisieux, and so forth. But it also acknowledges those saints that we
don’t commemorate on the church calendar but are saints none the less. This
includes those relatives of ours that have long since passed, went through
purgatory, and are now in full vision of the face of God. These relatives of
ours that have made it to heaven are also commemorated on All Saints Day.
All Souls Day is the day we pray for our relatives and
friends that have passed before us but are still in purgatory. In the Catechism
of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1030 it
says, “All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly
purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they
undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy
of heaven.” It’s important that we pray for those who are
in purgatory to help them during their journey in heaven.
Pope Benedict XVI says of purgatory, “…we need a final
cleansing, a cleansing by fire, to be exact, in which the gaze of Christ, so to
say, burns us free from everything, and only under this purifying gaze are we,
as it were, fit to be with God and able, then, to make our home with him…” Pope
Benedict goes on to say, “Purgatory basically means that God can put the pieces
back together again. That he can cleanse us in such a way that we are able to be
with him and can stand there in the fullness of life.”
So, lets pray for all our relatives that have gone
before us during this month of the Holy Souls. Have masses said for them, pray
for them in your private prayers, and ask God to look on them with mercy and
love in order to bring them to the glory of heaven.
In addition to praying for our diseased relatives
during the month of November, arrange to have masses said for them during the
year. A mass said for a deceased relative is a great gift for those who have
passed before us. Then, once they’re in heaven, they’ll be praying for us to
the Lord our God.
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