Today on All Souls Day and throughout the month of November, we not only remember the dead, but we apply our efforts, through prayer, almsgiving, and the Mass, to their release from Purgatory. As Christians, we don’t travel through this world alone. Our salvation is wrapped up with the salvation of others, and charity requires us to come to their aid. The same is true of the Holy Souls. In order to gain the Plenary Induldgence for All Souls Day, one must:
▪ Visit a church and pray for souls in Purgatory
▪ Say one “Our Father” and the “Creed” in the visit to the church
▪ Say one “Our Father” and one “Hail Mary” for the Holy Father’s intentions
▪ Worthily receive Holy Communion (ideally on the same day if you can get to Mass)
▪ Make a sacramental confession within a week of All Souls Day
For a plenary indulgence be free from all attachment to sin, even venial sin (otherwise, the indulgence is partial, not plenary, “full”).
For more information about this great day, please listen to this short ad I did for our local Catholic radio station WEUC.
Today, I remember those who I have known and who I pray for each day. I especially pray for my Grandfather, Dale Bruns who passed away on February 3, this year. I have his picture in the front of my breviary so that each time I open it to pray, I see his photo and pray for his soul.
I also pray for those family members, who have died in recent years, and those others whom I have known.
These are the ones who came to my mind during my Holy Hour this morning, though I know that there are more whom slip my mind currently. Great-Grandma Carrie Neisen, Fr. Silas Musholt OFM, Great-Grandma Isabelle Musholt, Julia Kinder, Mrs. Harper, Mrs. Bernice Hill, Arlene Summers, Doris Rushing, Walter & Margie Miller, Nikki Winders, Charles & Betty Cash, Aunt Wanda & Uncle Bob,
It is so important for us as men and women of faith, to pray for all those who have gone before us. So many of those that I have met throughout my life and so many of whom I have heard stories about, have had an influence on the man I am today. Without their sacrifices and prayers, I don’t know where I would be. So I pray for them, I offer penance up for them, and I pray that the Lord will admit them into his kingdom. Because one day, I too will be dead, and pray that they and others will pray for my soul as well.
On a Capuchin Tomb in Rome, made famous because it is built out of bones it reads: “What you are, we once were. What we are, you will become.” Or the Latin phrase: “Tempus Fugit, Memento Mori.” – Time fly’s, remember death!
We are all dying, from the moment of our birth, we are on a downward slant. Let us always be mindful of our coming death’s, the need to prepare our souls to receive it. And the need to pray for those, who will in turn pray for us.
Requiem Aeternam dona eis, Domine
R. et lux perpetua luceat eis:
Requiescant in pace. R. Amen.
Walking The Way of Beauty 