Today is All Souls Day, transferred because All Saints Day fell on Saturday and was advanced to yesterday and subsumed the normal Sunday observance.
I was able today to follow two Extraordinary Form Masses with absolutions at the cataphalque. The first was at lunchtime from the FSSP Shrine in Warrington and celebrated with chant, and the second, earlier this evening, a full Solemn Requiem from the Oxford Oratory.
Praying for the Departed is a very important part of the Catholic Faith and something I do by remembering a fairly long list of people at every Mass I attend. Apart from specific anniversaries this time of year is a good one at which to catch up on remembrance of the of the dead.
Being a historian in addition to deceased family and friends - and as I get older that list inevitably gets longer - and the general intention of all the faithful departed, I also include individuals of whom I know, but I have never ever met in the flesh because they died many years or indeed centuries ago. As Purgatory is outside the constraints of time as we know it this is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. The Church teaches that those in Purgatory, whilst unable to pray for themselves, can pray for their companions in that state of being, and for those here on earth who pray for them. I do have a sense that some of those I have prayed for have, or may have, prayed for me also. Prayers for those who have finished their time in Purgatory are not wasted as they can be applied through the Treasury of Merits to others still in purgation.
For the souls in Purgatory I pray, not merely for their repose, but also for them in the hour of their death, as quite a number of them suffered violent, unpleasant and terrible deaths. This seems possible, because of the atemporality of the Divine - to God all things are eternally present. Whom I pray for I will keep in pectore, but it does enable me to do something for those who accompany me as an historian.
Rest eternal grant unto them O Lord and let light perpetual shine upon them.
2 comments:
The Church Suffering (those in Purgatory)need our prayers. We in the Church Militant (here still on Earth) need their prayers. And souls we never knew, whom everyone has long forgotten most especially need our prayers. Thank you for this post!
Exactly!
Post a Comment