The Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed (All Souls' Day)

Jesus says He will not lose anyone the Father gives Him. What does He promise to do for them on the last day?

In 998 the abbot of a great monastery in France, St. Odilo of Cluny, told his monks to set aside the day after All Saints to pray for the dead. The custom spread, and within a few centuries the whole Church kept November 2 as All Souls’ Day. Since 1915 priests may say three Masses today, so many are the dead who need prayer.

Are the souls in Purgatory sad?

Light a candle at dinner, name one family member who has died, and say “Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them” together.

The place where people who died loving God get cleaned up before they go into Heaven. Everyone there is already saved; they are just not finished yet, and our prayers help them.

Blessed are the clean of heart: they shall see God.

Is Grandpa in Heaven or in Purgatory?

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Jesus, remember the people we love who have died, and the ones nobody remembers. Bring them home to you. Amen.

On the banks of the Mississippi River in Oak Grove, Wisconsin, a future saint was born in a log cabin. As one of sixteen children, Bernard Francis Casey would later receive the religious name Solanus when he joined the Capuchin order at the age of twenty-six. Because he had difficulty with the classes in seminary due to a language barrier, he was ordained a simplex priest, meaning he could offer Mass but could not hear Confessions or preach. Bl. Solanus accepted this humiliation with resignation, serving as a simplex priest for fifty-three years. Fr. Solanus’s first assignment after being ordained a priest was to serve as sacristan and supervisor of the altar servers. He was soon given the job of porter, which is usually reserved for brothers. He answered the doorbell and ran errands for the priests. He fulfilled this seemingly unimportant job with devotion, proving to be a great intercessor and a tremendous listener. Over the years, many miracles happened under his watch.

Our Lord asked, “Do you believe this?” It’s important that you believe that you have an immortal soul that never dies and that you must care for it, because your body begins to wear down like a car: your hair gets grayer, you get more wrinkles, you can’t hear right, this happens, that happens, your feet begin to hurt where they never hurt before. But your soul is alive and vibrant — and never, never, never, never, never dies. “ ‘Yes, Lord,’ Martha said, ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world’ ” (v. 27). What kind of answer is that? The correct answer, because only God, only the Son of God, could tell you that you have an immortal soul that will never die and that it shall rise again!

The cemetery visit for the plenary indulgence can be any day through Sunday, November 8: pick the day now, and plan Confession and Communion within about a week of it (Saturday Confession works). Tomorrow, November 3, is St. Martin de Porres: have a broom ready and think of a hidden chore each child could do. Wednesday, November 4, is St. Charles Borromeo: dig out the family catechism, or a Baltimore Catechism or YouCat, and a notecard to write a thank you to your parish priest.