All Souls’ Day

ThePoorSouls.org

Pray everyday for the Poor Souls in Purgatory.

LIVES OF THE SAINTS
All Souls’ Day

ALL SOULS’ DAY - NOV. 2

“SCARCELY has the Church given the last salute to the host of saints when she turns to the suffering who are awaiting the joys of heaven. The joy that echoes throughout the day, in the Mass and Divine Office of November 1, gives way the next day to the commemoration of all the faithful departed. It is reasonable that the Church should move in her liturgy from the Church Triumphant to the Church Suffering. The suffering souls and the blessed have a common bond. They are both captives of love. For the blessed, love has reached its total fulfillment; for the suffering souls, love is the greater part of the pain of purgatory, a pain mingled with happiness in the sure knowledge of their salvation.”

“The prayer of the Church on All Souls’ Day is not meant to honor these future saints but to petition for their attainment of the vision of God for which they wait. It is a consolation to those left behind that they may assist the suffering in purgatory; and theology assures us that the more or less speedy triumph of these souls lies within our power. It is the teaching of the Church that we may offer sacrifices, prayers, and alms for the release of souls in purgatory, the Sacrifice of the Mass being most meritorious. Not only can we apply the merits of our own acts, but we can also draw on the vast storehouse of grace earned by Christ, His Mother, and the saints.”

“These graces have been placed in the hands of the Church to dispense at her will. She allows any of her children to draw from this treasury by the use of indulgences. It is as if we were members of a very wealthy family and were allowed to write checks to draw sums from the family fortune. The prayer or act by which we may gain the indulgence is like the check, meriting an amount of grace far superior to the merits of the act itself, just as the buying power of money that a check would bring is far superior to the value of the little piece of paper.”

“We have not merited that grace ourselves. We are permitted to partake of it because we are members of a very wealthy family, the mystical body of Christ. As long as we are members in good standing, we have the authority to draw out graces deposited by other members of the family.”

“We are not bondservants; we are free sons and daughters, so we are free to distribute these graces as we will. We may apply them either to the temporal punishment due to our own sins or to the suffering souls who are no longer able to draw on those graces themselves.”

“The allegory of a bank check can be drawn even further. We even can specify the amount we wish to draw. Certain prayers and devotions have been assigned specific values by the Church. Thus, if we sincerely offer a prayer of three hundred days’ indulgence, we gain as much merit as if we had done three hundred days’ penance. Naturally, the degree to which we receive the full three hundred days’ merit depends on the fervor of our prayer and the dispositions of our soul, and many prayers which have not been assigned specific indulgences, or even prayers in our own words, might receive just as much or more merit. It is a common mistake to think that the assignment of a specific number of days has something to do with the number of “days” by which one’s purgatory is lessened. That is not true, for there is no time in purgatory.”

“If we would consider who the poor souls are, we would need no urging to pray for them. They are our fellow members in Jesus Christ. Every one of them is that brother whom we are bound to love as ourselves. At present they are away from God and undergoing great pain, but now they can never be separated from His grace. God tenderly loves them and waits to open His glory to them. We know with absolute certitude that our prayer will eventually be answered when we pray with the Church on All Souls’ Day, and every other day of the year: Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.”

More Resources on All Souls DayRead the All Souls Day Prayers

Everything (almost) you’ll ever need to know about All Saints Day and All Souls Day
By: Brooke Thomas
Where: BustedHalo.com
Read the Article

When the Great Beyond Isn’t So Great - Shedding Light on All Souls Day
By: Chris Cabrera
Where: BustedHalo.com
Read the Article