Yesterday, on the Feast of All Saints, we gave honor to God for his masterpieces: the saints, those Christians who reached spiritual perfection in this life, and so entered heaven immediately after death.
Today, the world’s one billion Catholics are joined in prayer for the repose of the souls of our many brothers and sisters who died in friendship with Christ, and whose souls still needed to be purified of the effects of their sins.
Yesterday, on the Feast of All Saints, I shared how in teaching about the saints down at the school, I showed them a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. His sacred heart, burning on fire with love for God and mankind, his heart, wrapped in thorns, willing to suffer that we might have eternal life, his heart, shining brilliantly with the light of truth—he is the light of the world.
I shared how the saints, while on earth, seek with every ounce of their strength, to conform their hearts to his. They seek to love God as he did, serve God as he did, pour out their life like he did.
In purgatory, those whose hearts are still in need of purification, receive that great blessing from God.
We rightfully refer to the souls in purgatory as the holy souls, for they are destined to join the ranks of the saints in heaven. We also rightfully call them the poor souls because they are in need of our prayers.
One of the most devastating and tragic effects of the Protestant Reformation in the 16thcentury, was that Protestants stopped praying for the poor souls. Yet this praying for the dead is a practice encouraged by Scripture and the Sacred Tradition of the Church and the words and writings of the Saints.
Understandably, many Catholics do not like to pray for our departed loved ones. It can be painful to think of them still awaiting entrance into the heavenly kingdom. We like to hope that our loved ones who displayed so much love and affection throughout their lives entered immediately into heaven.
But the only members of the faithful departed we know to be in heaven with absolute certainty, are those declared by the Church to be Saints.
We do not pray for the Saints in heaven, they are not in need of our prayers, as they stand face-to-face with Almighty God in the Beatific Vision of Heaven. The poor souls in purgatory are in need, so the Church, rightly prays for them.
St. Augustine when asked why he prayed so much for the dead, he replied: I pray for the dead in order that when they reach Heaven they may pray for me. For once the holy souls enter the place prepared for them in heaven, they join the communion of saints in praying for the church on earth.
The celebration of Mass is the most powerful prayer for the dead, and it is also when the Church is most closely united. In the celebration of the Eucharist, time and space are transcended, and the Mystical Body of Christ stands united—including all those who are still on the earthly pilgrim journey of faith, all those who have gone before us in purgatory, and the entirety of the saints in heaven.
St. Padre Pio who had a strong devotion to pray for the poor souls said, “The holy souls are eager for the prayers of the faithful, which can gain indulgences for them. Their intercession is powerful. Pray unceasingly. We must empty Purgatory.”
During the summer while I was still in seminary I worked at All Saints Cemetery in Northfield. It can be a deeply meditative, moving, powerful experience to walk through a cemetery praying a rosary, commending the departed to God’s love.
So many souls have no one else to pray for them, either because their family members have ceased practicing the Faith, or all of their family members are also deceased.
So we continue this celebration of All Souls’ Day with the sure and certain hope that what we do here echoes beyond the veil of death, and truly helps our beloved dead, as they make their way to God.
My mom told us to pray for the poor souls in purgatory every night. I'd forgotten. Thanks for the reminder, Fr. K. They now get a decade for each rosary.
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