All Souls Day - November 2

All Souls Day
November 2

On All Souls Day, the church commemorates and prays for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. These souls are the faithful departed, those who died in God’s faith and friendship, but are not immediately ready for God’s presence.

The Church describes being in the presence of God as the contemplation of God in His heavenly glory, “the beatific vision.” Or as the Catechism states, “Because of His transcendence, God cannot be seen as He is, unless He Himself opens up His mystery to man’s immediate contemplation and gives him the capacity for it.” CCC #1028 Or in laymans terms, when one attains the beatific vision, one will know God directly, see Him face to face and be in His presence always, bringing one unending joy and eternal happiness.

No one is owed heaven nor can anyone buy their way into heaven. Heaven is a totally free gift from God. It is however, up to each individual to freely accept or reject this gift. We cannot be united with God unless we freely chose to love Him. We cannot love God if we sin gravely against Him, our neighbor or ourselves.

This kind of grave sin is our choice. It is never the will of God for us to choose grave sin, because the will of God never leads us to do something that the grace of God will not protect us from. Though God may protect us from some of the ramifications of our free choice to sin, we live with the consequences of our free choice. God never wills us to experience the consequences of our sin; He only desires what is good for us. But as the saying goes, sow a thought reap an act, sow and act reap a habit, sow a habit reap a destiny." I must be careful what I sow.

Thankfully, as I have learned time and again, we can always come back to God and turn away from sin through His mercy in the Sacrament of Confession. If we chose not to confess and accept God’s mercy, the Catechism states that if we die in this condition, or in the state of mortal sin, we remain separated from Him forever by our own free choice. “This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called ‘hell.’” CCC #1033

Fortunately, God predestines no one to go to hell, He does not want “any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) “It would take a willful turning away from God (in mortal sin)…and persistence in it until the end.” CCC #1037 While no one deserves heaven, everyone, thanks to Christ’s death and resurrection has the possibility of going there.

For those “who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, (these souls) are indeed assured of eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.” CCC#1030

This purification is necessary because as we read in Revelation 21:27, nothing unclean will enter the presence of God in heaven. In other words, we may die in a state of grace, having repented of our mortal sins, but still need purification from venial sins and temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven.

Now what is this temporal punishment all about? Say you broke someone’s window, after apologizing; you may be required to pay for the broken window. Or during an argument with your spouse you said something that you should not have said and it hurt your spouse deeply. After apologizing; you will have to work at mending your relationship. Another example would be a person caught or admitting to an adulterous affair. An apology is just the beginning of a long road to mend this broken relationship. Or, ok this will be my last example, you rob a bank and get caught. After returning the money you still will go to jail and serve time for this act. These are some examples of temporal punishment, or paying the consequences so to speak, for crimes or sins against God, your neighbor or yourself.


Temporal punishment due to sin, even after the sin itself has been forgiven by God, is clearly shown in scripture. In Genesis 3:19 God redeems man out of his first disobedience, giving him power to govern all things, but condemns him “By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat, until you return to the ground. In Numbers 20:12, God forgave the disbelief of Moses and Aaron but as punishment would not let them “led this community ( of Israelites) into the land I will give them.” And in 2 Samuel 12:13-14, the Lord forgave David his sin and did not take his life, “But since you have utterly spurned the Lord by this deed, the child born to you must surely die.”

Not only does God demand just punishment for sin, so does the world. When you really think about it, how we conduct our life, affects ourselves and those around us. Everything we do has a kind of ripple effect from ourselves, to our family and down through the generations to come. Temporal punishment or the price you pay for sin can either be worked out in this life or, by the mercy of God, after death.

How can sin be worked out after death? Well, if our soul is in Purgatory, the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant can intercede for us, through prayer to Our Heavenly Father. Some question the Catholic practice of praying for the dead, but it is based on scripture. It is clear that the Jews believed in the concept of after-death purification from sin from 2 Maccabees 12:46, where we read Judas Maccabeus “made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin.” And also from Job 1:5 we read that Job habitually offered sacrifice for his sons, “who may have sinned and blasphemed God in their heart.”

The same is found in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 where we read that “the work of each will come to light, for the Day will disclose it. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. If the work stands, that someone built upon the foundation, that person will receive a wage. But if someone’s work is burned up that one will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire.” In Matthew 12:31-32, reference to blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. This indicates that in the age to come some things may be forgiving. Those in heaven need no forgiveness. Those in hell do not want forgiveness which leaves another state after death where some things may be forgiven.
So what happens when we die? According to Hebrews 9:27, “It is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment.” This is what the Church calls our individual or particular judgment. At our individual judgment we learn of our final destiny, either heaven or hell. “Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven through a purification or immediately, - or immediate and everlasting damnation.” CCC #1022

At the very end of time when Christ comes again, we will undergo a general judgment as referenced in Matthew 25:31-32. This does not change the first verdict given to us at our death, our individual judgment. However, it is the time when all people will be gathered together before God and all of our sins will be publically revealed. “Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.” Luke 12:1-3

At the general judgment we will see how the sins we committed in our lifetime affected our children, and their children, and their children, etc until the end of time. In fact we will see everyone’s sins and how they shaped the lives of others. We will see each person’s judgment and know that God is a just God. “But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. For he will render to every man according to his works…” Romans 2:5-6.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I have a lot to answer for, and would like to take this time to publicly apologize for my sins that may have caused undesirable influence or come to cause adverse affects on the generations to come.

This is where the temporal punishment after death comes in. It is between the individual (particular) judgment and the general judgment that a soul still in need of purification is cleansed from their remaining consequences of their sin. “From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God.” CCC #1032

“The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.” CCC #1031

It is for these souls who abide in Purgatory that we pray for on All Souls Day. For all those who have gone before me, I pray eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.

Other sources for Prayer this Day of All Souls

From EWTN Novena for the Holy Souls in Purgatory

From Catholic On Line The Prayer of Saint Gertrude the Great who was told by Our Lord that by praying the following prayer 1000 souls would be freed from purgatory each time. The prayer was extended to include living sinners as well.

"Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen."




Illustrations
Kissing the Face of God
Holy Trinity
Face of Jesus
Dante’s Inferno
Lamb of God
Welcome Home
Banished from the Garden
Moses
Fontebasso Madonna
Holy Spirit
Carracci Angel Frees Souls from Purgatory
Michelangelo Final Judgment
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Michelangelo Final Judgment
All Souls & All Saints

All Saints Day - November 1

All Saints Day
November 1

Holy Day of Obligation

"Calling the saints to mind inspires, or rather arouses in us,
above all else, a longing to enjoy their company,
so desirable in itself.  We long to share
in the citizenship of heaven..." Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

The first day of November, the Catholic Church celebrates All Saints Day; a day set aside by Pope Gregory IV in the 9th century to commemorate all who have died and gone to heaven. This feast is similar to Veterans Day or Presidents Day where many people are honored on one day. All who died in the grace of God and are in heaven are saints. Those that the Church has canonized have their own feast day. But the Church recognizes that there are countless others in heaven whose names we do not know. So it is for this purpose we celebrate All Saints Day: to recognize all who have died and gone to heaven, known and unknown, for they, acting in the communion of saints, intercede for us daily.

The saints are the people who have gone before us and persevered to the end, crossed the finish line, and now are before God having attained the beatific vision. They are the Church Triumphant. A goal we all should long for, which none of us deserve, and can only be gained by the grace of God. We would do well to study the lives of the saints, attempt to imitate their virtues and strive to emulate their perseverance in holiness, hoping that we too might attain their reward.

The Catholic Church consists of one big family, called the communion of saints. It includes the Church Triumphant (those saints and angels in heaven for which we celebrate the solemnity of All Saints Day, November 1), the Church Suffering (the holy souls in purgatory for which All Souls Day, November 2, is celebrated), and the Church Militant (the baptized faithful on earth). The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes this family as “all together forming one Church; and we believe that in this communion, the merciful love of God and his saints is always attentive to our prayer.” CCC # 962

In the Catechism we read of the intercession of God’s saints who “Being more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness….They do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as they proffer the merits which they acquired on earth through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5)…. So by their fraternal concern is our weakness greatly helped.” CCC#956

The saints in heaven continue to intercede for both the Church Militant and the Church Suffering. Some challenge the Catholic practice of asking saints and angels to pray on our behalf but it is in fact biblical. In Revelation 5:8 we read that the apostle John saw “twenty-four elders (leaders of the people of God in heaven) fall down before the Lamb. Each of the elders held a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the holy ones.” Here it is clear that the holy ones, or saints in heaven are offering to God the prayers of the faithful on earth. What a blessing that is for the Church Militant and the Church Sorrowful. No wonder we honor these holy ones on All Saints Day.

Jesus is the only mediator between man and God as stated in 1 Timothy 2:5, but reading this text in context with vs. 1-4 we are told we should ask fellow Christians to pray for us. These intercessory prayers offered by Christians on behalf of others is something pleasing to God, and does not infringe on Jesus’ roll as sole mediator stated in vs 5.

The saints in heaven are fellow Christians. They are alive and holy in heaven. They can hear us or they would not be offering our prayers to the Lamb in Revelation 5:8.
In James 5:16 we read that “The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.” Who could be more righteous than the saints in heaven? Clearly scripture invites us to ask the saints in heaven to intercede for us and our dearly departed, through the one mediator Jesus, to His Father in heaven.

In the Apostles’ Creed after we profess belief in the holy Catholic Church, we profess belief in the communion of saints. “What is the Church if not the assembly of all the saints? The communion of saints is the Church." CCC#946 What a magnificent Church Jesus gave us.

On November 1, we celebrate All Saints Day, those saints who are alive in heaven in the presence of the beatific vision, interceding for us, as we are all one family in Christ’s Church. Take time to pray the The Litany of the Saints. Then meditate on the life of your favorite canonized saint, or the saint name you have taken and ask for their intercession. These men and women are worthy of honor and imitation.
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Illustrations
Saints in Heaven Adoring the Holy Trinity
Mary Queen of Saints Queen of Heaven
Saint Theresa of Jesus
Saint Veronica
Saint Francis of Assisi
Saint Anthony

Saint Ambrose
Saint Pio
Saint Agatha