All Souls Day

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JMJ

Today is the feast of All Souls.  As I mentioned two days ago, there are many souls in purgatory longing for the joys of heaven but the only way of getting there is through Masses being said and prayers being offered.  In his first pastoral letter Bishop John Carroll, the first bishop of the United States, was very blunt when decrying the neglect of many persons in praying for the holy souls:

"On this occasion, I cannot forbear mentioning an abuse, or rather a prevalent neglect and indifference with respect to your departed parents and relations. 

When death has removed them from your sight, you seem to forget that doctrine of your divine religion which ought to call forth all your tenderness: I mean the doctrine, that it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins. How different is your behaviour, when such events happen, from that of your Catholic brethren all over the world? Their sensibility is not confined to the unprofitable tears and lamentations of a few days, their faith follows their deceased friends into the mansions of another life, and enkindles all their charity. They procure prayers and sacrifices to be offered to God for the repose of their souls. The exercises of charity to the poor, and all the works of mercy and religion are employed for their relief, as long as there remains a reasonable ground to fear, that they may want it. Thus St. Augustine testified his sensibility, after the death of his holy mother Monica; thus, as Tertullian, St. Cyprian, and other primitive fathers teach us, children expressed their duty and veneration for their parents; and surviving Christian spouses for them, to whom they had been united by the ties and duties of a virtuous marriage. 

When it pleases God to call your friends out of this world, do you, my dear brethren, give such proofs of your affection for them? You attend them to the grave; you shed over it a few tears; and there is the term of your care and solicitude. If a charitable priest offer up to the throne of mercy, for their sake, the blood of the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, he does it, generally unsolicited and unthanked by you. You make no sacrifices of interest or enjoyments to charity and religion, that the deceased may find speedy mercy, and an anticipated enjoyment of everlasting bliss. I earnestly beseech you, to deserve no longer this reproach on your charity and sensibility. Follow your departed brethren into the regions of eternity, with your prayers, and all the assistance, which is suggested by the principles of faith and piety. Let the great sacrifice of propitiation be offered for all, who die in the unity of the Catholic Church, and in due submission to her wholesome precepts. " 

The bishop is quite clear that we cannot call ourselves true friends if we do not continue to pray for others after death.  It is imperative to pray for them every day, and have Masses said for the repose of their souls.  Besides the common prayer said for the souls (May the souls of the faithfully departed, rest in peace. Amen.) we can also pray the prayer of St. Gertrude (Christ promised to free 1,000 souls from purgatory each time it is said) :

"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."

Another great practice is to pray for the souls every time we pass a cemetery.  Praying for the souls is a spiritual work of mercy, but is also a constant reminder of our own mortality and our true home in heaven.