My reflection on All Souls Day

I am a few days late with this, but I would like to reflect on All Souls Day. It is a day when we pray for those souls who are in purgatory. Two groups of the deceased I would like to address:

1)      Those who were not Catholic and not from a Catholic family

2)      Those that have been long ago deceased (ancestors)

Non-Catholics

As time goes by I look back on those whom I knew and passed away years ago. I find my self thinking-gosh they probably don’t have anyone praying for them. This is very sad, their families assume they are in heaven (they may or may not be) and because of their faith tradition (or lack of one) do not consider how much their deceased loved one could be begging for prayers.

Perhaps you lost a classmate years ago and from time to time you think about them. That could be the Holy Spirit prompting you to pray for them. They will have joy because you do.

The Long ago deceased

These are the people forgotten to history. They have no one left on earth to pray for them. Perhaps all their relatives are deceased as well.

Though they may have passed away long ago, they have entered eternity (hopefully life) where time does not exist. The Church has not defined how long one would/must be in purgatory, so pray for your ancestors who you have never met, maybe only heard about in stories, or seen in old pictures.

A few thoughts on ways we can help these souls:

·         Pray rosaries for them

·         Have Masses offered

·         Include them in prayer intentions

·         Invoke the communion of saints, ask your favorite saint to pray for them

·         You can pray a novena for them. MyMassRequest.org will pray for departed souls with a Novena of 9 Masses. I’m sure there are many other ways.

Now as mentioned above on All Souls Day we pray for the souls in purgatory. Let’s consider a little background from the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Scripture. The Catechism says in paragraph 1030 “All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.” It goes on in paragraph 1031 to reference from Scripture 1 Peter 1:7 and Matthew 12:31.

1 Peter 1:7 says “so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ”.

Matthew 12:31 says “Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.”

Referencing this from Matthew the Catechism comments “As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come”

Continuing on in Matthew 12:32 we read “And whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come”

So, keeping the Catechism and Scripture in mind it seems fitting to pray for the deceased and to include those in our prayers who were not Catholic, with no catholic families to pray for them as well as our ancestors who passed away long ago.