All Souls
by VP
Posted on Sunday November 02, 2025 at 11:00PM in Tradition
Priez pour les âmes du purgatoire, Brittany Museum
- Help Holy Souls in Purgatory With a Double Plenary Indulgence This Jubilee 2025
Praying for the Dead and Gaining Indulgences During November
"Oh, my friends, let us pray much, and let obtain many prayers from
others, for the poor dead; the good God will render us
back the good we do to them a hundredfold. Ah! if
every one knew how useful this devotion to the holy souls in purgatory
is
to those who practice it, they would not be
forgotten so often; the good God regards all that we do for them as if
it were done to Himself."
-- St. John Mary Vianney (Blessed Sacrament Book, Fr. Francis X. Lasance)
"A DAY appointed for all Christians to unite in prayer for the souls of all the faithful departed, for their comfort and relief. Be not wanting in this charity. If you would but once seriously reflect how great are the sufferings in those purifying flames, that compassion which is due to the miserable, would oblige you to be most solicitous in bringing them relief. How can you think of so many souls, and among them, very likely, some of your parents, children, relations, or friends, so severely tormented, and that it is in your power daily to help them; and yet be unconcerned and cold in doing it? Is not this an argument of your want of faith, or charity? Help them therefore this day by your most fervent prayers. And every day join with the priest at the altar, in his memento for the dead. Condemn your neglect, if you know it not; and if you know it, let it be a daily summons to exercise your charity. Let the consideration of the divine justice on these souls oblige you to be watchful in avoiding those sins which are the fuel which feeds this fire. Do justice likewise on yourself in the voluntary punishment of your past sins; that so you may not fall under the justice of God. For if we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged. For this end, fail not at least to accept of those troubles which come from the hand of God, as his appointment, or permission. Bear them all with the holy dispositions of these pious souls, in patience and submission, confessing God to be just in all his ways, and merciful too in giving you opportunities of discharging your debts, both as to the guilt and punishment. The souls in hell resist the will of God; and the effect of their suffering is murmuring, rage, and despair. But these souls in purgatory, who wait for heaven, suffer with patience, submission, and peace; and the effect of their suffering is joy everlasting. Consider well which you are to admire and imitate while you are yet on earth." Source: The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
Blossoms that never fade
by VP
Posted on Sunday November 02, 2025 at 03:00AM in Tradition
A Burial at Ornans, Gustave Courbet
"Of
late years Catholics in some places have begun to copy the pagan custom
of decorating the dead. Flower wagons seem to form a necessary part of
most funerals. The non-Catholic has no Mass, and Purgatory is a place
unknown to him. He may mean to express his sympathy and sorrow in the
flower he places on the coffin of the dead. It may speak for him the
last farewell of a loving heart to a cherished friend.
But
flowers are not for the dead, they take away the thought of death. The
sacredness of that solemn moment is lost amid the fragrance of flowers.
The casket hides an awful mystery. "Thou shalt die the death." The
deceased friend has paid his share of Adam's debt, the living must be
reminded of the debt that is still unpaid - their own. Gay flowers and
handsome wreaths disturb the majesty of the thought.
The burial
of our dead is a religious ceremony; not a vain and worldly pageant. The
rubrics of the Church forbid flowers on the altar at funeral Masses;
the altar is draped in mourning; the priest wears black vestments; all
in keeping with the great and solemn mystery of death. Many dioceses
have strict rulings forbidding flowers in Church at funerals.
What
comfort will it be to you, kind reader, to have flowers lavished on
your remains? Your poor soul will be craving in the cleansing fires of
Purgatory, not for flowers, but for prayers, for the Precious Blood in
the Holy Sacrifice of the mass! Source: Annals of St. Joseph Nov. 1917, Vol XXIX No. 9 Norbertine Fathers page 141
- Annual Poor Souls Enrollment (Fssp)
- Purgatorian Archconfraternity (Fssr)
- Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society
