Dear Friends,
The Church sets aside November to remember those in the other realms of the Church—Heaven and Purgatory. All Saints Day and All Souls Day, observed on November 1 and 2, next Sunday and Monday, express the Catholic belief that the Church is one communion uniting earth and heaven.
On All Saints the Church honors all who have reached the fullness of life with God. On All Souls she prays for the faithful departed who died in God’s friendship but still undergo purification before entering heaven.
Scripture grounds both days. Revelation describes “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation,” standing before the Lamb (Rev 7:9). The practice of praying for the dead appears in 2 Maccabees. After battle, Judas Maccabeus found that some of the fallen had worn idolatrous tokens. He and his men prayed that the sin “might be wholly blotted out” and sent a sin-offering to Jerusalem. The text observes that he acted “very well and honorably, taking account of the resurrection. For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. … Therefore he made atonement for the dead, so that they might be delivered from their sin” (2 Macc 12:42–45).
The Catechism teaches that “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” (CCC 1030).
This purification is called Purgatory. From the beginning the Church has offered prayers for the dead, “above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God,” together with almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance (CCC 1032).
Such prayer belongs to the communion of saints. “In full consciousness of this communion of the whole Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the Church in its pilgrim members … has honored with great respect the memory of the dead; and ‘because it is a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins’ she offers her suffrages for them” (CCC 958). Those in glory, in turn, “do not cease to intercede with the Father for us” (CCC 956).
All Saints and All Souls therefore belong together. One day the Church rejoices with those who have arrived; the next she aids those still being purified. Let’s spend this month rejoicing with those in heaven and praying for those on their way there.
With gratitude for the days ahead!
Fr. Seth