Archive for November, 2024

Today On the Feast of ‘All Souls Day’ Christians Commemorate All of the Faithful Departed

Saturday, November 2nd, 2024

All Souls DayOn ‘All Souls Day’ We Remember
Those Who Have Gone Before Us
By Saying a Prayer for Our Dearly Departed
Image Courtesy: CRS@Twitter

(Franciscan Media) The Church has encouraged prayers for those who have passed away before us from the earliest of times as an act of charity.

“If we had no care for the dead,
we would not be in the habit of praying for them.”
St. Augustine

Yet pre-Christian rites for the deceased retained such a strong hold on the superstitious imaginations, that a liturgical commemoration was not observed until the early Middle-Ages, when monastic communities began to mark an annual day of prayer for their departed members.

In the middle of the 11th century, St. Odilo Abbot of France Cluny, decreed that all Cluniac Monasteries offer special prayers and sing for ‘Office for the Dead’ on the 02 November the day after the Solemnity of All Saints — This custom spread from Cluny and was finally adopted throughout the Church.

The theological underpinning of today’s Feast, is the acknowledgement of human frailty. Since few people achieve perfection in life but rather go to their graves still scarred with traces of sinfulness, some period of purification seems necessary before a soul comes face-to-face with God. — The Council of Trent affirmed this purgatory state and insisted that the prayers of the living can speed the process of purification.

Superstition easily clung to the observance. Medieval popular belief held that the souls in purgatory could appear on this day in the for of Witches, toads or will-o’-the-wisps (a phosphorescent light seen hovering or floating at night over marshy ground) graveside food offerings would supposedly ease the rest of the dead.

Observances of a more religious nature have survived. These include: Public processions or private visits to cemeteries, the decorating of graves with flowers, lights and candles. — Today Feast of ‘All Souls Day’ is observed with great fervor in Mexico.

Lighting Cemetery GravesCandles Light Up a Cemetery in Commemoration
of All the Faithful Departed on ‘All Souls Day’

Related: For Today’s Most Holy Scripture Readings and More, Visit: -USCCB

An Inspiration Of Time With God For Today

Friday, November 1st, 2024

(CCC 956) The Intercession of the Saints: “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 the acquired on earth through the One Mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus — so by their fraternal concern is our weakness greatly helped.”
(See: Lumen Gentium 49; 1 Timothy 2:5)

The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought [to] but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words and God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the Saint’s according to the will of God.  –Romans 8:26-27

The 144,000 of Israel Sealed

After this, I (St. John) saw for Angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on earth or sea or against any tree. I saw another Angel ascending from the rising sun, having the Seal of the Living God and he called with a loud voice to the for Angels who had been given power to damage earth and sea saying,

“Do not damage the earth or sea or the trees until we have marked the Servants of our God with a seal on their foreheads.” I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand sealed out of every tribe of the people of Israel.

The Multitude From Every Nation

After this I looked and there was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, from all the tribes, peoples and languages, standing before the Throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice saying:

“Salvation belongs to our God
who is seated on the Throne and to the Lamb!”

All the Angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, they fell on their faces before the Throne and worshiped God singing:


“Amen! Blessing and Glory and Wisdom

and Thanksgiving and Honor

and Power and Might

be to our God forever and ever Amen!”

 

Then one of the elders addressed me saying, “Who are these robed in white and where have they come from? I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb. For this reason they are before the Throne of God and worship him day and night within His Temple and the One who is seated on the Throne will shelter them. They will hunger no more and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; For the Lamb at the center of the Throne will be their Shepherd and He will guide them to the springs of the water of life and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Revelation 7:1-4; 9-17

Related: For Today’s Most Holy Scripture Readings and More, Visit: -USCCB

What the Early Church Believed: The Intercession of the Saint’s  -Catholic Answers

How Can You Become a Saint? -Oblates of the Virgin Mary