Pastor’s Column

INDULGENCES FOR NOVEMBER

With apologies, I should have posted this last week.

The need and duty of prayer for the dead has been acknowledged by the Church. It is recommended in the Scriptures of the Old Testament: “It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins” (2 Macc. 12: 46). This duty is expressed in public and private prayers but especially in the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the repose of souls.

The prayers are particularly directed for the souls who are being purified in Purgatory, waiting for the day when they will join the saints in heaven. The celebration of Mass is the highest means the Church can provide for charity for the dead, but we can also relieve their sufferings through our prayers, sufferings and penances. We can particularly help the Poor Souls by doing acts and prayers that have indulgences attached to them.

There are many indulgences, applicable only to the Souls in Purgatory, that can be obtained during the month of November. From the fourth edition of the Enchiridion of Indulgences, 1999:

A plenary indulgence, applicable only to the souls in purgatory, is granted to the faithful who,

• on any and each day from November 1 to 8, devoutly visit a cemetery and pray, if only mentally, for the departed;
• on All Souls’ Day, devoutly visit a church or an oratory and recite an Our Father and the Creed.

A partial indulgence, applicable only to the souls in purgatory, is granted to the faithful who,

• devoutly visit a cemetery and at least mentally pray for the dead;
• devoutly recite lauds or vespers from the Office of the Dead or the prayer Requiem aeternam (Eternal rest).

Eternal rest grant to them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Text taken from https://www.catholicculture.org/. 

SUNDAY COFFEE

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