“Purgatory is where the Love of God tempers the Justice of God,” -Venerable Fulton J. Sheen
November is the month dedicated to the Holy Souls in Purgatory. The month opens with the Feast of All Saints, where we celebrate the Church Triumphant, when all the elect (i.e. in Heaven) bestow their graces upon us.
From this initial Feast – a glorious window into heaven – we, the Church Militant (i.e. on earth) gather strength and fortitude.
Throughout November, we increase our prayers and sacrifices for the Church Suffering (i.e. in purgatory) – those who will join their heavenly family elect, but who still need prayer.
This is beautifully expressed by venerable Fulton Sheen in a homily he wrote:
Just as the man who dies in debt has the maledictions of his creditors following him to the grave, but may have his good name restored and revered by the labor of his son who pays the last penny, so too the soul of a friend who has gone to death owing a debt of penance to God may have it remitted by us who are left behind, by minting the gold of daily actions into the spiritual coin which purchases redemption. Into the crucibles of God these departed souls go like stained gold to have their dross burned away by the flames of love.
These souls, who have not died in enmity with God, but have fallen wounded on the battlefield of life fighting for the victory of His cause, have not the strength to bind their own wounds and heal their own scars: it remains for us who are still strong and healthy, clad with the armor of faith and the shield of salvation, to heal their wounds and make them whole that they might join the ranks of the victors and march in the procession of the conquerors. We may be sure that if the penny that gives bread to the hungry body delivers a soul to the Table of Our Lord, it will never forget us when it enters into the homeland of victory.
While yet confined to that prison of purifying fire, they hear the voices of the angels and saints who call them to their true fatherland, but they are incapable of breaking their chains for their time of merit is passed. Certainly God cannot be unmindful of a wife who offers her merits to the captive soul of a husband waiting for his deliverance. Surely the mercy of God cannot be such that He should be deaf to the good works of a mother who offers them for the liberation of her offspring who are yet stained with the sins of the world. Surely God will not forbid such communication of the living with the dead, since the great act of Redemption is founded on the reversibility of merits.
Responsive, then, will we be to the plea not only of our relatives and friends but of that great mass of unarmed warriors of the Church Suffering who are yet wearing the ragged remnants of sin, but who, in their anxiety of soul to be clothed in the royal robes fit for entrance into the Palace of the King, cry out to our responsive hearts the plaintive and tender plea: “Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, at least you, my friends, for the hand of the Lord has touched me."
The only door out of purgatory for the Holy Souls there opens into heaven. We can open it for them. The most efficacious of all prayers is, of course, the Holy Mass.
The Church also hands us a ring of "keys" to open that door to heaven.
Key for November 1 to 8: Every year on these eight days the Church grants a plenary indulgence that can be applied only to the souls in purgatory. The faithful can receive this indulgence each of the eight days to apply to a particular soul — a parent, spouse, relative, friend, or anyone even unknown.
On each day from Nov. 1-8 a person seeking the plenary indulgence for a soul must (1) “devoutly visit a cemetery and pray, if only mentally, for the departed; (2) on All Souls’ Day (or according to the ordinary, on the Sunday preceding it or following it…) devoutly visit a church or an oratory and recite an Our Father and the Creed.”
Note: This year (2020) the Apostolic Penitentiary has issued modifications to the plenary indulgence for the deceased that allows the faithful to more readily receive the indulgence during the time of the pandemic. Of note:
- The plenary indulgence for those who visit a cemetery and pray for the deceased is available throughout the entire month of November.
- The All Souls Day indulgence for those who visit a church or oratory, praying the Our Father and the Creed is available all month.
- The elderly and those not able to leave their homes may obtain the indulgence by praying for the dead in front of an image of Jesus or the Blessed Mother.
The other conditions (sacramental confession, reception of Holy Communion and prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father) should be completed as soon as possible.
Mighty "everyday" keys: These four can gain a plenary indulgence “each day of the year,” but “no more than once a day.”
- Eucharistic Adoration. “Visit the Blessed Sacrament for adoration lasting at least a half hour.”
- Praying the Rosary. “Devoutly recite the Marian Rosary in a church or oratory, or in a family, a religious community, or an association of the faithful, and in general when several of the faithful gather for some honest purpose…”
- Reading or listening to Sacred Scriptures. “Read the Sacred Scriptures as spiritual reading, from a text approved by a competent authority, and with the reverence due to the divine word, for at least a half hour; if the time is less, the indulgence will be partial.” Or listen to it being read.
- Pious exercise of the Way of the Cross. Walk them in church or where legitimately erected.
You choose who the indulgence applies to: either yourself — you cannot give it to another living person — or to a holy soul in purgatory.
General Conditions for the gaining of a Plenary Indulgence:
In order to obtain a plenary indulgence, the faithful must, in addition to being in the state of grace:
- have the interior disposition of complete detachment from sin, even venial sin;
- have sacramentally confessed their sins;
- receive the Holy Eucharist (it is certainly better to receive it while participating in Holy Mass, but for the indulgence only Holy Communion is required);
- pray for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff.
Another beautiful passage inviting us to prayerful practices for the holy souls is found in the 1962 Daily Missal:
The practice of recommending to God the souls in purgatory that we may mitigate the great pains which they suffer, and that He may soon bring them to His glory, is most pleasing to God and most profitable to us.
For those blessed souls are His eternal spouses, and they are most grateful to those who obtain their deliverance from prison, or even a mitigation of their torments. Hence, when they shall enter into Heaven, they will certainly not forget those who prayed for them. It is a pious belief that God manifests to them our prayers for them, that they also may pray for us.
Let us recommend to Jesus Christ, and to His holy Mother, all the souls in Purgatory.
Eternal rest grant unto 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.
-compiled from various sources, including
Liturgical Meditations, The Sisters of St. Dominic
Catholic Culture
Venerable Fulton J. Sheen
1962 Daily Missal
