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The Time After Pentecost
this day and this whole month to the poor souls. We pray for them, offer up to God the sacrifice
of the Mass for them, and endeavor to gain plenary indulgences for them.
At the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass we take the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the precious blood of
the Savior into our hands and offer them to the Father as a means of satisfaction for the debt
that the souls in purgatory may still owe to divine justice. We pay the debt of our brethren in
purgatory with the blood of Jesus. Taking the precious blood of Jesus in our hands we pray:
“Be mindful also, O Lord, of Thy servants who have gone before us with the sign of faith and
who sleep the sleep of peace. To these, O Lord, and to all who rest in Christ, grant, we beseech
Thee, a place of refreshment, light, and peace.”
“We offer Thee, O Lord, sacrifices and prayers of praise; do Thou accept them for those
souls whom this day we commemorate. Grant them, O Lord, to pass from death [their separation
from God in purgatory] to life, which Thou didst promise to Abraham and to his seed”
(Offertory).
Prayer
Mercifully look down, we beseech Thee, O Lord, upon the sacrifices which we offer Thee for
the souls of Thy servants and handmaids, that to those on whom Thou didst confer the merit of
Christian faith, Thou mayest also grant its reward. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. (Secreta.)
All Souls’ Day (2)
Every day we pray with the holy liturgy that God may be indulgent to our sins and to the souls
in purgatory. We pray that they may be cleansed from all sin through the power of the Holy
Sacrifice, and that they may be released from “every bond of sin.” We pray that they may be
“purged by this sacrifice and obtain both forgiveness and everlasting rest” (Postcommunion
of the second Mass). We pray that whatever blemishes the soul may have contracted from its
contact with the world may be washed away by the mercy of God’s pardon.
“Grant to the souls of Thy servants and handmaids the remission of all their sins” (Collect of the
first Mass). The souls in purgatory may still have to satisfy for venial sins. It is true that a Christian
at the approach of death may make an act of perfect love for God and by this act be forgiven
all his sins, but if a Christian should die suddenly and without the opportunity of making such
an act of love, he would enter purgatory with venial sins yet unforgiven. In purgatory he will
be freed from these venial sins; thus the Church prays: “Grant to the souls of Thy servants and
handmaids the remission of all their sins.” In the liturgy of the Mass for the Dead, the Church
has in mind the moment of death. She asks God for the “remission of all sins,” that the soul may
have the grace to make an act of perfect love before death or at the moment of death, and so
be freed from every stain of sin. The prayer of the Church for the moment of death is accepted
by God, and even the prayers she offers for the departed weeks and years after their death have
been considered in the plan of salvation for those souls. The prayers which Holy Mother Church
offers for the faithful departed today, benefit even those who have died many years ago. Should
we not join Holy Mother the Church, then, in her prayers and implore fervently, “Grant to the
souls of Thy servants and handmaids the remission of all their sins”?
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