The month of November has traditionally been the month of All Souls, the month in which we focus on prayer for the dead. Most parishes celebrate the Mass on All Souls Day itself and then forget about the dead until next year. This is understandable in a Catholic world in which the color white is worn by the priest at the overwhelming majority of funeral Masses. When people see that the same color is worn on both All Saints Day and All Souls Day and at funeral Masses, they conclude, understandably, that the three blend into each other, and that every one goes to heaven. We all have sat through funeral Masses in parishes other than St. Mary’s and heard the priest talk about the person who has died as already being in heaven.
That this is not the teaching of the Church (see the Catechism 1030–1032) is not obvious to most Catholics. This is why prayers for the dead are almost non-existent in the Church today. But this flies in the face of the Tradition in which prayers for the dead are deemed very important, for Tradition tells us that most people when they die must undergo a purification before they enter into heaven. And Tradition tells us that these souls are speeded on their way by our prayers for them here on earth. And that the most powerful prayer for the dead is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. When a Mass is offered for someone who has died in faith, in a mysterious way we cannot know, the grace of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross is applied to the person for whom the Mass is offered and assists that soul on its journey to heaven.
At St. Mary’s we will offer Masses for the Dead throughout the month of November. Whenever there is a day that is not the feast of a saint, called a feria, I will celebrate a Mass for the Dead. Of course, the primary intention of that Mass will be for the person for whom the Mass is being offered. But the priest and people at the Mass can and should add their own intentions as well. I recommend that everyone prayerfully sit down and make a list of all you have loved and have died: family, friends, etc. When you come to Mass make your personal intention for at least one of these people. In this way you join the intentions of the Mass that go to the throne of God the Father himself, to the “altar on high”. I think each of us knows, despite the sentimental silliness about death going on around us in the Church today, that we will truly need prayers when we die, because, despite our genuine faith and our serious attempt to live moral lives, we are, in the end, still a “mixed bag” from which the dross of sin must be cauterized.
From the Collect of the daily Mass for the dead:
O God, the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of Your servants and handmaids that remission of all their sins, that through our devout prayers, they may obtain the pardon which they have always desired, Who lives and reigns with Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen.
—Fr. Richard Cipolla
