Remembering our Beloved Dead

On November 2, 2018, All Souls Day we will be remembering our beloved dead. Usually, we go to cemeteries, attend mass and offer prayers for our loved ones who have been gone before us. It is our hope that they are in heaven like all the saints interceding for us.

As for me and my children, this coming all souls day will be the 7th year where we are going to remember my husband on said occasion. We will be visiting his grave and offer our prayers. My husband passed away due to kidney complications. He was a wonderful husband, a dedicated father and good provider. With that, we believe that he is now in heaven watching over us.

It’s been a while already that my children and I live by ourselves. It was hard but thanks to our immediate family and friends who are always there to support and help us along the way, we survive.

May we honor our beloved dead on November 2 and reminisce the times we had with them.

Please find below some insights about All Souls Day, its history and legend that I gathered from catholic.org and Wikipedia.

“All Souls Day is a holy day set aside for honoring the dead. The day is primarily celebrated in the Catholic Church, but it is also celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox Church and a few other denominations of Christianity.”

“According to Catholic belief, the soul of a person who dies can go to one of three places. The first is heaven, where a person who dies in a state of perfect grace and communion with God goes. The second is hell, where those who die in a state of mortal sin are naturally condemned by their choice. The intermediate option is purgatory, which is thought to be where most people, free of mortal sin, but still in a state of lesser (venial) sin, must go.”

“Consistent with these teachings and traditions, Catholics believe that through the prayers of the faithful on Earth, the dead are cleansed of their sins so they may enter into heaven.”

“All Souls Day is celebrated in as much of the western world on November 2. Other rites have their own celebrations. The Eastern Orthodox Church has several such days throughout the year, mostly on Saturdays. All Souls Day is not a holy day of obligation. It should not be confused with All Saints’ Day, which is a holy day of obligation.”

“Historically, according to wikipedia.org the Western tradition identifies the general custom of praying for the dead dating as far back as 2 Maccabees 12:42-46. The custom of setting apart a special day for intercession for certain souls of the faithful on November 2 was first established by St. Odilo of Cluny (d. 1048) at his abbey of Cluny in 998. From Cluny the custom spread to the other houses of the Cluniac order, which became the largest and most extensive network of monasteries in Europe. The celebration was soon adopted in several dioceses in France, and spread throughout the Western Church. It was accepted in Rome only in the fourteenth century. While 2 November remained the liturgical celebration, in time the entire month of November became associated in the Western Catholic tradition with prayer for the departed; lists of names of those to be remembered being placed in the proximity of the altar on which the sacrifice of the mass is offered.”

“The legend connected with its foundation is given by Peter Damiani in his Life of St Odilo: a pilgrim returning from the Holy Land was cast by a storm on a desolate island. A hermit living there told him that amid the rocks was a chasm communicating with purgatory, from which perpetually rose the groans of tortured souls. The hermit also claimed he had heard the demons complaining of the efficacy of the prayers of the faithful, and especially the monks of Cluny, in rescuing their victims. Upon returning home, the pilgrim hastened to inform the abbot of Cluny, who then set 2 November as a day of intercession on the part of his community for all the souls in Purgatory.”

On that note, may the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

“Almighty Father, source of forgiveness and salvation, grant that our relatives and friends who have passed from this life may, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of all the saints, come to share your Eternal happiness through Christ our Lord. Amen.” (prayer from www.nursebuff.com)