Poor Souls
Make some friends in high places. Poor Souls: Who will pray for you?
While there is a bit of calendar hijinks that happen due to the way Sundays translate some feasts to adjacent days, but at the same time feasts on other days are made optional (such as All Saints’ Day yesterday), it can be confusing as to when you ought to pray for the Poor Souls in…
The Secret Power of Saturdays, Difficult to obtain Today
Saturday is dedicated to Our Blessed Mother Mary. Don’t take my word for it, Pope John XXII, (take care to note those numerals) in his Sabbatine Bull (Sacratissimo uti culmine), declared it to be so. The Holy Roman Inquisition said so in a decree ratified by Pope Paul V on Jan 20, 1618, and we…
All Souls Day – One key to a clean heart – The Beginning of Memento Mori
Praying for the dead was ordered by the apostles, according to St. John Chrysostom. But how can praying for dead help us? Why do it when they are out of sight, out of mind? Are there special persons for whom we should pray today?
In memoria aeterna erunt justi: Remembering the Holy Souls
One of the curiosities of the Roman Calendar (or more properly, the calendar of the Roman Rite) is the dedication of the month of November to the Holy Souls in Purgatory. For many of us, these souls are also known as the Poor Souls in Purgatory–“poor” because of the sufferings they endure as the result…
