Each November we celebrate two of the most moving days in the yearly practice of our faith. On Nov. 1, we observed the Solemnity of All Saints. On Nov. 2, we celebrated All Souls’ Day in commemoration of all of the faithful departed.

 

These celebrations are connected, not only by being on consecutive days, but in their own logic of faith. And that is why they are so meaningful to us.

 

In celebrating all the saints, we of course honor those men and women who have gone before us and are formally recognized by the Church’s faith as having been granted the beatific vision in heaven. 

 

That would mean all the saints from Blessed Mary, the Mother of Jesus, to Father Michael McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus who was beatified on Oct. 31, and every other recognized saint as well. From them we draw the inspiration of their lives and struggles and the reassurance that comes from their prayers.

 

We also celebrate all those holy souls we may have known in life but who have not received the Church’s formal recognition. Perhaps it was our holy grandfather, or that faithful teacher or neighbor down the street who, for so many years, lived great charity and encouraged our faith. All who have a place in heaven are the saints.

 

Either formally recognized or not, the saints remind us that our goal in this life is heaven in the next. And this celebration strengthens our hope that the saints are waiting for us and desiring our presence with them. 

 

Not insignificantly, we are reminded that we have great hope to see once more our deceased parents, spouses and all those with whom we long to spend eternity with in the Father’s house.

 

The Feast of All Souls focuses on the souls in purgatory. They are those who have died in the state of grace but whose full purification, a necessary condition to be in the presence of God’s holiness, is still in process. 

 

The existence of purgatory taught by our faith is a great consolation. It means having gone through the struggles of life, those who die in the state of grace, even with the imperfections of faith and soul that we all recognize, are granted by God the final preparation to be with Him even after death. That is a great consolation also because we can pray now, as we do on All Souls’ Day, for our loved ones who have gone before us. We are still united with them in these prayers.

 

The Church gives us a special privilege of a plenary indulgence each year related to All Souls’ Day. A plenary indulgence is the full remission before God of the temporal punishment for sins whose guilt has been forgiven. On All Souls’ Day, we may apply that indulgence to any soul in purgatory. The conditions are to visit a cemetery or a church and there pray for the deceased. 

 

But in view of the COVID-19 pandemic this year, this year the Church is granting the special condition that if one is elderly, ill or observing precautions regarding the virus, they may gain the same indulgence at home by uniting themselves to the faithful in the cemetery, reciting the Our Father and the Apostles Creed. 

 

Either way, the general conditions for indulgences still apply. These are, on our part, a complete renunciation of sin, and the intention to be completed as soon as possible of making a good confession, worthily receiving Holy Communion, and saying an Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be for the intentions of the Holy Father.

 

November always seems to start the winter season bringing with it the darkness and cold. But these days of holiness and personal joy for the saints and souls are a source of spiritual light and warmth. They truly are a reminder of heaven itself.