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November 2, 2022
Feast of All Souls
Dear Friends of
Catholic Tradition,
November is the month
of the Holy Souls. It is a wonderful month to practice the virtue of charity
towards our neighbor. The charity that we show for the Holy Souls is unique in
that they are completely unable to help themselves. Our forefathers in the
Faith who are being purged of their faults in Purgatory can no longer help
themselves. They are completely reliant upon our prayers, Mass stipends, and
sacrifices to shorten their time. Because they are so helpless, our charity to
help them can be very powerful.
When composing this
message, I was reminded of a practice I learned from one of the more
traditional Immaculate Heart sisters who still taught in my parochial grade
school in the 1970s. She had a practice of always praying or offering an indulgence
for “the most abandoned soul in Purgatory.” She told us children that it was
always easier to pray for a family member or friend who had died. It was easy
to remember our grandmother. It was more difficult to pray for an anonymous
soul, one we will not know we helped until the end of time. Yet, this is an
extraordinary act of charity to pray for a soul who would languish in Purgatory
unremembered. It is a thought and a custom that has stayed with me since
grammar school.
In addition to practicing the virtue of charity, we can also practice the virtue of gratitude. The Holy Souls have preceded us in the Faith. They have handed on to us that which we have received. We may not have received the Faith directly from the soul for whom we pray, but we received it from someone. Even if someone who did hand on the Faith to us directly is in Heaven, we can always add to our sacrifices that if they are unneeded for this soul because they are in Heaven may God redirect the merits to a soul in need. We can honor and express gratitude for someone who handed on the Faith for us by helping another Christian soul to Heaven.
Speaking of gratitude, I must thank all of you once again who support our apostolate. Your subscription not only produces this paper each month but funds all of our free content made available in print, video, and audio form. Your efforts to help disseminate and promote our online content are making a big difference. Our audiences on video and audio channels as well as traffic on our website continues to grow slowly but steadily.
All of us at Catholic Family News, like you, are so grateful for the grace God has given us to see the crisis in the Church and the Tradition to which we must adhere to navigate it. Looking around at so many souls who are lost in the confusion, our only thought is, “But for the grace of God, there go I.” From this sentiment comes the desire to share what we have received. The insight to recognize the infiltration of the human element of the Church and the grace to see the beauty of her divine side, sadly obscured by scandal, are gifts of God which we are obligated to share. Your support of our work helps us share those gifts with all who come across our little work (click HERE to subscribe or renew your subscription).
One final personal
request: Please commit to praying at least one Hail Mary for the most abandoned
soul in Purgatory (and one for my grammar school teacher, Sister Cephas, who,
given her age when I was in school, has likely gone to her judgement).
In the Immaculate Heart
of Mary,
Brian M. McCall
Editor-in-Chief
The post Charity and Gratitude During the Month of Holy Souls appeared first on Catholic Family News.