Today we celebrate the Feast of All Souls.
It is a day of prayer all those who have gone before us, celebrated on November 2nd. Over time the practices of the feast day have grown in popular tradition to include the whole month of November. There are various historical references that indicate Christians in Europe prayed for the dead in the early centuries of the Church. These times were often connected with the Easter season around Pentecost. It was during the dark ages that the monasteries of the Cluniac order began to celebrate All Souls on November 2nd. the date and the practice was finally accepted in Rome in the fourteenth century.
The basis for this day is 2 Maccabees 12:42-46, where Judas Maccabaeus, after a battle, lead his men to pick up their dead and bury them. They found that their dead comrades bore the amulet of a false idol. They then held each of them up in intercessory prayer, that God would fully blot out their sin. Scholars have seen this as the basis of the Catholic understanding of purgatory where those who die are purified of the effects of their sin before they enter into full communion with God.
One of the popular traditions associated with this day is to formally recognize specific individuals by creating a list of names of those who have passed away. Thus their names are remembered not just by family and friends but also by the whole Christian community. Here at the Cathedral This is done in a book with blank pages where the faithful list their friends and relatives who have died but still live on. This book is often referred to as “The Book of the Dead.”
Today the church gathers together in prayer at mass on the feast day and lifts all those in purgatory up in prayer that their sins would be cleansed and that they would join the saints in heaven with Christ.
Heaven is our Goal.
Sources: AllSaints-AllSouls-DiadelosMuertos – Cathedral Adult Faith Formation (weebly.com)