Take a Few Minutes of Your Day to Help Holy Souls

It's Sunday - a day to set aside for rest and service - and, since it's between November 1-8, one Work of Mercy you can easily partake in is praying for dead.  Indeed, if you go to a cemetery and pray for the dearly departed, you can gain indulgence applied to Holy Souls. 

It's not difficult to do, and it can truly become a beautiful tradition of prayer for you and your family.  I know this, because stopping by a cemeteries to pray for Holy Souls between November 1-8 has become a peaceful and pleasurable annual tradition for my children and me. 

We are blessed to live within walking distance of a cemetery, so some days, we just go for a stroll in order to pray for the dead, visiting familiar graves and noticing new ones. Other days, we invite friends to join us.  And, still other days, we stop at roadside cemeteries on our way to and from activities and errands, sometimes spending only a few minutes to pray and, at other times, making longer forays to explore, pray, and chat.  During these longer stops, so much comes up in conversation - history, art, nature study, precepts of our faith...  It's amazing what a simple stop at a cemetery can elicit.

I truly encourage you to take time to visit a cemetery and pray for Holy Soul today, over he next few days, and even throughout the year.

To Gain an Indulgence by Stopping by a Cemetery to Pray for Holy Souls

After praying for a Holy Soul on All Souls Day at a local cemetery

You can actually gain indulgences for Holy Souls any day of the year by stopping to pray at a cemetery, but doing so between November 1-8 makes the indulgence plenary.  

November is the month the Catholic Church dedicates to remembering Holy Souls, and the Church offers a special eight day opportunity for the faithful to receive an indulgence for a particular soul - a grandparent, a friend, a relative, even an unknown - at the beginning of the month.  On each day between November 1-8, a person seeking a plenary indulgence for a soul must:

"Visit to a Cemetery. 

An indulgence, applicable only to the Souls in Purgatory, is granted to the faithful, who devoutly visit a cemetery and pray, even if only mentally, for the departed. 

The indulgence is plenary each day from the 1st to the 8th of November; on other days of the year it is partial."

A person must also ensure these four conditions:

1. Have an interior disposition of complete detachment from sin, even venial sin.  (If you attempt to receive a plenary indulgence, but are unable to meet this condition, a partial indulgence is received instead.)
2. Sacramentally confess sins 20 days before or after the indulgenced act of visiting a cemetery to pray. (One confession suffices for several plenary indulgences.)
3. Receive the Holy Eucharist 20 days before or after the indulgenced act of visiting a cemetery to pray. (A separate Holy Communion is required for each plenary indulgence.)
4. Pray for the intentions of the Pope. (An Our Father and a Hail Mary are suggested and a separate prayer is required for each plenary indulgence.)

Please join us in praying for the dearly departed!  If you have a particular soul you'd like us to pray for, just let us know, and, also, please join us in praying for unknown souls, as well as for Nana (Theresa), who we lost this year.  Thank you.