Wednesday, November 2, 2022

All Souls

 



It's the Solemnity of All Souls, Dies Irae, and we pray for the faithful departed. May they rest in peace and rise in glory, most especially our many absent brothers and sisters. Farrer, as always, raises the bar:

The arithmetic of death perplexes our brains. What can we do but throw ourselves upon the infinity of God? It is only to a finite mind that number is an obstacle, or multiplicity a distraction. Our mind is like a box of limited content, out of which one thing must be emptied before another can find a place. The universe of creatures is queuing for a turn of our attention, and no appreciable part of the queue will ever get a turn. But no queue forms before the throne of everlasting mercy, because the nature of an infinite mind is to be simply aware of everything that is. 

Everything is simply present to an infinite mind, because it exists; or rather, exists because it is present to that making mind. And though by some process of averaging and calculation I should compute the grains of sand, it would be like the arithmetic of the departed souls, an empty sum; I could not tell them as they are told in the infinity of God’s counsels, each one separately present as what it is, and simply because it is. 


O GOD, the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful: grant to 
the souls of Thy servants and handmaidens the remission of 
all their sins: that, through pious supplications, they may obtain 
that pardon which they have always desired: Who livest and 
reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the 
Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.


Rest eternal grant unto them O Lord, and may light perpetual shine upon them.

May they rest in peace,

LSP

8 comments:

LL said...

The number of fresh souls delivered up every day is greater than the number of illegal aliens that cross the US southern border - the numbers are almost unfathomable. What do they do, and where do they go? One would hope that the computer that sifts them works better than the ObamaCare computer.

Adrienne said...

I just started a novena for the relief of "The Poor Souls In Purgatory" (Imprimatur 1931) I do this several times a year praying in particular for those who have no one to pray for them. I find it sad that when someone passes away in today's world they're instantly canonized and assumed to be in heaven with result being no one prays for them.

Dad of Six said...

Encouraging one and all to visit a cemetery and pray for the Poor Souls during each of the first eight days of November. With our kind host's permission, I'll link to a primer:

https://wdtprs.com/2022/11/2-november-all-souls-octave-indulgences-and-you/

Infidel de Manahatta said...

As a Catholic All Souls day is very important to me as it gives me a chance to pray for my departed relatives and the poor souls in purgatory.

Technically I pray for them all year round but I like having one day focused on just that.

LSP said...

We must pray, LL. That's never worthless.

LSP said...

100% agree, Adrienne.

LSP said...

DOS, Fr. Z is always linkable!

Bless you.

LSP said...

Right on, Infidel, that focus is important. Keeps us in tune for the rest of the year.