All Souls Day
Gospel November 2, 2014
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November 2014 Saturday 1
All Saints Day
The feast of All Saints should inspire us with tremendous hope. Among
the saints in heaven are some whom we have known. All lived on earth lives like
our own. They were baptized, marked with the sign of faith, they were faithful
to Christ's teaching and they have gone before us to the heavenly home whence
they call on us to follow them. The Gospel of the Beatitudes, read today, while
it shows their happiness, shows, too, the road that they followed; there is no
other that will lead us whither they have gone.
"The Commemoration of All Saints" was first celebrated in the
East. The feast is found in the West on different dates in the eighth century.
The Roman Martyrology mentions that this date is a claim of
fame for Gregory IV (827-844) and that he extended this observance to the whole
of Christendom; it seems certain, however, that Gregory III (731-741) preceded
him in this. At Rome, on the other hand, on May 13, there was the annual
commemoration of the consecration of the basilica of St. Maria ad
Martyres (or St. Mary and All Martyrs). This was the former Pantheon,
the temple of Agrippa, dedicated to all the gods of paganism, to which Boniface
IV had translated many relics from the catacombs. Gregory VII transferred the
anniversary of this dedication to November 1.
Things to Do:
·
Visiting a cemetery and praying for the dead during the Octave of All
Saints' Day (November 1 through November 8) will gain a plenary indulgence that
can be applied only to the souls in purgatory. On other days, this work gains a
partial indulgence.
·
Spend a little time after Mass thanking God for all the unnamed saints,
some of whom could be our own relatives.
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