November is the month of All Souls — when we commemorate the souls of those who have died.
This is why the faithful may receive a plenary indulgence on any day from November 1 through 8, if we devoutly visit a cemetery and pray for the souls in Purgatory. The indulgence can be applied to the departed. To receive the indulgence, we must also fulfill the usual conditions: sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion, prayer for the intentions of the Pope, and detachment from all sin. (During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Apostolic Penitentiary extended the time for the entire month of November, but I haven’t seen anything indicating that is the case this year.)
I hope to make a visit to the cemetery where my sister, parents, and grandparents were laid to rest, to pray the Rosary and to pay my respects. But in order to receive the indulgence you can stop in any cemetery to pray.
Pope Francis visited Laurentino Cemetery in Rome on All Souls’ Day, November 2. Perhaps you can pray the same prayer he did:
In visiting the cemetery, the resting place of our departed brothers and sisters, we renew our faith in Christ who died, was buried and rose again for our salvation. Even mortal bodies will awaken on the last day, and those who have been laid to rest in the Lord will join with Him in the triumph over death. With this certainty, we raise our unanimous prayer of suffrage and blessing to the Father.
Be blessed, O God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in your great mercy has regenerated us through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead to a living hope, to an inheritance that does not decay or perish (cf. 1 Pet 1:3-4). Hear the prayer we address to You for all our loved ones who have left this world. Open the arms of your mercy and receive them into the glorious assembly of the holy Jerusalem.
Comfort those who are in the pain of parting, with the certainty that the dead live in You and that even the bodies, entrusted to the earth, will one day be sharers in the Paschal victory of Your Son. May you, who have placed on the path of the Church, as a luminous sign, the Blessed Virgin Mary, through her intercession sustain our faith, so that no obstacle may make us deviate from the path that leads to You, the glory without end. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Related, Pope Francis’s intention this month is for parents who have lost a child. In the official prayer for those who have lost a child, we turn to our Blessed Mother, who experienced this suffering at Calvary on Good Friday:
Mary, you who are Mother of all, welcome into your heart those who are going through the pain of the loss of a child. You know the pain of loss, on Good Friday, and the feeling of absence and silence in the waiting for the Sabbath. There are no words to fill the void, it is a goodbye that will always await the resurrection of the Sunday of glory. We believe in that day, as Mary did, and we await the definitive reunion. But while that is still to come, for those who suffer this pain, we ask for the Spirit of consolation, capable of giving life where there is death, and to set on the way those who have fallen. Give us the grace to be communities that shelter and support parents who have lost a child and who are living proclamation of the definitive life that will reach them. Amen.
Have a blessed month of All Souls.
With thanks to Where Peter Is and Mike Lewis, where this article originally appeared.
