Memento Mori: All Souls Day
Let us pray for the souls in Purgatory... and enjoy some music and art
Yesterday was the Solemnity of All Saints, and a Holy Day of Obligation (hey, fellow Catholics, did you go to Mass?), but one of my sentimental favorite days of the liturgical calendar is November 2, the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, better known as All Souls Day.
In the middle of the 11th century, Saint Odilo, abbot of Cluny, France, decreed that all Cluniac monasteries offer special prayers and sing the Office for the Dead on November 2, the day after the feast of All Saints. The custom spread from Cluny and was finally adopted throughout the Roman Church.
The theological underpinning of the feast is the acknowledgment of human frailty. Since few people achieve perfection in this life but, rather, go to the grave still scarred with traces of sinfulness, some period of purification seems necessary before a soul comes face-to-face with God. The Council of Trent affirmed this purgatory state and insisted that the prayers of the living can speed the process of purification.
This “Day of the Dead” has picked up all sorts of additional rituals around the Catholic world, such as the sugar skulls in Mexico:
My preference is enjoying Requiem compositions. My favorite is Mozart’s being used as part of the Mass, which St. John Cantius does. Here is the link to the livestream, which begins at 8:30ET (7:30 CT) on November 2. Here is their page about the Mass.
7:30 pm - Solemn High Mass (1962 Missal) The St. Cecilia Choir and Orchestra will perform:
Requiem in D minor, K. 626 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart († 1791) or SATB choir and soloists, and orchestra
Gradual and Tract from Missa pro defunctis by Claudio Casciolini († 1760),
Stabat Mater Op.138 by Joseph Rheinberger († 1901)
Lux æterna by Edward Elgar († 1934), for SATB choir and orchestra
I do enjoy the Verdi Requiem, which takes a different flavor, and the Met Opera production (of which you get a taste below) in memory of 9/11 is an entire experience:
The Haydn Requiem is lovely as well:
REQUIEM aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen.
Remember the Dead
Memento mori practice is not only about remembering that you will die, but also about remembering the dead in Purgatory.
So let’s have some art to that effect.
A story of Blessed Francis Venimbeni (whose feast day is April 22, my birthday):
He nurtured a profound devotion in regard to the Souls of Purgatory to whom he dedicated his good works and the Masses he celebrated. He died, as he had foretold on April 22, 1322, at the age of 61. His veneration was recognized by Pius VI on April 1, 1775.
It is told that one day while he was celebrating the Mass for the Souls of Purgatory, as he was often doing, at the end he recited the prescribed prayers, according to the old liturgy of the Mass for the deceased, and he heard in the almost empty church numerous voices, which were responding joyfully: “Amen!” They were the voices of the souls for whom he was celebrating the Mass.
The Virgin of Carmen is the same as Our Lady of Carmel (the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Simon Stock), and here is her association with Purgatory:
The name Sabbatine Privilege is derived from the apocryphal Bull "Sacratissimo uti culmine" of John XXII, 3 March, 1322. In this Bull the pope is made to declare that the Mother of God appeared to him, and most urgently recommended to him the Carmelite Order and its confratres and consorores. The Blessed Virgin asked that John, as Christ's representative on earth, should ratify the indulgences which He had already granted in heaven (a plenary indulgence for the members of the Carmelite Order and a partial indulgence, remitting the third part of the temporal punishment due to their sins, for the members of the confraternity); she herself would graciously descend on the Saturday (Sabbath after their death and liberate and conduct to heaven all who were in purgatory.
And it gets complicated after that.
Purgatory isn’t hell — you get to heaven… eventually. But it isn’t pleasant.
Let us pray for the souls
Amen.
Tomorrow will be the 3 year anniversary of my mother's passing. Shortly after she passed, we began the process of finding a suitable location for her burial in Southern California. Going to various cemeteries where many families celebrate Day of the Dead was such an uplifting experience at an otherwise very difficult time. We must never forget that a life doesn't truly end when the body passes, it only ends when we take for granted the impact the departed have had on our lives.