All Souls really is one of my favourite feast days... just the thought of all those souls in Purgatory being "sprung" because of Plenary Indulgences obtained on their behalf by the likes of you and me. It's pretty awesome: we have the power to get someone to heaven! It also makes it an awesome responsibility, especially for the souls who, through no fault of their own, have no-one to pray for them.
It really is a sobering thought - St. Bernadette was concerned that people would forget to pray for her when she died - assuming that she had got to heaven already, whilst in reality she'd be languishing, forgotten, in Purgatory. As it so happens, she is in heaven, but if she was worried about not being prayed for, how much more should we be concerned... especially as there is so much eulogising of the dead at funerals these days!
Anyway, I meant to get a photo at the Mass, but forgot my camera. It must have been what old Siegfried Fraud* called "motivated forgetting" because I am sure I'd have been shot down in flames by everyone noticing the terribly white candles. Mea culpa, mea culpa, I forgot to change the candles to unbleached ones!
*As it so happens, Freud's work on the unconscious mind - as evidenced by motivated forgetting and parapraxes - is actually rather convincing. It's his stuff on psychosexual development and dreams which is crap!
It's ok Mac. We had white candles up town too, but Mass itself was marvellous.
ReplyDeleteI like the "Fraudian Slip"!
ReplyDeleteTotally intentional, my dear (tranatlantic) Patricius !
ReplyDeleteOne of my favourite feast days too.
ReplyDeleteAs a child I loved putting together a list of deceased people I needed to pray for.
Unfortunately with age the list has become so long that I leave it to God and just remember my nearest and dearest and those that no one prays for.
As with St Bernadette we must never assume someone has got to heaven, we need to pray for them regardless.