Why we MUST pray for the dead.
This past Thursday evening, all the priests of the Baldwin Deanery gathered for dinner together with Archbishop Rodi. One priest, who almost never joins us decided to join this time, Monsignor Ted Hay. Monsignor Hay is now 98 years old, having retired from active ministry at the age of 69, he has been a retired priest since I was 2 years old, and has been a priest for 67 years! What happens when a priest who has been a priest so long is in attendance at a meeting with the Archbishop? Well, the Archbishop looses the spotlight. Rightly so, as our meeting began, Archbishop Rodi opened us in prayer, turned to Monsignor Hay, and asked, “Well Ted, would you like to share something with us?” As only Monsignor Hay can do, he responded with abbot 5 minutes of beautifully crafted words spoken like poetry on old age, death, and purgatory. I will surely do him little justice in my humble attempt to capture a great man’s words.
He began: my advice to you my brothers, especially the young priests, die at a reasonable age. There was a chuckle. He continued by speaking about the good genes in his family being to blame for his still being here. Poetically he stated and repeated several times:
“We are here until something happens, then we are not here. I am here because I am waiting, waiting for something to happen. Nothing has happened, so I am still here. I am still here waiting for something to happen. I have had much time in retirement to pray and to think. I would like to share with you about purgatory. Purgatory undoes what the sinful world has afflicted each of us with, it restores our innocence. The world, by way of sin, has destroyed the innocence of each one of us. That what purgatory does, it restores my, our innocence. So I sit here and wait; perhaps my innocence is being restored, but I wait for something to happen.”
Ok, so Monsignor Hay had a certain way of looking at purgatory and old age in a way that is cute and nice, but what does that have to do with praying for the dead. I answer in this way: the dead, presuming them to be in purgatory, are in a painful process of restoring to them the innocence with which God created them originally. To speak of innocence is to speak of the natural posture of humanity to look towards God. Unfortunately, as life unfolds, we begin to become more postured to look at ourselves, at pleasure, power, and money. Innocence allows us to stand up straight and to look at God. The loss of innocence causes us to become crippled and look more inward and down, unable to see God. We must be restored to innocence to enter heaven, because heaven without seeing God would be hell. So we gather on November 2nd, All Souls Day, to pray for the souls in Purgatory. This is a unique day of the year where the Church encourages you to go to Mass more than once and to visit the cemetery, praying for the dead. You can gain a plenary indulgence for the souls of purgatory for each visit to the cemetery and for 3 Masses that day.
Our Mass schedule Nov 2:
6:30am Bon Secour
8:00am St John
6:30pm Cemetery at St John
To gain a plenary indulgence, you need to:
Go to Confession 8 days before or after November 2.
Receive Communion Worthily.
Pray for the deceased.
Do the action of the indulgence, go to the Masses, visit the Cemetery.