November 2 – Commemoration of All Faithful Departed (Commemoration)

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1. Let my bones, which he has crushed, rejoice in the Lord.

1st Psalm of Friday of the 1st week

2. Deliver me, oh Lord, from the gates of death.

Ant. 2 and Canticle of Tuesday of the 2nd week

3. I will praise my God as long as I live.

3rd Psalm of Wednesday of the 4th week

1 Thes. 4, 14

If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so also those who sleep in Jesus, God will bring with him.

Brethren, now if Christ is preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? For if Christ is not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Indeed, also we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain, and you are yet in your sins. Then also they who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If it is that we have hope in Christ only in this life, we are of all men most miserable.

But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruit of those who slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruit; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then comes the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he has put all things under his feet. But when he says all things are put under him, it is clear that he is excepted, who did put all things under Him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject to Him Who put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead? And why stand we in peril every hour? I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what does it advantage me, if the dead rise not? Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die. Be not deceived: evil friendship corrupts good manners. Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.

After having joyfully celebrated the glory of the saints who are the Church triumphant in heaven, the Church on earth extends her maternal solicitude to the remembrance of the holy souls who, detained in purgatory to expiate their venial sins or to pay the temporal pains due to sin, are none the less confirmed in grace and will one day enter heaven.

"On this day," says the Roman Martyrology, "commemoration of all the faithful departed, in which our common and pious Mother the Church, immediately after having endeavoured to celebrate by worthy praise all her children who already rejoice in heaven, strives to aid by her powerful intercession with Christ her Lord and Spouse, all those who still groan in Purgatory, so that they may join as soon as possible the inhabitants of the heavenly city."

Nowhere in the Liturgy is more vividly affirmed the mysterious unity which exists between the Church triumphant, the Church militant and the Church suffering, and never is better fulfilled the double duty of charity and justice incumbent on every Christian by virtue of his membership in the mystical body of Christ.

It is through the very consoling dogma of the Communion of Saints that the merits and suffrages of the saints may benefit others. Whereby without infringing on the indefeasible rights of divine justice, which are exercised in their full vigour after this life, the Church can join her prayers here on earth to those of the Church in heaven and supply what is wanting in the souls in Purgatory, by offering to God for them by the Holy Mass and by the alms and sacrifices of her children, the superabundant merits of Christ’s passion and of His mystical membes. Wherefore the Liturgy, the center of which is the sacrifice of Calvary continued on the altar, has always used this pre-eminent means of exercising in favour of the departed the great law of charity; for it is a precept of charity to relieve our neighbour’s wants as if they were our own, in virtue of the supernatural bond which unites in Jesus those in heaven, in purgatory and on earth.

The Liturgy of the dead is perhaps the most beautiful and consoling of all. Every day, at the end of each hour of the divine office; we recommend to the divine mercy the souls of the faithful departed. In the Mass, the priest offers the sacrifice for the living and the dead and implores the Lord to remember His servants who have fallen asleep in Christ and to grant them to dwell in consolation, light and peace.

Masses for the dead are already recorded in the 5^th century, but it is to St. Odilo, fourth abbot of the famous Benedictine monastery of Cluny, that the commemoration of all the departed is due. He instituted and prescribed that it should be celebrated tke day following All Saints’ Day. Through the influence of this illustrious congregation, the custom was soon adopted by the whole Christian world and it even sometimes became a day of obligation. A privilege was also granted by Benedict XV to have three Masses celebrated on November 2.

"The souls in purgatory," declares the Council of Trent, "are helped by the suffrages of the faithful, especially by the sacrifice of the Altar. The reason is that in Holy Mass the priest offers officially to God the ransom for souls, that is the blood of the Saviour, and Jesus himself under the elements of bread and wine, which recall to the Father the sacrifice of Golgotha, prays God to apply to these souls its atoning virtue.

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