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Starting today, All Saints Day, we have the glorious week of Plenaries! Holy Church makes it so easy to obtain this indulgence for your loved ones among the Holy Souls. It’s one of those joyful things about being a Catholic, that you can turn into a habit each year. It is the perfect time to visit your departed at the cemetery, if you find it difficult to make time for that. This is the time to motivate you, to honor them and to contemplate mortality in general…and to get souls into Heaven, as God’s will determines!
Here’s what you need to know…
From Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary:
PLENARY INDULGENCE
An indulgence that can remove all the temporal punishment due to forgiven sin. No one but God knows for certain when a plenary indulgence is actually gained, because only He knows whether a person's dispositions are adequate. One norm for such dispositions is that "all attachment to sin, even venial sin, be absent." If these dispositions are in any way less than complete, the indulgence will only be partial. The same provision applies to the three external conditions necessary to gain a plenary indulgence: sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion, and prayer for the intentions of the Pope. If these conditions are not satisfied, an otherwise plenary indulgence becomes only partial. These conditions may be satisfied several days before or after the performance of the prescribed work, though preferably Communion should be received and the prayers offered for the Pope on the same day as the indulgenced work. A plenary indulgence can be gained only once a day.
From the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter’s Holy Cross Chaplaincy:
Six General Rules for Obtaining a Plenary Indulgence
State of grace…when performing the indulgenced act
Complete detachment from sin, even venial sin
Confession (20 days before or after the indulgenced act)
Communion (20 days before or after the indulgenced act)
Prayers for the Supreme Pontiff (20 days before or after the indulgenced act)
Indulgenced Act: a special good work with…conditions of place and time
Indulgenced Acts to be Performed for Obtaining a Plenary Indulgence for the Poor Souls of Purgatory
From November 1 to 8: visit of a cemetery with mental prayer for the poor souls
On November 2: visit of a church or an oratory with one Our Father and one Creed being recited
Also from Fr. Hardon…
MENTAL PRAYER
The form of prayer in which the sentiments expressed are one's own and not those of another person and the expression of these sentiments is mainly, if not entirely, interior and not externalized. Mental prayer is accomplished by internal acts of the mind and affections and is either simple meditation or contemplation. As meditation, it is a loving and discursive (reflective) consideration of religious truths or some mystery of faith. As contemplation, it is a loving and intuitive (immediately perceptive) consideration and admiration of the same truths or mysteries of faith. In mental prayer the three powers of the soul are engaged: the memory, which offers the mind material for meditation or contemplation; the intellect, which ponders or directly perceives the meaning of some religious truth and its implications for practice; and the will, which freely expresses its sentiments of faith, trust, and love, and (as needed) makes good resolutions based on what the memory and intellect have made known to the will.
November 2nd is the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, or All Souls Day….ending the Triduum of Death which began on All Hallow’s Eve.
Election Day in the United States is the 3rd. Let us pray for America, her leaders and her people, especially the unborn.
Looking ahead, Advent begins the 29!
Let us remember the Holy Souls in Purgatory with particular attention this coming month.