A Month with the Holy Souls

November · Devotional · Christ Bearer Press $7.99 Kindle · $11.99 Paperback Buy on Amazon → Also in Spanish: Un mes con las Almas del Purgatorio

Thirty days of remembering your dead with love.

November belongs to the holy souls, opened by All Saints on November 1 and All Souls on November 2. Every Catholic family has its dead: a grandmother, a father, a friend gone too soon, a child. The Church has never stopped praying for them, and she invites you to pray with her. A Month with the Holy Souls walks beside you through the whole of November, one quiet day at a time, so that by the end of the month you know why we pray for the dead, how to do it, and that death does not have the last word.

A few unhurried minutes each day, and every day you will find:

• A short passage from Holy Scripture to carry with you
• A warm reflection that meets you in ordinary life
• The words of the Fathers, Doctors and saints of the Church
• Three gentle questions to bring to the Lord
• One small, concrete thing to do before bed
• A closing prayer in plain, prayerful English

This is a book to live with, not just to read, written for lifelong Catholics and for anyone just beginning. Each day ends with something simple and good to do: a short letter to one of your dead, the anniversaries of your family's deaths written on your calendar so a Mass can be asked for each, the parish number for an urgent call to a priest saved in your phone, a loaf of bread baked or bought for a widow or widower you know.

The month unfolds in four movements. The opening week keeps All Saints and All Souls and lays the foundations: Purgatory in Scripture and tradition, the communion of saints, the Heroic Act of Charity, the November indulgences, and the Dedication of the Lateran. The second week sets out a portrait of early November saints: Leo the Great, Martin of Tours, Josaphat, Frances Xavier Cabrini, Albert the Great, Gertrude and Elizabeth of Hungary. The third week turns to memento mori, prayer for the dying, the Four Last Things, and the martyrs of late November. The closing days put it all in its right horizon: the death of a just man, Christ the King, the Last Judgment, heaven, and St. Andrew running to his cross.

You will keep company with St. Augustine, St. Cyprian, St. John Chrysostom, St. Leo the Great, St. Bernard, St. Alphonsus Liguori, St. Francis de Sales, Thomas à Kempis, Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius XI.

Everything the month asks you to pray is printed at the back, so you never have to go looking: Eternal Rest, a prayer for the holy souls in the spirit of St. Gertrude, and the old prayer for the dying, "O most merciful Jesus." Start on any day; there is never any catching up.

If you are grieving right now, you do not have to read in order. Begin with All Souls, or with the day on the death of a just man, and let the Church's ancient hope keep you company.

Who it is for

• Daily prayer through the month of November
• Anyone grieving, or keeping the anniversary of a death
• Catholics who want to understand Purgatory, indulgences and the Mass for the dead
• Families who want to remember their dead by name together
• Parish bereavement ministries, prayer groups and funeral ministries
• A thoughtful gift for someone who has lost a parent, a spouse or a child

"It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead." (2 Maccabees 12:46)

Come as you are. The dead, who have all the time in the world now, are patient with our timing.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine. Eternal rest give unto them, O Lord.

Book details

Publisher: Christ Bearer Press · Paperback: 123 pages · ISBN 979-8-1904-3502-3 · Language: English (Spanish edition available) · Scripture: Douay-Rheims

Part of The 12-Month Catholic Devotional. See all our books →