31 October – 2 November 2024
This month’s novena begins Thursday on the vigil of All Saints, better known today as Halloween (All Hallow’s Eve). Traditionally it is a day of fasting and so fits well with our triduum. Due to the clearly diabolical nature of much of what Halloween has become, however, it is even more necessary that we offer some penance on this day to make atonement to Our Blessed Lord for the attraction that the demonic seems to have on the minds and hearts of many. G. K. Chesterton once wrote that if you don’t believe in God, you’ll believe in anything. This reveals itself to be quite exact, as is all too evident in the growing cult of the demonic. If you throw God out, you cannot remain in indifference to anything supernatural, but slide imperceptibly at first, overtly in the end, into the worship of spirits that are far more powerful than we and that we were meant to overcome thanks to the redemption wrought through Our Lord Jesus Christ. The solution, the only solution, is to return to Him with our whole heart, mind and strength, that He may forgive us our sins, protect us against the onslaught of evil spirits in this life and from their clutches in the hour of our death.
Friday is the feast of All Saints, one of the Church’s greatest feasts, and therefore not a day of fasting (abstinence however is to be observed as it is a Friday). It is a day to rejoice with all the inhabitants of the heavenly court, those we know of through canonisation, as well as those we are not aware of, hopefully many of whom we have known in this life. The feast gains momentum, as it were, with each passing year, for each one means there are more saints to celebrate. They are the ones who carried their cross in this short life and now enjoy the eternal vision of God. They are the ones who drank the bitter chalice of suffering in this life willingly and now are satiated with the delightful draught of the Divine Essence. The celebration reminds us of the importance of reading the lives of the saints. It is there that we learn how to face our own challenges and how to become saints in our turn. It is so encouraging to have the “great cloud of witnesses”, as St Paul says, to cheer us on!
Saturday is the commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, the souls who are in Purgatory satisfying to the divine justice, atoning for their sins in order to be purified and worthy of the vision of God. Purgatory is not a popular devotion today, and for cause. Most Catholics have no notion of the gravity of sin, the awfulness of what it means to offend God, and so they can have no idea of the purity required to be admitted to Heaven, whence the quasi-canonisations we witness so often at funerals. So, it is a day to not only pray for the repose of the souls in purgatory, especially those dear to us, but also to ask for the grace of deep horror for sin. Every sin must be atoned for, if not in this life, after death. Paying the price in this life is much cheaper! It is much easier and gains merits, that is to say, a higher degree of glory in Heaven (which essentially means being closer to the Throne of God). Waiting to atone for sins in Purgatory is risky business! Assuming our sins have been forgiven before death (not an automatic grace for a soul who has so little love for God that no sacrifices are offered in this life) it means it will be much longer, much harder and without merit. A very bad deal! So let’s make use of this short life to not only confess our sins, but also to accept all our sufferings with resignation and love, and let us be generous in offering up sacrifices, thereby proving our love and gratitude, and showing that we really do want to see God.
One can gain a plenary indulgence applicable to the faithful departed each day from 1 to 8 November by visiting any cemetery and saying some prayers (one Our Father and one Hail Mary is sufficient) for the souls in Purgatory.
