Our students will pray for your faithful departed

Sadness overcomes me when I see graves of men long dead, their loves and fears and even their faces forgotten by their children and grandchildren and even their great-children, by descendents who surely have themselves already passed over to that place from which none return. But I’m not so much troubled that souls in weathered graves lie by men forgotten (God forgets no one). Rather, I fear that with none left to intercede for them, they must face the terrible day of Judgment alone. With trembling, I remember the cry of the sinner in the ancient Catholic hymn Dies Irae: When the Judge his seat attaineth, And each hidden deed arraigneth, Nothing unavenged remaineth. What shall I, frail man, be pleading? Who for me be interceding, When the just are mercy needing? So, like the woman below, I pause and beg God’s mercy on the unremembered dead — souls as nameless as the dead leaves at her feet, and far more numerous — and I pray for those whose names I remember, particularly ones who were close to me in this life.

All Souls' Day Jakub Schikaneder (1855-1924) Although snow is yet to fall, winter’s onset has stripped life and color from the land, reminding this old woman (and all who look upon this scene that summer is but a season and life itself soon lost. Like the painter, the Church has for generations associated these days of fallen leaves and chill gray skies with mortality. In November, she asks us particularly in November not only to remember our own beloved dead, but all the faithful departed whose sufferings in Purgatory can — according to Her constant teachings — be alleviated by our prayers for them, prayers for which the souls in Purgatory hunger and plead. When the Judge his seat attaineth, And each hidden deed arraigneth, Nothing unavenged remaineth What shall I, frail man, be pleading? [cries this man in Purgatory]Who for me be interceding, When the just are mercy needing? This year our answer to him shall be: I will pray for your soul daily. I, William Fahey, President of Sophia Institute Press and of Thomas More College, will personally kneel before the Blessed Sacrament every day next month and pray for you and for the Souls of all the Faithful Departed. I will pray for my grandparents (Beatrice and William Fahey and Charles and Leenora Carroll) . . . and (if you send me their names) I will pray for your beloved dead as well. * But in this, I will not be alone.  My faculty, my staff, and our student body will join me every day all next month in reciting the Office of the Dead. * Finally, every Friday during November our Chaplain will offer the Traditional Latin Mass for the faithful departed. So please send along to me the names of your dear departed HEREso that they will be included in our Mass intentions, and so we can pray for them during our daily recitation of the Office of the Dead in our Chapel. * Before you click away to some other site, look upon this image:

How lonely it is in this gray field, how empty. * Join us in begging that, as in the image below, God may quickly send His angel to snatch from the loneliness and suffering of Purgatory the souls for whom we pray. We have God’s promise; we can bring this about. Below I have appended one of the prayers we will recite. Please join us daily in it, and take a minute right now to send us the names of those for whom you would like us to pray daily. Yours in Christ the King, William Edmund Fahey, Ph.D. President, Thomas More College President and Publisher, Sophia Institute Press Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory, free the souls of all the faithful departed from infernal punishment and the deep pit. Free them from the mouth of the lion; do not let Tartarus swallow them, nor let them fall into darkness; but may the standard-bearer Saint Michael, lead them into the holy light which you once promised to Abraham and his seed. O Lord, we offer You sacrifices and prayers of praise; accept them on behalf of those souls whom we remember today. Let them, O Lord, pass over from death to life, as you once promised to Abraham and his seed. Domine Iesu Christe, Rex Gloriæ, libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum de pœnis inferni et de profundo lacu. Libera eas de ore leonis, ne absorbeat eas tartarus, ne cadant in obscurum; sed signifer sanctus Michael repræsentet eas in lucem sanctam, quam olim Abrahæ promisisti et semini eius. Hostias et preces tibi, Domine, laudis offerimus; tu suscipe pro animabus illis, quarum hodie memoriam facimus. Fac eas, Domine, de morte transire ad vitam. Quam olim Abrahæ promisisti et semini eius. To spur you on to energetic prayer for the Poor Souls in Purgatory, consider reading St. Catherine of Genoa's Fire of Love 96 pages $5.95 Former title: A Treatise on Purgatory Order Here or call 1-800-888-9344 Sophia Institute Press Box 5284, Manchester NH 03108 Sophia Institute Press is the publishing division of