Prayers for Departed Souls

I wanted to share a friend's blog post with you today, on the feast of All Souls.  It was written by Cheryl Dickow, president of Bezalel Books (the company that published my novel, Finding Grace).  Cheryl has authored two novels herself (Elizabeth, a Holy Land Pilgrimage, and Miriam, Repentance and Redemption in Rome), as well as a number of works of non-fiction.  She writes eloquently about many topics, among them the Jewish roots of the Catholic Faith.

If you've ever wondered why Catholics celebrate the feast of All Souls, this post by Cheryl explains it beautifully.

In my post yesterday, I said that I believe my late mother-in-law, who was born on the feast of All Saints in 1931, is a saint.  But today, I remind myself that she, of all people, would not want those of us here on earth who loved her to canonize her and consider it a done deal.  She would not want us to presume her sainthood; instead she would want us to pray unceasingly for her soul and to offer up Masses for her.  If she's made it through those pearly gates already, the prayers we say and the Masses we offer won't go to waste, but instead will serve to help those poor souls in Purgatory who need them and/or don't have anyone to remember to pray for them.

Here is a prayer for departed souls, given by Christ to St. Gertrude the Great, and I can't think of a better time to pray it than on All Souls Day.

St. Gertrude, pray for us, and for all our departed loved ones.