In November, pray for the dead. This is not the month to pray for those entrapped within the Culture of Death, the living dead, though we should, but for the souls of friends and family who have left their bodies. By doing so, we help the Catholic priests who tell their parishioners, “My job is to get you into Purgatory.” When we consider the alternative permanent location for most of us who aren’t going to be canonized, we realize the accuracy of his job description.
Praying for the dead helps keep us aware that we are part of a chain. There are newer links behind us, and we will soon join the prior links in one of the worlds beyond. By praying for those who went before, we encourage those left behind to pray for us.
What might those prayers actually do? At the Final Judgment, Revelations 20;12 tells us the Book of Life is opened, along with the books that record our individual lives. We are given big problems to worry about in this life to prepare us for what is truly The Big Worry, how our individual books, recording every one of our thoughts, words, and deeds, and their consequences, are going to be judged by Our Critic.
We may hope that our prayers for the dead will actually prompt an angel to get into those books, and erase some of the bad things they have thought, said, and done. We may also hope that someone will think kindly enough of us to pray that a kind angel will erase some of the bad things that we, ourselves, have thought, said, and done.
When our own book is opened, we can ask for a more favorable judgment than we deserve. Praying that we get it should be a concern that we address while we can still ask for the mercy we know we’ll need.
