Commemoration of All Souls (2026)

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and Lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

Today we dedicate our prayers in suffrage for the souls in Purgatory — souls that are still being purified of the remains of sin. Our ties with deceased relatives and friends don’t end with their death.

Priests can celebrate Mass three times on this day for their benefit. All the faithful can gain plenary indulgences, special indulgences to expedite their entrance into heaven.

During the month of November, the Church invites us to pray more insistently and to offer suffrages for the souls in Purgatory.

Pope John Paul II has said, “We feel bound by charity to offer those brothers and sisters who have experienced the fragility proper to human existence, the help of our vigilant prayer. May whatever residue of human weakness still remaining in them to delay their happy encounter with God be definitively wiped out.”

To enter into eternal life, it’s necessary that we be purified of all sin. A soul stained by venial faults can’t enter the dwelling place of God, “nor the one who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the book of the life of the Lamb,” we’re told in the Book of Revelation (cf. Rev. 21:27).

St. Catherine of Genoa says no one is barred from heaven. Whoever wants to enter heaven may do so because God is all-merciful. Our Lord will welcome us into eternal glory with his arms wide open.

The Almighty is so pure, however, that if a person is conscious of the least trace of imperfection, and at the same time understands that Purgatory is ordained to do away with such impediments, the soul enters this place of purification, glad to accept so great a mercy of God.

The worst suffering of these suffering souls is to have sinned against divine goodness and not to have been purified in this life.

This waiting room of heaven is not a lesser hell, but a place of preparation, where souls are duly cleansed of the remains of sin before entering heaven.

The inclination to sin we acquire through original sin is increased by personal sin. If one has not sufficiently expiated any specific offenses against God during the course of our present life, there is further need for reparation to be accomplished.

In the first place, evil dispositions may remain rooted in our soul at the hour of our death. There is, too, the temporal punishment left over from sins forgiven in confession. Furthermore, lack of love and refinement in dealing with Our Lord can also defer our union with him.

If our transgressions are not eliminated by a constant and generous purification in this life, we will perceive these faults with absolute clarity at the moment of death. Together with a strong desire to be united to God, we will possess a tremendous yearning to be free of our evil inclinations.

Purgatory at this time is the only possibility for achieving this purification.

St. Augustine says in Purgatory, the soul experiences very intense suffering due to a kind of flame more painful than anything a man can suffer in this life. There is great joy, too, since heaven comes afterwards.

The soul in Purgatory has already won the last battle. It is awaiting her more or less imminent encounter with God. The soul in Purgatory can be compared to an adventurer at the edge of the desert. The sun is relentless, the heat suffocating, and water is not readily available.

On the horizon lies the distant mountain where his treasure lies. In between stretches a vast expanse. He sets out to cross the torrid plain, prepared to travel the long distance on foot. On the far-off peak, fresh breezes flow. There, rest and refreshment await him. Meanwhile, the excruciating heat makes him stumble and fall again and again.

The soul in Purgatory differs from the adventurer in that he knows most assuredly that he will eventually arrive on the summit of his distant mountain.

One writer says, no matter how suffocating the torrid heat may be, it cannot definitively separate him from God.

We can help the holy souls in Purgatory pass more quickly over the great divide that separates them from God by making reparation for sin. In this way, we can shorten our own passage through this waiting room of heaven.

If we are generous in our spirit of penance, in the offering of our sufferings, and in our love for the sacrament of confession, with the help of grace, we may enter straight away into heaven. This is the case with the saints whose living example we can accept as an open invitation to spur us on.

Their example stimulates our own desire to help make up for the effects of personal sin in the lives of countless souls.

In Lumen Gentium of the Second Vatican Council, it says we can greatly help the souls in Purgatory to enter heaven. We know our union with the brethren who have died in the grace and faith of Christ is not in the least weakened or interrupted by their death. On the contrary, it is strengthened by our conveying spiritual goods for their benefit.

According to the perpetual faith of the Church, we can be more united than ever before to those who precede us into eternal life.

The second reading of the Mass recalls Judas Maccabeus who took up a collection and sent 1,000 drachmas of silver to Jerusalem to offer a sacrifice for the sins of those who died in battle. He thought well and religiously concerning the resurrection. For if he had not hoped that they who were slain should rise again, to pray for the dead would have been in vain. The sacred author adds, “It is therefore a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins” (2 Macc. 12:46).

The Church continues to offer suffrages and prayers for the faithful departed as a perennial custom. St. Isidore of Seville already affirms this practice as taught by the apostles themselves.

The infinite value of the Mass makes it the most important prayer that we have to offer up for the holy souls in Purgatory. We can also offer our prayers for their benefit, especially the rosary. We can offer our work, the sufferings of life, and all kinds of difficulties that we experience, as well as the indulgences we merit for them during our earthly existence.

Offering these suffrages is the best way we can show our love for those who have gone before us and who await their definitive encounter with God. We should remember in a special way our parents and pray especially for our relatives and friends.

Through the communion of saints, our grace allies in Purgatory can help us. In The Way, St. Josemaria says, “The holy souls in Purgatory, out of charity, out of justice, and out of excusable selfishness — they have such power with God — remember them often in your sacrifices and in your prayers. May you be able to say when you speak of them, ‘my good friends, the souls in Purgatory.’”

St. Teresa of Avila encourages us to make an effort to do penance during our present life. She says, “How sweet will death be for the person who has fully repented of all personal sins and can leap over Purgatory.”

While being purified, the holy souls cannot earn merit for good works. Their task is more trying and painful than any other that we will face in the present life. They suffer all the agonies of the man dying in the desert. Nevertheless, their travail does not help them to grow in charity.

Such is in fact the case when we accept earthly sufferings out of love for God. In Purgatory, rebellion is no longer possible. Even if they would have to remain there until the end of time, the holy souls would do so gladly, so fervent is their desire for purification.

Besides contributing to shortening their time of purification, we can merit for them, and at the same time more quickly purify our own inordinate tendencies. Pain, sickness, and suffering are all excellent means permitted by Our Lord. They can be of grace to make reparation for personal sin.

While we are awaiting the eternal contemplation of God, our passage through life should be a time of purification. Through penance, our soul is rejuvenated and is disposed for life with a capital L.

St. Josemaria says, “Do not ever forget that after death, you are going to be welcomed by love itself.” Within the love of God, you will find implicit all the noble human loves on earth as well. Our Lord has arranged for us to spend this brief day of our earthly existence working like his only begotten Son doing good. Meanwhile, we have to be on our guard and alert to the call that St. Ignatius of Antioch felt within his soul, as the hour of his martyrdom approached. “Draw close to your Father,” he said, “come to him who is so desirous of your company.”

Our intention of reaching heaven without passing through Purgatory can be immensely fruitful. We need to have an effective desire so that with the help of grace, we can achieve the necessary purification during this life.

We’re told in the letter of St. Paul to the Hebrews, “Let us go to him then outside the camp and bear his humiliation. For here we have no permanent city. We are looking for the city which is to come” (Heb. 13:13–14). If you had to put some Bible phrase at the entrance of every university all over the world, that might be a good one to place. We all need to be reminded frequently that here we have no permanent city. We’re created for something else. This world is passing. Everything is passing away.

In the Book of Wisdom, there are some beautiful phrases that talk about this reality. It says, “But the souls of the upright are in the hands of God, and no torment can touch them. To the unenlightened, they appear to die, their departure was regarded as disaster, their leaving us like annihilation. But they are at peace. If, as it seemed to us, they suffered punishment, their hope was rich with immortality. Slight was their correction, great will their blessings be. God was putting them to the test and has proved them worthy to be with him. He has tested them like gold in a furnace and accepted them as a perfect burnt offering. At their time of visitation, they will shine out; as sparks run through the stubble, so will they. They will judge nations, rule over peoples, and the Lord will be their king forever. Those who trust in him will understand the truth. Those who are faithful will live with him in love. For grace and mercy await his holy ones, and he intervenes on behalf of his chosen” (Wisd. 3:1–9).

At another place in the Book of Wisdom, it says, “The upright, though he die before his time, will find rest. Length of days is not what makes age honorable, nor number of years the true measure of life. Understanding, this is gray hairs; untarnished life, this is ripe old age. Having won God’s favor, he has been loved. And as he was living among sinners, has been taken away. He has been carried off so that evil may not warp his understanding or deceitfulness seduce his soul. For the fascination of evil throws good things into the shade and the whirlwind of desire corrupts a simple heart. Having come to perfection so soon, he has lived long. His soul being pleasing to the Lord, he has hurried away from the wickedness around him. Yet people look on uncomprehending. It does not enter their heads that grace and mercy await his chosen ones and that he intervenes on behalf of his holy ones” (Wisd. 4:7–15).

The liturgy of the Church tells us that life is changed, not taken away. We look forward to the bright promise of immortality.

The month of November can help us to meditate on those last things: death, judgment, heaven, and purgatory. We’re reminded that death is life, it’s the beginning of eternal life. John Paul II liked to say that marriage in this world is just a preparation for marriage in the next. The real marriage comes later. God wants to marry us. People who lead celibate lives in this world, he said, give witness to the fact that the real marriage comes later.

What we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to God. Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. We can go forward with a great joy and peace, hopefully ready to accept the death that God has wanted for us from all eternity, whenever it may please him, as it may please him, wheresoever it may please him. The death that we will die is the best death. It’s the one God has chosen for us. It’s a pathway to holiness.

We will hear him say, “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). “Come, blessed of my Father, and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34). At the same time, we recognize that God’s ways are not our ways. Sometimes he works in different ways. If we witness the passing of a friend of ours at a young age, or in a sudden way, there are great spiritual messages there — messages for us to make good use of our time, to take oil in our lamps, and perhaps with the passage of time to have a greater sensitivity about the value of time.

I saw a statement written on the public clock once that time is free, but it’s priceless. St. Josemaria said time is short for loving, for giving, for making atonement. We mustn’t squander this period of the world’s history which God has entrusted to each one of us.

In our prayer, we could consecrate our death to God, realize that it’s a moment of grace, it’s what God has prepared from all eternity, it’s the best way to die. But also, we can realize that most people die as they have lived. The concept of last-minute dramatic conversions is very rare. The important thing is to try and live each day as if it was our last.

I knew a priest in Asia who used to encourage people to get rid of material things before you die, because that has merit — the opportunity to practice detachment and generosity. Giving away things after you die has no merit because you don’t own them anymore. Everything belongs to God.

Lord, may I use all the opportunities for virtue that you give me in this life. Often people give a lot of importance to other people’s deaths, but not to their own. Death is just the separation of the soul from the body. But the soul goes on living. The immortality of the soul is one of the most powerful truths of our faith. Hence the importance of taking care of our soul.

Billy Graham used to say, we cannot appreciate life until we realize it can be taken away from us. In Macbeth, Shakespeare says, “Out, out, brief candle. Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more.”

Lord, help us to make good use of our time. In The Forge, we’re told, “Sanctity consists precisely in this: in struggling to be faithful throughout your life and in accepting joyfully the will of God at the hour of death. Keep on forward cheerfully and trying hard, even though you are so little, nothing at all. When you’re with him, nobody in the world can stop you. Consider, moreover, how everything is good for those who love God. Every problem in this world has a solution except death, and for us, death is life.”

He says, “You became very serious when you heard me say, ‘I accept death whenever God wants it, the way he wants it, where he wants us.’ At the same time, I think it’s too easy to die early, because we should want to work many years for him and because of him, in the service of others.”

In St. Luke, we’re told that Jesus began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). It’s interesting to see that Our Lord speaks in short increments of time. He doesn’t talk about Vision 2030 or millennium goals.

Time is a treasure, a gift of God, a talent. It’s for glory, it’s for grace, and for eternity. It’s an instrument in our hands for doing something with it. It has been given to us in order to work, to serve, to develop ourselves, to give glory to God. We don’t go looking for time for its own sake — to be able to go around and tell people, “I have time, I have time, I have time.” Just like we don’t say “I have a biro, I have a biro, I have a biro.” People will ask, what are you going to do with the biro? You’re going to sign a check? You’re going to give your autograph? You’re going to sign a contract? Likewise, what’s important about time is what we do with it. We’re not the owners of time. It has been given to us. It’s part of the oil we have to take in our lamps. It has to be used for that for which it’s supposed to be used — an instrument in our hands for a very specific reason. If God wants us to work, he set apart a time precisely for that.

We’re told in the book of Ecclesiastes that God has appointed time for every matter, for every work. “A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to reap what has been planted” (cf. Eccles. 3:1–2). Time is something sacred. It’s one of the reasons why we have to respect other people’s time, why we should have a great desire to live the virtue of punctuality well in everything we do — which means being present a few minutes before the said deadline. Our time has to always mean on time.

We have very little leeway with time. God gives to us a certain amount — 80, 60, 40 years. Some babies just get a few minutes or a few hours, but everybody gets their time. We can’t directly multiply it. We don’t have direct control over the total amount of time. If you compare time and money, somebody can make money for you to make it yield more money, but nobody can make more time for you. Nobody can say if you only have two days to prepare for an exam, I’ll stretch it and you’ll have four days. With time, you can make money, but with money, you cannot make time. Time is more basic. It’s greater. It’s divine.

We need time for everything, but we don’t need money. “For everyone who has, will more be given. And he who has not, even what he has will be taken away” (Matt. 25:29). When we use our time well, God multiplies our time.

In The Way, the first point of The Way, we’re told, “Don’t let your life be barren. Be useful. Blaze a trail.” It’s a real encouragement to use our time well, to have goals, to know what we’re at — to take oil in our lamps while we have the opportunity. There were foolish virgins that didn’t take any oil in their lamps. Their decision came too late. It was a real tragedy. We can ask Our Lord that we might have that sense of time in everything we do, have a sense of eternity and realize we’ve been created for eternity.

We can turn to Our Lady, refuge of sinners, and ask her for the grace to help us to act accordingly. Mary, may we be filled with the holy determination to convert our life into a time of true penance in reparation for all our unworthy thoughts and words and deeds. Help us to give you more glory and your Son more glory in everything we do.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and Lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

EW