According to Apostolic Penitentiary, a plenary indulgence, applicable only to the souls in purgatory, is granted each and every day from November 1 to November 8, who devoutly visit a cemetery and pray there for the departed.This year (2020), in the current circumstances due to the “Covid-19” pandemic, the Plenary Indulgences for the deceased faithful will be extended throughout the entire month of November, with adaptation of works and conditions to guarantee the safety of the faithful.
An indulgence is the remission before God of the temporal punishment due for sins already forgiven as far as their guilt is concerned.
A Plenary Indulgence can be gained only one per day. The faithful must be in the state of grace and all attachment to sin, even venial sin, must be absent. These three conditions, also, must accompany the prescribed act:
1. the faithful must receive the sacrament of confession, either eight days before or after the pious act is performed,
2. receive Holy Communion on that day
3. and recite prayers for the intentions of the Holy Father (one Our Father and one Hail Mary is the minimum, but any other additional prayers may be added).
In a nice, sunny and warm day, November 2nd, the Sisters of the Divine Redeemer, even though elderly, sick, and hardly moving, took the opportunity to gain the plenary indulgences for the Souls in Purgatory and went to their cemetery to pray. They gathered together there with some lay people and two priests. In common, they prayed the rosary and other prayers offering them for the poor souls in the purgatory.
Our Foundress, Blessed Alphonse Marie asks us: “Think often on eternity. God preserve us from finding an angry Judge in him who has chosen us as His beloved children. Let us make every effort to attract the good pleasure of God so that all our works, all our efforts and our mortification, everything that we have done here on earth shall be meritorious for eternity.”
She encourages us: “Now you have the means of salvation in your hands. Nothing is more pleasing to God than the prayers, works, sufferings and mortification offered for the souls that He has redeemed by His precious blood. It has been said that he who contributes to the salvation of a soul assures the salvation of his own soul.”
Eternal rest grant to them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
