Visit the Memorial to the Unborn this November
The month of November is dedicated especially to praying for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. During this time, the Church offers many graced opportunities to help our brothers and sisters who are being purified to reach the joys of Heaven more quickly.
The greatest prayer of all is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Besides this, the Church encourages her children to pray privately for the faithful departed, in a cemetery if possible. The first week of November—particularly All Souls’ Day, November 2—is a fitting time for these devotions. Specific guidelines are as follows:
- A plenary indulgence, applicable only to the souls in purgatory, is granted to the faithful who,
- on any and each day from November 1 to 8, devoutly visit a cemetery and pray, if only mentally, for the departed;
- on All Souls’ Day, devoutly visit a church or an oratory and recite an Our Father and the Creed.
- A partial indulgence, applicable only to the souls in purgatory, is granted to the faithful who,
- devoutly visit a cemetery and at least mentally pray for the dead;
- devoutly recite lauds or vespers from the Office of the Dead or the prayer Requiem aeternam (Eternal rest). (from the Enchiridion of Indulgences, June 2, 1998)
The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe offers opportunities to obtain all of these. Pilgrims in November can pray for the departed not only in the Shrine Church, but in the Shrine’s own cemetery, the Memorial to the Unborn. Here, the remains of children who died before birth are entombed in the columbarium.
One can pray, in any cemetery, for departed loved ones or for those in most need, and thereby gain an indulgence to benefit them. Click here to learn more about the Church’s teaching regarding indulgences.
