Did you know that each month has a traditional Catholic devotion? This year, let’s focus on each devotion month-by-month to grow in our faith and traditions! Make yourself notes, write it on your calendar, and pray a specific prayer each day of the month to remember. You could use a prayer already associated with the devotion or pray a personal one.
Look at your bulletin’s Mass list. Most churches put names next to the Mass. Those people need prayers, and most of the time, parishes pray for people who have passed on. Whereas canonized saints we know are in Heaven, we do all we can for others who have passed, especially those in most need, by praying that they, too, are in Heaven.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us about the state of purification called purgatory (paragraph 1031). Nothing evil is allowed in Heaven. Jesus’ sacrifice is all transforming, not just a “cover-up.” What I mean by this is that we believe that Christ’s sacrifice is not just making us appear to be pure, but when we really accept Him wholly, we are transformed. We just need to receive Him.
As imperfect, fallen humans, we might likely not enter into eternal life completely spotless, and that is why His love continues to purify us in the state of purgatory. What’s left of sin is taken away. Traditionally, people ask for 40 Masses to be said for a person who has passed. Forty biblically represents a long time, so people aimed to help someone even if that person was said to be in Purgatory for a long time.
The afterlife doesn’t necessarily have a sense of time, so when someone speaks in terms of time, it’s just us finite humans attempting to understand the afterlife. We should prepare ourselves to be rid of all sin as soon as possible through prayer, the sacraments given by God, and constant conversion. That way, we can enjoy the Kingdom of Heaven where we all belong “sooner”—so to speak.
Until then, we still strive to understand and visualize purgatory. For example, Dante’s famous Divine Comedy is a poem about a character’s journey through heaven, hell, and purgatory. If you want to understand Purgatory better, check out our article on it –> https://catholic-link.org/purgatory-fr-mike-schmitz-explains/
Don’t just look at your bulletin’s list of those in need of prayers or who have passed—actually, pray for them by name. This is a good opportunity to ask saints to pray for those in purgatory as well!
November Catholic Feast Days
November 1: All Saints Day
November 2: All Souls Day
November 4: St. Charles Borromeo
November 8: St. Elizabeth of the Holy Trinity
November 11: St. Martin of Tours
November 13: St. Frances Xavier Cabrini
November 15: St. Albert the Great
November 16: St. Gertrude & St. Margaret of Scotland
November 21: The Presentation of Mary
November 22: Feast Day of Our Lord Jesus Christ King of the Universe & St. Cecilia
November 23: St. Clement I
November 25: St. Catherine of Alexandra
November 26: Thanksgiving
November 29: First Sunday Of Advent
November 30: Begin St. Andrew’s Novena
November Reflection Questions For Catholics
1. What depiction of Purgatory helps you understand it most? (i.e. Dante’s Puragtio, C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce… )
2. Who are you praying for specifically this month?
3. Did your celebration of All Souls’ and All Saints’ Day (our feasts around Halloween) properly express your faith? (Check out our Halloween guide: https://catholic-link.org/is-halloween-catholic/ and one specifically for college students.
4. How much are you willing to purge now from your soul to become a saint in Heaven?
5. Are you into “spooky saints”? If so, try researching and befriending the saint, thought dead, who came alive and had visited heaven, hell, a purgatory—St. Christina
6. What are you most thankful for? How will you show your gratitude to God?
7. How are you preparing for Advent?
November Catholic Challenge
Pray for one person by name each day. Offer up sacrifices for that person, pray a rosary, or maybe ask for a Mass to be celebrated in a deceased person’s honor. It can be the same person if you’ve had a recent loss, or you can pick a stranger every day. Visit a cemetery for names if you need help and pray for each person on each rosary bead.
Catholic’s November To-Do List
Catholic Books To Read In November
Saints Around the World for Little Ones Collection
Pray for Us: 75 Saints Who Sinned, Suffered, and Struggled on Their Way to Holiness
Drinking with the Saints (Deluxe): The Sinner’s Guide to a Holy Happy Hour
*These Amazon Affiliate links support the ministry of Catholic-Link at no additional cost to you! Thank you!
November Catholic Prayers To Learn
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.
– St. Gertrude
St. Andrew Christmas Novena
Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born Of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires through the merits of Our Savior Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen
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