Dear Friend in Christ,
We know from sacred Scripture that nothing unclean can enter Heaven. We also know that during His Passion and death, Christ earned infinite merits that opened the gates of Heaven to all those who earnestly seek it.
Many who die in His friendship still bear the stain of the venial sins they committed during their earthly lives. Before they can enter Paradise, they must first suffer the purifying fires of Purgatory. We intensify our prayers for these poor suffering souls not only on All Souls Day, but throughout the month of November.
Three Ways You Can Aid the Holy Souls in Purgatory
The souls in Purgatory—faithful Catholics like us—can no longer help themselves get to Heaven as you and I can. They need our help. As we approach All Souls Day on November 2, I ask you to do three things:
1. Pray and make sacrifices for the dead, especially by visiting a cemetery each day from November 1 through November 8.
2. Submit your intentions for our Novena of Masses at https://fssp.com/novenas.
3. Please contribute to the support of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, so that we can continue to form faithful priests who will offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the Poor Souls.
Will You Rescue Eight Souls This November?
We can and should pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory every day. But during the first week of November, Holy Mother Church makes it possible to earn a plenary indulgence each day for a soul in Purgatory. As you may recall, a plenary indulgence removes all of the temporal punishment due as a result of a person’s sins.
From November 1 through November 8, the Church offers a plenary indulgence each day for all those who visit a cemetery to pray for the faithful departed. So, if you pray at a cemetery daily, receive Communion daily, pray for the Pope’s intentions daily, make a good Confession that week, and are free from attachment to sin, you could rescue eight souls this November!
Help Your Loved Ones Get Out of Purgatory
It’s exciting to have the opportunity to rescue eight souls from Purgatory in a single week. But when you stop and reflect on all the faithful Catholics you’ve been privileged to know in your life, you’ll surely be able to think of more than eight who have died and may be suffering in Purgatory. How can you hasten their passage to Heaven this November?
The best way is to have the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered for them. To that end, the priests at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary will offer a Novena of Masses for the deceased from November 2 through November 10, 2019. Please fill out the online form with the names of your deceased loved ones to be remembered in this Novena of Masses. Our priests and seminarians will continue to pray for your loved ones each day throughout November.
The Holy Souls Need More Priests to Help Them!
As I’ve explained, there is much you can do to help the Holy Souls—this November, and always. They rely on your prayers and sacrifices to shorten their suffering and hasten their passage to Paradise.
But many of your good acts are only possible with the involvement of a priest. For example, to fulfill the conditions for a plenary indulgence, you need a priest to hear your confession and to give you Our Lord in the Eucharist.
And the sad fact is that nowadays, it can be difficult to find Catholic parishes that make confession widely available to the faithful. In our apostolates across the U.S., our priests typically hear confessions before every public Mass, every day of the week!
Since our inception 30 years ago, the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter has worked hard to rectify this situation. We continue to form holy, faithful priests who are shaped by the traditions of the Church, guided by the sound teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas, and protected under the mantle of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
This is a good start—but we have much more work to do.
Another class of more than 20 men joined us this fall, bringing the current enrollment to over 80! Forming each of these men will cost us $30,000 per year. And because these men have left all behind to follow Our Lord, they can contribute very little towards their tuition and living expenses.
This is why I’m turning once again to you. The Holy Souls in Purgatory—and faithful Catholics everywhere—are in great need of assistance from our priests. But we can only form more priests if we have your generous support. As you fill out the online form with your prayer intentions, please consider including a gift to contribute to the formation of the next generation of faithful, well-formed priests.
Thank you for your charity towards the Holy Souls—and your support of the FSSP. May God reward you richly for your faithfulness.
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Michael Stinson, FSSP
North American Superior
