All Saints' Day & All Souls' Day 2013

All Saints' Day

After our late night before All Saints' Day, one would hope tiny children would sleep in, but one would be wrong! Our two older ones slept in, but the baby and toddler have such strong internal clocks, they woke up bright and early anyway, which means so did I!

We took the day off of school because All Saints' Day is a holy day of obligation. We enjoyed a relaxing, lay-about day, caught up on a few house chores, ate too much candy, and the children got to attend art and chess class in the afternoon. Then we attended the Latin Mass before going to dinner at a restaurant with parishioner friends.

All Souls' Day

We woke up to a foggy morning, which is an unusual sight here, unlike where I grew up in a California valley known for fabulously dense fog. Daddy took the children for a "fog walk," as he dubbed it, while I stayed home to rest with the baby.

Walking in the fog

We arranged a simple altar in honor of our family's deceased. It pales in comparison to a Mexican ofrenda, but it will be a peaceful place we can remember to pray for our loved ones who have passed away.

Our family altar for the dead

Our parish held a very special solemn requiem Mass with a catafalque and the new (antique) vestments of black velvet and silver embroidery. Unfortunately for me, I didn't plan the morning well enough in terms of little tummies: I served waffles which, with syrup, just burn through a little kid. No protein at all! Then I forgot to feed snacks. And the Mass was at noon. You Mamas can see it coming . . . my two-year-old had a nuclear meltdown in the cry room, so I actually took her out to the van and let her happily sit in the driver's seat eating a bag of mixed nuts. I have almost never done that--just given her a free pass at Mass--but I realized I'd totally set her up for failure today.

Anyway, I hear the Mass was exquisite!

The catafalque

The first week of November is perhaps the richest week of plenary indulgences available from the Church. One can gain one indulgence per day for the poor holy souls in purgatory!

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For the faithful departed 

§ 1. A plenary indulgence, applied exclusively to the souls in Purgatory, is granted to the Christian faithful who:

1° on each single day, from the first to the eighth day in November, devoutly visit a cemetery and, even if only mentally, pray for the faithful departed; [Note: one plenary indulgence for each day, if the usual conditions are met]

2° on the day of Commemoration of All Faithful Departed [November 2] (or, according to the Ordinary, on the preceding or subsequent Sunday, or on the day of the solemnity of All Saints) piously visit a church or oratory and there recite the Pater and the Credo. 

(Reference: Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, 4th edition, al. concessiones.)

Therefore, after Mass five families headed over to Belmont Abbey to pray at the cemetery.

Afterward, we served the children doughnuts: the modern-day version of soul cakes! They ran about in an adjacent meadow while the adults chatted, Abbot Placid Solari showed up and visited with our group, and a lovely time was had by all.