The Healing Journey

October 24, 2023

One of the greatest gifts you can give your loved ones — living and deceased — is to have a Mass said for them. For the living, you can offer it for the intentions of healing and blessings, and for the deceased for the repose of their souls and their entrance into Heaven.

In the Catholic faith we set aside All Souls Day on November 2 — the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed — to honor the dead. Why? According to our beliefs, men and women may go to purgatory to be perfected before entering Heaven.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says purgatory offers us a “purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of Heaven,” which is experienced by those “who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified.”

Purgatory is temporary and souls there are destined for Heaven, so pray for them and go to Mass on All Souls Day. The observance began sometime around 998 and 1030, when St. Odilo, who was the abbot of a Benedictine Monastery in Cluny, France urged his monks to pray for souls who had died. Today, we pray for them not only on that day but throughout the month of November.

Catholic Cemeteries of the Diocese of Bridgeport will have Masses on All Souls Day, Thursday, November 2 at 11 a.m. rain or shine. Tents and portable facilities will be provided. The Masses will be offered for the repose of the souls of all the faithful departed. Catholics are encouraged that day to pray that those who have died may rest in the peace of Christ.

The Masses will be offered at these six Diocesan Cemeteries
and Holy Water from Lourdes, France will be distributed after Mass at each location.

St. Mary/Putnam Cemetery
399 North Street, Greenwich
Principal Celebrant: Bishop Frank J. Caggiano

St. Peter Cemetery
71 Lake Avenue Ext., Danbury

St. John Cemetery
25 Camp Avenue, Darien

St. Michael Cemetery
2205 Stratford Avenue, Stratford

St. John Cemetery
223 Richards Avenue, Norwalk

Gate Of Heaven Cemetery
1056 Daniels Farm Road, Trumbull

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