All Souls Day and you readers, living and dead

13 Comments

1. gracie says:

   2 November 2016 at 12:16 PM

   Anyone remember the “Grace After Meals”? I remember saying it when I was very little. Here it is:

   “We give Thee thanks for all Thy benefits, Almighty God,
   Who livest and reignest world without end. Amen
   May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God,
   Rest in peace. Amen”

   Note the last part where we pray for the dead. Think of that. After every meal, Catholics used to pray for the souls in Purgatory (I’m assuming that the Saints in Heaven already are resting in peace). We’re told to pray for the dead and the fact is we used to do it two or three times a day. Without even thinking about it we remembered our dead.

   I decided to have the CCD class learn it – why not? It’s a beautiful prayer and fits in well with the Hallowtide. I looked it up in the textbook we use – anyone else use “Be My Disciples”? – and they do have the exact same “Grace After Meals” in the prayer section EXCEPT they omit the last part where we pray for the dead. Gone. Vanished. Fits in beautifully with the paradigm that everyone goes to Heaven so no need to pray for anyone. Can the term “iconoclasm”be used for the removal of words from prayers? Perhaps someone could write a book called “The Stripping of the Texts” to go along with “The Stripping of the Altars”.
2. Charles E Flynn says:

   2 November 2016 at 5:19 PM

   Gracie’s comment raises the question of what prayers we memorize as a child. Growing up in the 1950s, I was taught these prayers, for which I am grateful:

   Our Father
   Hail Mary
   Glory Be
   Apostle’s Creed
   Act of Contrition
   Grace Before Meals
   Grace After Meals
   Hail Holy Queen
   Prayer to our Guardian Angel
3. Charles E Flynn says:

   2 November 2016 at 5:37 PM

   That should have been:

   Apostles’ Creed

   Also of potential interest is where we learned the prayers. My mother taught me the first four I mentioned, and the last four were taught to me by nuns (the pre-bus variety).

   Although I did not attend a Catholic elementary school, I was able to go to morning classes each summer for six weeks at the local Catholic elementary school (at no charge), and I was the beneficiary of something probably unthinkable today, “released time”, in which, on every Wednesday morning during the school year, the public school officials allowed Catholic students to receive an hour of Catholic instruction at the nearest Catholic school.

   Next door to my public elementary school, there was an old school building. Both the Catholic and the public elementary schools were overcrowded in those day, so some of the classrooms in the old building were leased by the Catholic elementary school, and some were used by the public school.

   I fondly remember May 5, 1961, the day Alan Shepard was launched into space. The public school had no TV sets in their main building or the old building. The nuns had television, invited the public school students to come into their classroom to witness the launch, and invited all to say a prayer for Alan Shepard. My fellow public school students were really impressed with the nuns’ having television and their concern for the astronaut.
4. Venerator Sti Lot says:

   2 November 2016 at 6:14 PM

   Could someone tell me what Our Incarnate Lord has in His right hand, His Mother in her left, in the painting?
5. Suburbanbanshee says:

   2 November 2016 at 7:12 PM

   It’s the two ends of a scapular. Probably the Brown Scapular.
6. Traductora says:

   2 November 2016 at 7:58 PM

   Gracie, I remember that prayer too and how we always prayed for the faithful departed. Thank you for reminding me of this.
7. Traductora says:

   2 November 2016 at 8:02 PM

   Great account and perfectly accurate. Did you happen to grow up next to me on the Upper West Side?
8. Domnall says:

   2 November 2016 at 9:35 PM

   They are both holding the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.

   The scapular itself is a great sacramental and Our Lady under this title is the greatest advocate for the sinners in purgatory.

   Gracie, I’m a Carmelite and we pray that prayer after every meal to remember the faithful departed :)
9. robtbrown says:

   3 November 2016 at 7:36 AM

   Domnall,

   It looks more white than brown. Maybe it’s the Dominican scapular.
10. Elly says:

    3 November 2016 at 9:48 AM

    Please remember Dennis Martin, who died October of last year.
11. Venerator Sti Lot says:

    3 November 2016 at 12:22 PM

    Suburbanbanshee, Domnall, and robtbrown,

    Many thanks! (I don’t know enough about scapulars, and haven’t seem the right sort of statues (or paintings, up close), to have even thought of the possibility – my first thought was some sort of vessel or container, with a little loop-like handle!)
12. gracie says:

    3 November 2016 at 6:26 PM

    Charles E Flynn,

    Wow! Your mother taught you the Apostles’ Creed. Parents for the most part don’t teach their kids prayers anymore.
13. Venerator Sti Lot says:

    3 November 2016 at 8:37 PM

    gracie,

    It’s delightful how children can learn the Ordinary in Greek and Latin just from singing along with the Kyriale settings (also at good Latin NO celebrations) – and the Pater Noster and Salve Regina.

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