It is All Souls. We pray in special way for the dead today and during this octave, and indeed during this month.
Do you know of any of the regular readers or commentators of this blog who have passed away?
Let’s for sure pray for them, together with others whom we have on our lists.
Don’t forget to get those indulgences! HERE
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”.
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
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.
Could someone tell me what Our Incarnate Lord has in His right hand, His Mother in her left, in the painting?
It’s the two ends of a scapular. Probably the Brown Scapular.
Gracie, I remember that prayer too and how we always prayed for the faithful departed. Thank you for reminding me of this.
Great account and perfectly accurate. Did you happen to grow up next to me on the Upper West Side?
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 :)
Domnall,
It looks more white than brown. Maybe it’s the Dominican scapular.
Please remember Dennis Martin, who died October of last year.
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!)
Charles E Flynn,
Wow! Your mother taught you the Apostles’ Creed. Parents for the most part don’t teach their kids prayers anymore.
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.