Praying for the dead
Pray the novena →November is the month of the dead. These seven Precious Blood prayers, one for each weekday, were indulgenced by Leo XII in 1826.
November 2
The faithful departed
Grieving families
All Souls' Day, November 2, was set for the whole Western Church after Odilo of Cluny began keeping it in the 11th century. The Raccolta gives seven prayers, one for each day of the week, each asking God through a moment of Christ's Passion to free a particular soul in purgatory. For nine days, days 8 and 9 repeat the first two.
Odilo of Cluny started the commemoration of all the faithful departed around 998.
Each prayer asks for a specific soul: the most forgotten, the nearest to heaven, the one you are most bound to pray for.
The Raccolta says to follow each with an Our Father, a Hail Mary and the De profundis (Psalm 130).
A novena is nine days of prayer for one intention, modeled on the nine days the apostles and Mary prayed between the Ascension and Pentecost (Acts 1–2). Pray this each day:
Day 1. Lord God Almighty, I pray Thee, by the Precious Blood which thy Divine Son Jesus shed in the garden, deliver the souls in purgatory, and especially that soul amongst them all which is most destitute of spiritual aid; and vouchsafe to bring it to thy glory, there to praise and bless Thee for ever. Amen.
Day 2. Lord God Almighty, I pray Thee, by the Precious Blood which thy Divine Son Jesus shed in his cruel scourging, deliver the souls in purgatory, and that soul especially amongst them all which is nearest to its entrance into thy glory; that so it may forthwith begin to praise and bless Thee for ever. Amen.
Day 3. Lord God Almighty, I pray Thee, by the Precious Blood which thy Divine Son Jesus shed in his bitter crowning with thorns, deliver the souls in purgatory, and in particular that one amongst them all which would be the last to depart out of those pains, that it may not tarry so long a time before it come to praise Thee in thy glory and bless Thee for ever. Amen.
Day 4. Lord God Almighty, I pray Thee, by the Precious Blood which thy Divine Son Jesus shed in the streets of Jerusalem, when He carried the Cross upon his sacred shoulders, deliver the souls in purgatory, and especially that soul which is richest in merits before Thee; that so, in that throne of glory which awaits it, it may magnify Thee and bless Thee for ever. Amen.
Day 5. Lord God Almighty, I pray Thee, by the Precious Body and Blood of thy Divine Son Jesus, which He gave with his own hands upon the eve of his Passion to his beloved Apostles to be their meat and drink, and which He left to his whole Church to be a perpetual sacrifice and the life-giving food of his own faithful people, deliver the souls in purgatory, and especially that one which was most devoted to this mystery of infinite love, that it may with the same thy Divine Son, and with thy Holy Spirit, ever praise Thee for thy love therein in eternal glory. Amen.
Day 6. Lord God Almighty, I pray Thee, by the Precious Blood which thy Divine Son shed on this day upon the wood of the Cross, especially from his most sacred hands and feet, deliver the souls in purgatory, and in particular that soul for which I am most bound to pray; that no neglect of mine may hinder it from praising Thee in thy glory and blessing Thee for ever. Amen.
Day 7. Lord God Almighty, I beseech Thee, by the Precious Blood which gushed forth from the side of thy Divine Son Jesus, in the sight of, and to the extreme pain of his most holy Mother, deliver the souls in purgatory, and especially that one amongst them all which was the most devout to her; that it may soon attain unto thy glory, there to praise Thee in her, and her in Thee, world without end. Amen.
Day 8. Lord God Almighty, I pray Thee, by the Precious Blood which thy Divine Son Jesus shed in the garden, deliver the souls in purgatory, and especially that soul amongst them all which is most destitute of spiritual aid; and vouchsafe to bring it to thy glory, there to praise and bless Thee for ever. Amen.
Day 9. Lord God Almighty, I pray Thee, by the Precious Blood which thy Divine Son Jesus shed in his cruel scourging, deliver the souls in purgatory, and that soul especially amongst them all which is nearest to its entrance into thy glory; that so it may forthwith begin to praise and bless Thee for ever. Amen.
One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from Holy Souls's story, and a nudge to keep going.
[Affiliate placeholder: Catholic Company Novena for the Holy Souls medal]
Image: Luca Giordano, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Prayers for the souls in purgatory for each day of the week (no. 408), The Raccolta, or Collection of Indulgenced Prayers (London: Burns & Oates; New York: Benziger, 1910), public domain. Days 8 and 9 repeat Sunday and Monday.
