As the Church dedicates November to the Poor Souls in purgatory, the church penitent, our family makes it a point to fit in little remembrances of the faithful departed throughout our day. These souls are desperate for our prayers and indulgences to release them from their torments; and the older I get the more I am convicted to keep them in mind.
One of these little devotions is the historic practice of stopping to pray for the Poor Souls at the 1pm bell. We typically use our dinning room Angelus bell for this task but a phone alarm works just as well. You could even set the tone to a bell chime.
Another way we work in these recollections, especially during the indulged first eight days of the month, are with traveling cemetery prayers in our big white whale of a 15 passenger van, Moby. Here we pray a quick Requiem Aeternam as we're driving past a cemetery during normal errands, or recite the recommended indulged prayers (Our Father and Creed for the Pope's intentions, and any prayer for the departed) while driving through or parked in a cemetery with sleeping little ones.
Finally, a more unique custom in our family is to use our free listening music as a prayer reminder. During the week we put on a playlist of our favorite Requiem Mass settings as free listening in the background of our daily activities. Similar to our family Lenten practice of listening to a different Stabat Mater Dolorosa setting each Friday, throughout November we choose a Requiem to play and listen to in its entirety on that day instead.
If your family would like to join us, I've shared the complete free listening playlist composed of five of my favorite requiems below, as well as the individual requiem playlists for each Friday of the month.
What are some ways your family remembers the suffering souls in November? I'd love to read about them in the comments!
Listen to the complete free listening playlist here:
The 5 Top Requiem Masses included are:
1. Giuseppe Verdi's Messa da Requiem - Romantic Era
2. W. A. Mozart's Requiem in D minor - Classical Era
3. Gabriel Fauré's Requiem in D minor - Romantic Era
4. Johannes Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem, nach Worten der heiligen Schrift (A German Requiem, to Words of the Holy Scriptures) - Romantic Era
5. Maurice Duruflé's Requiem - Modern Era
Blessings,
Help your family grow closer to Mary through the ancient music of the Church !