The Month of Holy Souls: Practical Meditations for Every Day of the Month of November

The two great commandments are to love God above all things and one's neighbor as oneself. The highest regard that can be paid to one's neighbor is to remember him, and all the poor souls in Purgatory after they have passed out of this world beyond the grave. This is why man needs the liturgical month of November. The season has passed from the heat of summer to the crispness of Autumn with all its bounty. Many reap from the gardens and fields that which God graciously bestowed to them through the labor of their hands. Harvests are celebrated and preserved in various ways all around the world. Fittingly, we retire with full larder and bursting barns in order to now pull from the treasure of graces and indulgences, that are available at every moment for the relief of the poor souls in Purgatory, again, from our Father's loving hand. To better make use of these graces, and to preserve a holy life, The Month of the Souls in Purgatory, by the Abbé Berlioux, contains a valuable harvest of devotions, practices and meditations toward sanctifying the month of November. The book is excellent as a daily reader for the month, but also very useful for the anniversaries of the deaths of loved ones, whose daily assistance is a chief duty of the Church Militant. Let us remember the dead, and look to our last day as well. Each chapter contains the whole day's reading, prayer, and a fitting example for the reading, usually taken from the author's personal knowledge or some other historical example. The subjects range from the ancientness of praying for the dead, the pains and nature of the suffering, the holiness and nearness to God of the souls, the favors granted by them to those on earth who relieve them, the various means of relieving the poor souls, the ways souls end up in Purgatory and how to avoid these downfalls, as also apparitions by the dead, carrying out the wishes of those who pass before us, an admonition to make provisions in one's own will that supplies for masses and alms against time spent in Purgatory, and more. The readings are short and easy to complete for a morning meditation, between the labors of a busy life, and for raising to a higher level one's entire being toward a particular goal that is common to all men. As one saint said before beginning the November devotions, Let us empty Purgatory! The Month of the Souls in Purgatory was first published in the French language in Grenoble. The book was soon after translated for the English-speaking wo