Christians have been praying for their departed brothers and sisters since the earliest days of Christianity. Early liturgies and inscriptions on catacomb walls attest to the ancientness of prayers for the dead, even if the Church needed more time to develop a substantial theology behind the practice. Praying for the dead is actually borrowed from Judaism, as indicated in 2 Maccabees 12:41-42. In the New Testament, St Paul prays for mercy for his departed friend Onesiphorus (2 Timothy 1:18). Early Christian writers Tertullian and St. Cyprian testify to the regular practice of praying for the souls of the departed. Tertullian justified the practice based on custom and Tradition, and not on explicit scriptural teaching. This demonstrates that Christians believed that their prayers could somehow have a positive effect on the souls of departed believers. Closely connected to the ancient practice of praying for the dead is the belief in an explicit state called purgatory. The New Testament hints at a purification of believers after death. For example, Saint Paul speaks of being saved, "but only as through fire" (1 Corinthians 3:15). Over time, many Church Fathers, including St. Augustine, e.g. in Enchiridion of Faith, Hope, and Love and City of God, further developed the concept of a purgation of sins through fire after death.
In the early days, departed Christians' names were placed on diptychs. In the sixth century, Benedictine communities held commemorations for the departed on the feast of Pentecost. All Souls' Day became a universal festival largely on account of the influence of Odilo of Cluny in AD 998, when he commanded its annual celebration in the Benedictine houses of his congregation. This soon spread to the Carthusian congregations as well. The day was celebrated on various days, including October 15th in 12th century Milan. Today all Western Catholics celebrate All Souls' Day on November 2, as do many Anglicans and Lutherans. Initially many Protestant reformers rejected All Souls' Day because of the theology behind the feast (Purgatory and prayers/masses for the dead), but the feast is now being celebrated in many Protestant communities, in many cases with a sub-Catholic theology of Purgatory. Some Protestants even pray for the dead; many Anglican liturgies include such prayers. While the Eastern Churches lack a clearly defined doctrine of Purgatory, they still regularly pray for the departed
There are many customs associated with All Souls Day, and these vary greatly from culture to culture. In Mexico they celebrate All Souls Day as el dia de los muertos, or "the day of the dead." Customs include going to a graveyard to have a picnic, eating skull-shaped candy, and leaving food out for dead relatives. The practice of leaving food out for dead relatives is interesting, but not exactly Catholic Theology. If all of this seems a little morbid, remember that all cultures deal with death in different manners. The Western aversion to anything related to death is not present in other cultures. In the Philippines, they celebrate "Memorial Day" based loosely on All Souls Day. Customs include praying novenas for the holy souls, and ornately decorating relatives' graves. On the eve of All Souls (i.e. the evening of All Saints Day), partiers go door-to-door, requesting gifts and singing a traditional verse representing the liberation of holy souls from purgatory. In Hungary the day is known as Halottak Napja, "the day of the dead," and a common custom is inviting orphans into the family and giving them food, clothes, and toys. In rural Poland, a legend developed that at midnight on All Souls Day a great light shone on the local parish. This light was said to be the holy souls of departed parishioners gathered to pray for their release from Purgatory at the altars of their former earthly parishes. After this, the souls were said to return to scenes from their earthly life and work, visiting homes and other places. As a sign of welcome, Poles leave their windows and doors ajar on the night of All Souls Day. All of these customs show the wide variety of traditions related to All Souls Day.
One day, after working on an especially dirty project, I was washing my hands under the tap in the yard outside our workshop. My hands were covered in grease and I was having a difficult time getting clean. Esteban came out to join me and he was in the same condition. Have you ever thought how one hand could wash itself? I never had and it didn’t look very easy. I reached out to Esteban and as we began washing each other’s hands I realized that there really is nothing that we couldn’t do together.
In August of 2011, Flavio Rocha, MKLM, started a ministry at the NGO Associação Cantareira facilitating workshops focusing on environmental education. His work is done on the periphery of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s mega-city of 20 million, and addresses issues concerning the environment such as global warming, the cycle of disposable waste, consumerism, and food production. The Associação Cantareira is a long-standing Maryknoll partner founded by a diocesan priest and lay pastoral agents. One of its main objectives is the formation of community leaders, especially youth.
Flavio tells us:
“This year, my work at the Associação targeted 15 public community health and environmental agents. I found the participants eager to learn about environmental issues and share what they learned with the hundreds of people that they come in contact with during their work week.
One of the participants is Cleusa Castro, a soft-spoken 50 year old with strong indigenous features. The job carries her to schools, day-care centers, churches, etc, to raise environmental awareness. Last February, Cleusa began participating in my workshops where during each meeting we work on one specific theme such as clean water, healthy food, garbage disposal, etc. Cleusa shared with me that her favorite meeting was the one on water. When asked why, she said that she was happy to learn about the water cycle and how nature works in such a simple way and how it is being disrupted by unplanned human action. Cleusa was able to use what she learned in our course in a church meeting that she facilitated on the water cycle and the importance of preserving the forests in order to maintain it.
Cleusa also told me that she liked learning about healthy food. She had no idea that Brazil produces so much genetically modified food and that it is also a champion of the use of pesticides. With this knowledge, she has changed her consumption habits and encouraged the people she works with in the neighborhood to take care when buying tomatoes, green peppers, strawberries and other fruits and vegetables that are heavily sprayed. She has been invited to talk to church groups of this and other issues.
She has identified garbage disposal on the streets as a serious problem and has begun organizing in her neighborhood to help stop the common practice of dumping on the street which causes flooding and diseases. By touching the life of Cleusa and the other health and environmental agents who are community leaders, I hope to multiply the impact of my formation courses.”