November 2025

Jubilee Holy Year 2025: Pilgrims of Hope

November is the month dedicated to the Poor Souls in Purgatory 

November 2-8: National Vocation Awareness Week 

Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

OUR LADY, QUEEN OF ALL SAINTS,

OUR LADY, GATE OF HEAVEN,

OUR LADY, QUEEN OF ANGELS,

SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL,

PRAY FOR US. 

Since I, the Lord, brought you up from the land of Egypt that I might be your God, 

you shall be holy, because I am holy.

(Leviticus 11:45)

Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.

(Matthew 5:8)

Dear faithful readers, welcome to November, a stellar month dedicated to the Poor Souls of Purgatory. "O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy."

This month is overwhelming with so much to celebrate. The month kicks off with All Saints Day, a day to remember and pray for all the saints, those formally declared saints, and those not. We remember the "saints next door," and other holy people we know and have known, those living, that is, the saints in the making (all of us!), and those who are dead. In addition, November 1 is extra special this year because Pope Leo XIV formally declared Saint John Henry Newman (1801-1890) a Doctor of the Church and named him co-patron of Catholic education alongside Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). November 2 follows with All Souls Day, or The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, and then the list of saints to commemorate goes on and on (see below). We celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, on Sunday, November 23, and have a week to prepare for the First Sunday of Advent, November 30, and the beginning of a new liturgical year. Be sure to get plenty of rest, then, the month will be a busy one. And since we enter a new year in the Church, may I be the first to say, "Happy New Year," remembering what G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) said: "The object of the new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul." And as Saint Charles Borromeo (1538-1584) said, "If you wish to make any progress in the service of God we must begin every day of our life with new ardor." Let us begin each day anew then, with ardor and strength to carry on according to God's holy will. By the grace of God we go.

Our voices this month all have something to say about the path to holiness. As we respond to the universal call to holiness, for, after all, as Pope Benedict XVI (1927-2022) reminds us, "We are all called to holiness: it is the very nature of Christian living," and thereby want to achieve holiness, may all that we do and say every day this month, and every day all year round, be with the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Have no fear; do not be afraid to be a saint!

When Saint Scholastica asked her brother Saint Benedict what was needed to achieve holiness, she received this reply: "You must want to."

(Saint Maximilian Kolbe, 1894-1941)

God does not command the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ to be preached with the noise of arms and with pillage. What He rather commands is the example of a good life and holy teaching.

(Saint Rogue Gonzalez, 1576-1628)

All the science of the Saints is included in these two things: To do, and to suffer. And whoever has done these two things best, has made himself most saintly.

(Saint Francis de Sales, 1577-1622)

It fills me with joy to realize that I can lay down my life daily for God, that I can sacrifice it willingly for Him. I may not be a martyr for the faith, but I can be a martyr of charity.

(Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne, 1769-1852)

[Charity] drives us on to love ourselves and our neighbor, to glorify God in time and in eternity, on earth, in purgatory, and in heaven. It lets us grow into the immensity of the heart of God ...

(Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, 1877-1964)

Lord, I am here. Tell me what you would have me to do. If He gives me some task, I am content and I thank Him. If He gives me nothing, I still thank Him.

(Saint Catherine Laboure, 1806-1876)

Tbere is no saint without a past, and no sinner without a future.

(Saint Augustine of Hippo, 354-430)

Let Mary's soul be in each of you to proclaim the greatness of the Lord. Let her spirit be in each of you to rejoice in the Lord. Christ has only one mother in the flesh, but we all bring forth Christ.

(Saint Ambrose of Milan, 339-397)

The good God is free to make us pass better than we are. And we have to accept that like all the rest. If He exposes our weaknesses, or if He shows off our virtues, so what? Nothing is changed! All that is necessary is that we love God truly.

(Guy Oury, OSB, in Dom Gabriel Sortais: An Amazing Abbot in Turbulent Times)

Why is it that any time we speak of temptation we always think of temptation as something that inclines us to wrong. We have more temptations to be good than we do to become bad.

(Venerable Fulton J. Sheen, 1895-1979)

The saints live not after the fashion of the world ... The dignity of the saints is so great because they are not of this world, but "of the household of God."

(Saint Thomas Aquinas, 1225-1274)

The saints in each generation, joined to those who have gone before and filled like them with light, become a golden chain, in which each saint is a separate link, united to the next by faith, works and love.

(Saint Simeon the New Theologian, 940-1022)

Filled with light, and united in faith, good works, and love, we are not afraid to be saints and become links in the golden chain. All the saints, angels, and the countless others who have gone before us, please pray for us. Cheer us on to join you at the heavenly banquet. And we are encouraged by our Doctor Mellifuus, Last of the Fathers, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153):

The saints want us to be with them, and we are indifferent, The souls of the just await us, and we ignore them ... We should not only want to be with the saints, we should also hope to possess their happiness.

SAINT MARTIN DE PORRES,

SAINT WINIFRIDE,

SAINT MALACHY,

BLESSED JOHN BODY,

BLESSED RUPERT MAYER,

SAINT CHARLES BORROMEO,

BLESSED FRANCES D'AMBOISE,

ALL THE SAINTS OF IRELAND,

ALL SAINTS OF AFRICA,

SAINT ILLTUD OR ILLTYD,

SAINT NUNO ALVARES PEREIRA,

SAINT JEAN-THEONARD VENARD,

SAINT WILLIBRORD,

BLESSED FRANCES PALAU Y QUER,

SAINT PETER OU,

ALL SAINTS OF WALES,

BLESSED JOHN DUNS SCOTUS "MASTER OF THOUGHT AND LIFE,"

BLESSED GEORGE NAPIER,

SAINT ELIZABETH OF THE TRINITY,

POPE SAINT LEO THE GREAT,

SAINT MARTIN OF TOURS,

SAINT JOSEPHAT, BISHOP, MARTYR,

MOTHER SAINT FRANCES XAVIER CABRINI,

SAINT MACHAR,

BLESSED MARIA TERESA SCRILLI,

SAINT DYFRIG OR DUBRIC OR DUBRICIUS,

SAINT LAURENC O'TOOLE,

THE BEATIFIED MARTYRS OF CLIFTON DIOCESE,

THE READING MARTYRS,

SAINT JOSEPH PIGNATELLI,

ALL CARMELITE SAINTS,

POPE SAINT LEO THE GREAT,

SAINT MARGARET OF SCOTLAND,

SAINT GERTRUDE THE GREAT OF HELFTA,

SAINT EDMUND OF ABINGDON,

OUR LADY GATE OF THE DAWN,

ALL CARMELITE SOULS,

SAINT ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY,

SAINT HILDA,

SAINT HUGH OF LINCOLN,

SAINT DIONYSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA, BISHOP,

SAINT ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY,

SAINT PETER AND PAUL,

SAINT ROSE PHILIPPINE DUCHESNE,

SAINT ROQUE GONZALEZ AND HIS COMPANIONS,

SAINT RAPHAEL KALINOWSKI,

SAINT RAFAEL KALINOWSKI,

SAINT EDMUND,

SAINT BERNWARD,

SAINT CECILIA, VIRGIN, MARTYR,

POPE SAINT CLEMENT I,

SAINT COLUMBANUS, ABBOT,

BLESSED MIGUEL AGUSTIN PRO,

SAINT ANDREW DUNG-LAC AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTRYS,

SAINT CATHERINE ALEXANDRIA,

BLESSED NIELS STENSEN,

SAINT COLMAN OF CLOYNE,

SAINT LEONARD OF PORTO MAURIZIO,

SAINT JOHN BERCHMANS,

SAINT FERGAL,

OUR LADY OF THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL,

SAINT CATHERINE LABOURE,

BLESSED BERNARD FRANCIS DE HOYOS,

ALL THE SAINTS OF THE FRANCISCAN, OR SERAPHIC, ORDER,

BLESSED DENIS AND REDEMPTUS,

SAINT ANDREW THE APOSTLE,

SAINT CUTHBERT MAYNE,

PRAY FOR US.

This month's photo: Think of what is above, not of what is on earth (Colossians 3:2).

© Gertrude Feick, 2025

The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed

All Souls' Day

Saint Victorinus, Bishop, Martyr (303); Saint Marcian (c. 387); Saint Winifred, Martyr (c. 650); Saint Malachy, Bishop (1094-1148); Bd Thomas of Walden (c. 1375-1430); Bd Margaret of Lorraine (1521); Bd John Bodey, Martyr (1549-83); Bd Pius Campidelli (1868-89)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 26 Unauthorized Association with the Excommunicated

Mass: Wisdom 3:1-9; Resp Ps 23; Rm 5:5-11 or Rm 6:3-9; Jn 6:37-40

The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

HEART OF JESUS, HOPE OF THOSE WHO DIE IN THEE,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

I checked last year's lectio post for today and as I thought, last year, like today, I had a tune in my head of a little ditty "we" sang as children: Pray for the dead and the dead will pray for you. As we commemorate all the faithful departed, the simple song, as it did last year, makes more sense in light of today's "Prayer for the Morning" in Magnificat: "The commemoration of All Souls is rooted in the Church's strong conviction that we, the living, have a serious responsibility in charity to pray for those who have died but who must yet complete the purification every human being needs to be able to enjoy the vision of God." And from the Second Book of Maccabees: "For if he [Judas Maccabeus] were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin" (2 Mc 12:44-45). We pray for the dead, then, and keep them in our heart and mind throughout this day and throughout the entire month, for "contemplation of the lives of those who have followed Christ encourages us to lead a good, upright Christian life so that we can prepare ourselves each day for eternal life" (Pope Saint John Paul (II). Pray for the dead and the dead will pray for you.

Not even the night of death shall prevail against this day of new life: instead it shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not swallow it up.

(Bernard of Clairvaux)

God is a God of the living. With confidence, we pray:

Raise them up, O Lord!

For all the dead whom we have loved in life.

For all the dead among those who have harmed us.

For all the dead whom no one remembers in prayer.

(Magnificat, Intercessions, November 2, 2020)

A culture that forgets death begins to die within. He who forgets death has already begun to die...Remember, if death is not to have the last word, it is because in life we have learned to die for one another.

(Pope Francis, Video Message, 4th World Meeting of Young People, Mexico City, October 31, 2019)

NB. During this month of November, you will see at the top of each post a list of saints for the day found in the November volume of Butler's Lives of the Saints. We pray to them and ask them to help us as we respond to the universal call to holiness. 

© Gertrude Feick 2020

The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls' Day)

First Saturday of the Month

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 26 Unauthorized Association with the Excommunicated
Mass: Wis 3:1-9; Resp Ps 23; Rm 5:5-11 or Rm 6:3-9; Jn 6:37-40

Though I walk in the valley of darkness, I fear no evil, for you are with me.

The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls' Day); First Friday of the Month

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 26 Unauthorized Association with the Excommunicated
Mass: Ws 3:1-9; Resp Ps 23; Rm 5:5-11 or Rm 6:3-9; Jn 6:37-40

This is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.