All Souls’ Day in the time of pandemic.
Every year without fail, corporate consultant Juris Umali-Soliman, 68, travels before sunrise to San Jose in Batangas at least a day before All Saints’ Day to visit the graves of her brother, grandparents and relatives at the town cemetery.
She was six years old when her father Felicisimo first brought her to his hometown, which took them two hours by bus from Manila.
After lighting the candles and placing potted flowering plants on each tomb, she spends the entire morning praying for her deceased family members, silently, or saying the rosary.
This yearly tradition would later see her and her two children praying before her parents’ tombs at the Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque City.
Over the years, she had brought her own grandchildren, including now six-year-old Alfonso, to these holy grounds.
By her lonesome in most visits, Umali-Soliman cries her heart out after praying, especially to her parents whom she shares “what had happened” to her life, telling them of both her joys and pains or how she misses them, and then asks them for their guidance and prayers as well.
While the cemeteries, memorial parks and columbaria are closed from October 29 to November 4 this year due to Covid-19 pandemic, it will not hinder Umali-Soliman and millions of Filipino Catholics from doing what they have been accustomed and obliged to do to honor the dead on All Souls’ Day: Pray.
Praying for the deceased family members is a vibrant expression of faith and commitment of Catholics as the Catholic church itself prays for all the souls, particularly those in the purgatory, during the celebration of the Mass.
The church honors the memory of the dead with constant prayer, something aligned to what Pope Francis said in his last catechesis on the prayer of the Psalms during his general audience on October 21 at the Vatican: “Prayer is the center of life.”
Praying for and to the dead
“The Church teaches us that our fundamental role with regard to the deceased is to pray for them and to them,” said Fr. Jerome R. Secillano, executive secretary of the Permanent Committee on Public Affairs of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
He said praying for the dead means that “we invoke God’s mercy to grant eternal rest to our loved ones.”
Praying to them is to “ask for their help and intercession as we continue to struggle with our life here on earth.”
While All Souls’ Day (November 2) is not a “holy day of obligation,” Secillano said “it is still most fitting and essential that we hear Mass and offer intentions for our loved ones as a way of expressing our love and dutiful remembrance of them.”
He said offering Masses for the dead is non-negotiable.
“It is the most important thing one can do for those who have passed on to the next life,” he added.
Secillano said that visiting the cemeteries, bringing flowers, and lighting candles satisfy the living more than the dead.
“They are for sure acts that honor the dead, but we basically do them to satisfy our longing for our loved ones, and perhaps to compensate for our failures to honor and love them more when they were still alive,” he explained.
Why pray unceasingly?
The Catholic church prays for everyone, both the faithful and those who do not believe, according to Fr. David T. Concepcion, parish priest of the Sta. Maria Goretti Parish in Paco, Manila.
“One of the characteristics of the Catholic Church is it is a church on a mission, a church who prays,” he said.
While prayers cannot bring souls already in hell to heaven, he said Catholics must continue praying for all the souls still in the purgatory.
In the parish Facebook page where he answered the question “Hanggang kailan mo gustong ipagdasal kita? [Until when would you like me to pray for you?] on October 10, Concepcion said we always pray for the dead based on our belief in the three states of the Church.
“The Church triumphant are the souls who are in heaven, the Church suffering are the souls undergoing purification in purgatory, and the Church militant are we who are still alive and fighting against sin,” he said.
He said there is “another world where life doesn’t end in death,” but we are not sure where the immortal souls would end up, whether in heaven or purgatory.
“How do we know kung nakatawid ka na [if you have reached the gate of Heaven]. It is good for you to pray for us kung ikaw ay nakaahon na [if you were able to get out of the purgatory],” he said.
Concepcion said that Catholics should continue praying for their dead, but they must be specific on who they are praying for.
Mass intentions, rosary
Catholics offer Mass intentions and pray the rosary for their departed loved ones on All Souls’ Day or within November, the month of the holy souls.
Those who cannot visit the cemeteries offer their prayer intentions through online Masses or web sites, such as undasonline.com, where visitors can even virtually light a candle or visit the graves at the Manila North Cemetery. The web site is also updated with prayers for the dead, liturgical features, and pastoral statements.
Far from their traditional family reunion at the cemetery, sales professional Martin R. Copon IV and his family will still visit their dead at the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina City before the cemetery gates are shut.
“We have to be there early due to the limited number of visitors allowed at a time, but we also included prayers for the dead in online Masses aside from our own daily prayers,” Copon said.
Besides offering Mass intentions, former Makati barangay administrator Lilian G. Magno will also light candles and place flowers on the family altar while praying to the dead, a way for her to still “talk to them spiritually.”
“Maybe I will also ask them how they can help for the pandemic to go away,” Magno said.
Online content specialist Dolly L. Villanueva usually offers Masses before the end of October up to the middle of November. She also attends Masses to reflect about life after death or talks on the subject matter if these are available.
“This is my way of anticipating that I will be reunited with my loved ones someday,” she said
Like in the previous years, Villanueva and her sister visit their parents in Holy Cross Cemetery in Quezon City and their brother in Forest Park in Caloocan City on lean days to avoid the heavy traffic.
Lawyer Josefina P. Paz has accepted that she and her family will not be able to visit the graves of her parents on November 1 and her maternal grandparents and aunt in Bulacan on November 2 due to the closure of the cemeteries.
“My family and I will pray and offer Masses starting October 29 up to the whole month of November,” Paz said.
She also proposes that after the restricted dates, the government may assign visitors on specific days, which could be based on their surnames or their number of family members, to avoid big crowds or heavy traffic.
St. Therese Columbarium, located at the Shrine of St. Therese of the Child Jesus in Villamor, Pasay City, for instance, limits its visitors based on their clients’ surnames. Those with surnames starting from A-J and K-Z are scheduled on separate days and can only visit between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Praying the rosary and lighting a candle outdoors, said food entrepreneur Gabriel C. Villadelgado, will continue their traditional family gathering to honor their dead “as long as there is no vaccine for the virus yet.”
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Article and Photo originally posted by Business Mirror last October 25, 2020 and written by Edwin Galvez.
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