During the month of November we commemorate those who have died. In the 11th century, the Abbot of Cluny decreed that his monks should offer Masses for the dead and the practice soon spread to other Benedictine monasteries. By the 13th century, the practice was evident in Rome. In the fifteenth century, the Dominicans encouraged the practice of offering three Masses for the Dead. During World War I, when so many soldiers had died and so many churches had been destroyed, Pope Benedict XV extended this privilege universally to all priests.
Even with the reform of the Liturgical Calendar in 1969, the Church maintained November 2 as the day when we pray for all those who have died, particularly for those who may be temporarily in purgatory, in reparation for their sins. Our Mass texts reflect our pleas to God for his infinite mercy as well as our certain hope in the Resurrection.
Sacred Heart has always displayed a Book of the Dead that includes the names of those friends and family of our own parishioners who have died in the past year. Please pray for the repose of the souls of these and all the faithful departed: