November: Prayer for the Dead
November is the month the Church prayerfully remembers the souls in purgatory.
Purgatory is "a state of final purification after death and before entrance into heaven." By our prayers, we support and help them to achieve our final goal -- union with God. So it is an act of love to pray for those who have gone before us. Those in purgatory join those on earth and those in heaven in the communion of saints. This communion forms one loving unity in Christ.
Pray for the dead and teach someone the prayer for the dead:
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.
And let perpetual light shine on them. Amen.
May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
In the communion of saints, the teaching on the sharing of spiritual gifts is in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
1475 In the communion of saints, "a perennial link of charity exists between the faithful who have already reached their heavenly home, those who are expiating their sins in purgatory and those who are still pilgrims on earth. Between them there is, too, an abundant exchange of all good things." In this wonderful exchange, the holiness of one profits others, well beyond the harm that the sin of one could cause others. Thus recourse to the communion of saints lets the contrite sinner be more promptly and efficaciously purified of the punishments for sin.
1476 We also call these spiritual goods of the communion of saints the Church's treasury, which is "not the sum total of the material goods which have accumulated during the course of the centuries. On the contrary the 'treasury of the Church' is the infinite value, which can never be exhausted, which Christ's merits have before God. They were offered so that the whole of mankind could be set free from sin and attain communion with the Father. In Christ, the Redeemer himself, the satisfactions and merits of his Redemption exist and find their efficacy."
1477 "This treasury includes as well the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They are truly immense, unfathomable, and even pristine in their value before God. In the treasury, too, are the prayers and good works of all the saints, all those who have followed in the footsteps of Christ the Lord and by his grace have made their lives holy and carried out the mission the Father entrusted to them. In this way they attained their own salvation and at the same time cooperated in saving their brothers in the unity of the Mystical Body." 
English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for the United States of America copyright © 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.-Libreria Editrice Vaticana. English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Modifications from the Editio Typica copyright © 1997, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.-Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
