As I was thinking about All Saints Day today, I was also thinking about All Souls Day tomorrow. Thinking about those souls, I pray for them every day and in a slightly more intense way on All Souls Day.
Unfortunately, I tend to think about the more abstract dimensions of this. We don’t understand how time works in Purgatory and what duration means in this regard. Added to this fact is that our prayers are present and efficacious regardless of whether the soul we are praying for is now currently present in the beatific vision or in the state of purgatory. God applies them to the moment that is needed. I think of the later Doctor Who phrase when the understanding of time goes all “Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey.”
Mostly in this regard, I am thinking about my late wife and that on All Saints Day, I think of her as one of their numbers. While at the same time, I still totally pray for the repose of her soul. It is kind of a Schrödinger’s cat situation, and the only way for me to collapse the waveform to know her current state is for me to die. This is heady and confusing stuff, but the simplification is my trust in God and her sanctity. So I am fine with both and seeing her as a saint in Heaven and needing my prayers at the same time. I’ll let God handle those details.
