One of Two Days in the Year Where Priests are Encouraged to Offer 3 Masses

There are two days of the year when the Holy Church encourages priests to offer three Masses.  Christmas Day there are three different liturgies.  In my religious community we usually offer all three: Mass at Midnight to commemorate his birth, Mass at Dawn to commemorate the adoration of the shepherds, and Mass of the Day to commemorate the joy of the angels.

The other day is today, the Feast of All Souls.  If you look in the Sacramentary, the book the priest prays Mass from on the altar, you would find three different liturgies for three different intentions:

1.  The intention of the priest himself
2.  For all the faithful departed
3.  For the intentions of the Holy Father

I offered two of these masses privately in a row.  As always, they were very sanctifying and inspiring hopefully to set my heart on the right course this month to be constantly praying for the holy souls.

During one of the Masses I felt a great deal of gratitude from the souls of those I had helped reach the final destination of heaven.  It is a great privilege for a priest to be able to offer a dying person, the apostolic pardon, where he offers that person a plenary indulgence and the blessing of the Holy Father to cleanse them of any remaining temporal punishment due to sin.  This gift is especially joyful when a person has been far away from God and his great mercy is exercised in not only reconciling them to himself, but removing any remaining obstacle in this life or in the next.  A soul that reaches its final reward has a special bond of charity to the person who helped them get there.  When we pray and offer Masses for the dead, do you not think they would like to return the favor by helping us reach heaven with them?