How To Make Soul Cakes
Today we celebrate the feast of…. All Souls Day.
A-Souling
In medieval England, the little children and the poor went “a-souling” on All Souls Day. They would go door to door and beg for Soul Cakes. If you received a Soul Cake, you were to pray for departed souls as a way to help decrease any suffering caused by the purification process.
“Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become manifest; for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.”
1 Corinthians 3:12-15
A Commemoration of the Faithful Departed
The feast of All Souls Day commemorates the souls of the faithful departed. Baptized Christians that die with the guilt of sin upon their soul go through a cleaning process that Catholics call Purgatory. Catholics pray for the faithful departed and ask God to make them fit for the beatific vision of Heaven.
but nothing unclean will enter it, nor any one who does abominable things or tells lies. Only those will enter whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Revelations 21:27
Because souls in Purgatory cannot pray for themselves, the faithful on Earth will pray for them. When the souls of the faithful departed reach Heaven, they in turn will pray for us. Therefore, Catholics dedicate this day to prayer and remembrance. We hold Masses for our deceased loved ones on All Souls Day and many of us will visit and decorate the graves of our dearly departed loved ones.
Prayer for the Faithful Departed
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.
And let the perpetual light shine upon them.
May the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God,
rest in peace. Amen.
How To Make Soul Cakes
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