Plenary indulgence on All Saint’s day

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anneramones

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I might be putting this in the wrong category, sorry. Yesterday I wanted to obtain a plenary indulgence for the souls of Purgatory. It’s my first time trying, I’ve read that you must go to confession, take the Eucharist and visit a church(or cemetery) and say an Our Father and Creed. So yesterday I went to Mass, went to confession and took the Eucharist. Since we say the Our Father and the Creed during Mass I didn’t know if this was sufficient for the indulgence so I said another Our Father and Creed before Mass started and told the Lord my intention was to offer up them for the souls in Purgatory. After Communion I also said to the Lord that my Communion was for the souls of Purgatory, and I said him for all of them, for the souls that have other people that pray for them on Earth and for those who are abandoned, for the souls that are in Purgatory for the longest time and for the ones that have just entered it, for my grandparents and my teacher who passed away recently if they are in Purgatory and named them. Now…did I do it right? Also, I’ve read that the fact you do this procedure doesn’t mean you will obtain the plenary indulgence,it’s still up to God, so I prayed to Our Lady asking her to intercede for my intentions and said an Hail Mary.
Did I do it right? Somewhere I’ve read you can obtain only one indulgence, so maybe I prayed for too many people ? Please illuminate me on this matter, thank you.
 
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It’s great that you want to obtain a plenary indulgence for the Souls in Purgatory. Everything you did was fine, however, it sounds like you were trying to get the indulgence by visiting a church. That indulgence is for All Souls Day (Nov 2), not All Saints’ Day (Nov 1), unless your local bishop has specifically stated he moved the indulgence for visiting a church to All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1).

Also, if you want a plenary, then in addition to doing the things you listed, you need to pray (out loud) for the Intentions of the Holy Father. Most people where I live just say an Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be, and state that it’s “for the intentions of the Holy Father.”

I’m posting here the rules for the indulgences for the Poor Souls that people can get on Nov 1 through Nov 8. You can get the one for praying in a cemetery once a day on all the 8 days, but you would have to receive a separate Communion and say a separate set of prayers for the Holy Father’s intentions for each day you get the indulgence. You can only get the one for visiting a church on Nov 2, All Souls Day (unless your bishop announced it was moving to Nov 1 or to the Sunday before or after).

 
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I’ve read on catholic sites that the indulgence that you can receive on Nov 2 can be received from Nov 1 starting at 1 pm to Nov 2 , this is why I did the indulgence process yesterday. Was it basically vain then?
 
I struggle with all of this. It seems like way too many boxes have to be checked or God won’t act. That’s how it comes across to me. Surely I can just pray to God any time for the Holy Souls.
 
anneramones said:
I’ve read on catholic sites that the indulgence that you can receive on Nov 2 can be received from Nov 1 starting at 1 pm to Nov 2 , this is why I did the indulgence process yesterday. Was it basically vain then?
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If you went after noon then that’s fine. Any indulgence involving a visit to a church or oratory can be done from noon of the preceding day until midnight of the specified day, according to Note 14 in the current Manual of Indulgences. So if the indulgence is for Nov 2 then you could visit the church between noon on Nov 1 and midnight on Nov 2.

And, as the other person said, prayers done in good faith and with sincerity are never vain. Let’s not forget that indulgences are granted by the Church, who sets the conditions. God may well choose to add more generous help of his own in any particular case, so even if you don’t check off all the boxes for the Church, God knows your heart and acts accordingly.
 
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halogirl said:
I struggle with all of this. It seems like way too many boxes have to be checked or God won’t act. That’s how it comes across to me. Surely I can just pray to God any time for the Holy Souls.
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As I said above, indulgences are granted by the Church. God doesn’t set the conditions, and God isn’t constrained by the conditions of an indulgence.

You certainly can just pray for the Holy Souls and many people choose to do that rather than engage in indulgence practice. God will hear your prayers regardless of whether you’re fulfilling the conditions for Indulgence 29(1) or whatever.

Indulgence practice is sort of like earning merit badges in Scouting programs; you check off all the requirements and get a badge. Some people respond really well to that sort of program and it helps them develop good skills and habits, and other people just hate the whole idea and would rather just go on a hike without needing to worry about fulfilling requirements on a list. Nowadays the buzzword for this sort of thing is “gamification”. Indulgence practice is to an extent spiritual gamification.
 
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were indulgences practiced in early church? Since the death of Jesus? cause I know that the practice started to get money,or maybe was started with good intentions but was distorted and it was a big point in the Protestant Reformation…
 
Yes, they were practiced in the early Church, but with a different focus/ for different reasons than we do them today.

In the early Church, if you sinned, you often got a really severe penance. People would have to perform many days of extreme mortifications, or make long journeys to someplace like the Holy Land. Indulgences could substitute for some of this; like instead of having to perform some severe physical penance for 100 days, you could instead do some prayers that provided “100 days indulgence”.

Over time, indulgences got commercialized, which led to the Reformation as we all know.

Then when indulgences were reformed and re-introduced, the concept of the severe physical penances lasting X days had gone away, so people wrongly thought “100 days indulgence” meant “100 days off your purgatory time”. So now we just have “partial” and “plenary” rather than numbers of days.

Nowadays most people who get indulgences are trying to help their loved ones or other souls in Purgatory, the same way as they might have a Mass said for a person who died.
 
Somebody was saying on Fr Heilman’s page when he posted his annual method of how to get indulgences for the holy souls and build your own holy alliance of saints to pray with you, that they really liked how Father always gives strategies with step-by-step plans for doing this stuff instead of saying “just pray”. Some people really like the idea of having a plan to follow, like a diet plan, or a “how to get organized” plan, or any other type of self-help plan.
 
A couple of points that may seem nitpicky but are important:
  • We receive communion, never take. (I realize there could be a language thing here, but it’s an important distinction.)
  • The bottom line is always about what’s in your heart - your intentions. You can follow the steps of an indulgence or other practice precisely right and it will merit nothing spiritually if your heart isn’t in it. You do need to follow the requirements of the indulgence to receive one, but you needn’t make it overly complex beyond what’s stated, and if you honestly make a simple mistake, there’s still wonderful merits to your attempt.
 
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