Our Prayer Table

I had seen this project over at Charlotte's blog last year and had wanted to do this with our family.  With Rose nearing her First Holy Communion and the Church praying for the Holy Souls Purgatory' I knew that it would be a great teaching moment.  So we prayed, talked and made a pretty place to remember our dearly departed.

I printed out my children's patron saints (this could have been a HUGE list, but I kept it small with adding just one each of their many friends).  I also added a photo for the many babies aborted or lost through miscarriages.  ♥ Our own little saint is here, as we remembered our own miscarriage of last year ♥.

Lucy took control of the poster and the younger kids helped set up the table.

We also got our pan de muertos from our favorite panderia. We enjoyed it with some hot chocolate, after we payed a visit to the gravesites of our departed family members.

1030 All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

1031 The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.606 The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire:607

As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.608

1032 This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: "Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin."609 From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God.610 The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead:

Let us help and commemorate them. If Job's sons were purified by their father's sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them.611

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church