I’ll never forget my maternal grandfather telling me this boyhood recollection of his Catholic upbringing in New Orleans. It seems that the good Sisters who taught him in grammar school imposed upon the children a vivid awareness of the Holy Souls in Purgatory, and the communion that exists between the militant Church and the suffering Church. They taught their young charges a little ditty that was set, appropriately enough, to the melody of Chopin’s “Funeral March” (from the Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35). If you know the tune, sing these words to the main theme: “Pray for the dead and the dead will pray for you!” Haunting, isn’t it. You won’t get it out of your head. I haven’t for almost four decades.

the dead do pray for us