Plenary indulgences may usually be gained only once a day and for each one must receive confession and communion and be detatched from their sins. Well, for the first 9 days of November, the month of the Holy Souls, one may attain an indulgence each day for the poor souls in Purgatory if one visits a cemetery and prays for the dead.
My sister, brother, and I were endeavouring to save as many souls as possible and had visited cemeteries for the first six days consecutively. At around 9pm on a school night, we realized "oh no! we didn't visit the cemetery today!" Lucky for us, a mile down the road is a little Mennonite church, behind which is a little Mennonite cemetery. We hopped into the 93 Oldsmobile and coasted down to the church, our teeth chattering since it usually takes about 10 minutes for the heat to get warm in that car.
Upon our arrival, we parked in the deserted parking lot and set off into the blackness behind the church. (CHRUNCH!) (CRRRRAACK!) the dried leaves and twigs beneath our feet. We tried to walk quietly, but we couldn't see a darned thing. "What if somebody seeeeees us?!?" came a harsh whisper. "They won't. It's too dark" I reassured her. "Yeah...it's so dark that if there was a murderer out here we wouldn't see him until it was too late...or a snake or something." "Oh NO!" "Stop it you two!" I whispered hoarsely, feeling goosebumps crawling up my neck.
There they were. The tombstones. We knelt (for we are very pius young Catholics) in the moist ground and commenced our Paters and Aves and Glorias in hushed voices. We stood to finish our prayers (because our knees were wet) when the whole world lit up. A frantic "hit the ground! from my brother and we were down on all fours. It was only a neighbor turning on his backyard flood light to ignite his grill (Who does that at 9pm!?!), but we felt the need for secrecy and slunk out of there double quick and doubled over.
All for the holy souls.
