“I didn’t want to come before November 3, because I felt I was abandoning my husband there. With these words, Marie Augustine recalls her visit to the shrine at Montligeon. Every year in November, she travels there to pray for those who have left, with her rosary, her companion.
A pilgrimage for the departed
Coming with her daughter Albertine, she answered the call of the sanctuary, which begins on November1. But leaving her family was not an easy step.
“My boys said to me, ‘We’ll go, and you go and pray with Albertine.” With the support of her family, her approach was even stronger.
During her stay, she did not only attend church services. She also likes to pray alone, on her walks. “I take my rosary, my companion, and walk around until I’ve done a full rosary.” This active prayer keeps her going. She would then return for Mass and other liturgical moments.
A prayer that rises to Heaven
Since childhood, Marie Augustine has felt naturally encline to pray for the dead in November. “I don’t know why, but it’s always like that. She feels that this particular month bears some specific grace.
“I feel that in November, prayers reach Heaven faster.” All Saints Day for her is not just a tradition. It is a material reality. Her insight is that the link with the deceased is stronger, that God is closer.
Even if she doesn’t feel that her prayer is heard any faster, she feels a kind of inner consolation. “I’m not going to say it like that, but in my culture, we don’t often go to the cemetery. Except at the end of October and November. There, we visit them, talk to them a bit. And that’s it.” For her, this simple gesture takes on an incarnate spiritual dimension.
Rooted prayer
Praying for the dead is something very real and concrete for Marie Augustine. It is a deeply rooted habit, passed down from childhood. It is also a way of keeping alive the bond with those she loves.
“I can’t just sit here and do nothing.” Walking, praying, reciting her rosary it’s all part of the same offering movement. She doesn’t theorize. She lives it. And it is this discreet fidelity that makes her testimony so powerful.
In Montligeon, she has found a place supportive of such prayer. “I attend the various services, then go into the basilica to pray. The sanctuary has become an extension of her inner home.
In November, the whole Church turns to the dead. Marie Augustine’s testimony reminds us that praying for the deceased is not the duty of good Christians but a work of charity carried out by those with simple hearts.
Joining in prayer for those who have departed
You too can pray for the souls in Purgatory. Every day at Montligeon, a Mass is celebrated for the deceased entrusted to the Fraternity.
