In this episode, I cover how to build an Army of Saints praying for your family and building up your Domestic Monastery during the Octave of All Saints.

Here are all the topics we will cover and here's ⁠the article if you would rather read this, plus all the prayers⁠:

1. What is the “Octave” of All Saints?
2. What’s a Plenary Indulgence?
3. How Do I Gain Multiple Plenary Indulgences During the Octave of All Saints?
4. Who Do These Plenary Indulgences Go To? How Do I Build a Prayer Army of Saints for My Family? The Multiplier Effect
5. What are the Regular Conditions for Receiving a Plenary Indulgence?
6. What is the Prayer of St. Gertrude to Release 1,000 Souls from Purgatory?
7. Where is Purgatory in the Bible?

St. Gertrude the Great was an amazing Benedictine nun of the 13th century. Like St. Teresa of Avila, she was espoused to Jesus. Pious tradition holds that Jesus promised St. Gertrude that a thousand souls would be released from purgatory each time the following prayer is said devoutly:

Eternal Father, I offer You the Most Precious Blood of Your Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.

Jesus did not attach any particular conditions or requirements to the recitation of this prayer. The mercy shown to sinners in response to this intercessory prayer is just a direct gift from God.

Dads establish the idea of home for their kids. Dads, get home to your kids, wherever home may be. I’ve tailored my life to work from home, so to be with my kids more, to establish a domestic monastery. This gives more opportunities for direct parenting and praying and going to Church together

The connection between fatherhood, the idea of home, and homelessness or rootlessness -- from Peter Kwasniewski’s new book, Treasuring the Goods of Marriage in a Throwaway Society, Chapter 5, "Fatherhood and the Being of the Home".

Rule of St. Benedict, Prologue:

Whence the Lord also says in the Gospel: “He who hears these My words and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon a rock. There came torrents of rain and rushing winds, and they struck upon that house, but it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.” As a consequence our Lord daily looks for it that we should respond by deeds to these His holy warnings. Thus it is on account of the need of correcting faults that the days of this life are prolonged for us, as by way of truce; and the Apostle says: “Art thou ignorant that the patience of God leads thee towards penitence?” For the Lord in His tenderness says: “I will not the death of a sinner, but that he may be converted and live.”

Just shared the new podcast on my blog -- read the article here.

Hilaire Belloc, letter of sympathy to Evan Charteris, whose father had just died:

Now what has come upon you is as hard a thing as any man can have to bear. The inanimate friends, which are the truest and which never betray, the walls and scents of home, when we lose these we lose, as it were, ourselves. It is a sharp foretaste of death ... To lose one's home, Evan, is to lose one's bones and one's skin. I know it. To lose unique and mutual affection is almost (in a mad metaphor) to lose one's soul.

Additional quotes from French Catholic Philosopher, Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973)

Today I wanted to talk to you about “not losing your cool”. It can be hard to get in the zone for prayer life and dad life.

Josh Waitzken, whose childhood biography is depicted in Searching for Bobby Fisher, reverse-engineering getting into the zone in his book, The Art of Learning [link to purchase]. Waitzken used techniques like this to become both a Chess Grand-Master and a world champion Tai Chi master.

I've adapted his technique and made it Catholic. Check it out. Learn how to "Build Your Trigger". By the way, this is not a kind of centering prayer - learn also about the problems with centering prayer in this episode, too.

Read more from Scott at www.thescottsmithblog.com.

How to incorporate praying the Rosary into your family's prayer life and how to use it to teach reverence in prayer and reverent prayer postures.

Rule of St. Benedict (Purchase a copy), CHAPTER XX: CONCERNING REVERENCE IN PRAYER

If when we wish to seek any favour from men of influence we presume not to do so except with humility and reverence, how much more must supplication be made with all humility and purity of devotion to the Lord God of all? And let us bear in mind that it is not in much speaking that we are graciously heard but in purity of heart and tears of penitence. And so our prayer should be pure and short, unless haply it be prolonged as a result of the infusion of divine grace. In any case however let prayer in common be made short and at a signal from the superior let all keep time together in rising to a standing position.

Read more from Scott at Pray the Day with your family (includes Catholic prayer infographics).