Electric Prayer

November is traditionally the month of the dead, beginning as it does with All Saints and All Souls. Particular religious orders and particular regions often add to these: All Saints of Ireland, Deceased Clergy of Southern Arabia, Deceased Friends and Benefactors of the Order of Preachers, to give just three examples. November is the right month to assign to these commemorations because it comes at the end of the Church’s year when she contemplates the Last Things, the end of the world, and (at Advent) the Second Coming.

By the same token, November is the month of resurrection: of death as the moment of entry into eternal life. This can feel encouraging; or it can feel quite the opposite. If Judgement consists in God’s telling us, ‘Whatever you have become through your own actions, that is what you are’, then that makes immortality terrifying. We need all the help we can, from God especially, to become something that we can tolerate being: permanently, definitively, for ever.

Resurrection Is Now

Dom Aelred Watkin’s book Resurrection Is Now covers all these themes far better than I could ever hope to, even if I weren’t trying to crush so many complex ideas into a single paragraph. Dom Aelred was Head Master of Downside from 1962 to 1975. He was wise and respected – perhaps especially so by boys whose schooldays seemed to be one long fight against authority, because in all their battles he respected them as people, to be dealt with face to face, and did not look down at them as children.

Dom Aelred wrote little – he preferred to communicate with live people – so Resurrection Is Now is a rare opportunity for us to hear him today. Closely reasoned but at the same time deeply poetic, Resurrection Is Now considers death in all its aspects: death in the natural world, organic and inorganic; death of love; and of course our own death. Everywhere Dom Aelred shows how death is not only an end but a beginning. He builds on this to show us how we can live our lives as a preparation for resurrection.

Resurrection Is Now has long been out of print as a physical book. When we included it in the Daily Books feature in the Universalis apps and programs, many people wrote to us to ask whether it would ever be back in print. We can’t say anything about a physical printed book, but we have now published Resurrection Is Now as an e-book.

This new e-book is available from Amazon and Apple, and you can read about it here.

The Liturgy of the Dead

People sometimes ask us for the liturgy of the dead: either the Divine Office or Mass.

This liturgy is already available in Universalis.

1. In a Universalis app or program, bring up the list of dates. On iPhone/iPad and Android, the leftmost button in the toolbar will do this; on Mac and Windows, look in the Dates menu.
2. In the screen which shows you the dates, there will be a button marked “Special” or “More”. Press that button, and you will be able to select the liturgy of the dead.

Remembrance Cards (iPhone/iPad)

On the iPhone and iPad, you are able to put your own commemorations of deceased friends and family into Universalis, including (if you feel up to it) a short biography and even a picture. The resulting Remembrance Card will then appear in the About Today page on their anniversary. On Saturdays and Sundays you will get advance warning of the week’s commemorations; and you can even get them to show in your device’s main calendar.

You can read all about Remembrance Cards here.

Spoken and sung audio (Android and iPhone/iPad)

Spoken versions of the Mass readings and all the Hours are available on subscription within the Universalis apps for iPhone/iPad and Android. So is an exceptionally beautiful Sung Compline (Night Prayer), which is a single purchase. We have just overhauled the pages which describe all this, with more previews and detailed descriptions. If you haven’t looked recently (or haven’t looked at all) then do have a look now.

Here is the page which tells you all about the spoken and sung material in Universalis.

“All Souls’ Day”

This item is not strictly part of Universalis because it is not devotional. Indeed, it is fiction. But it is fiction with a theological theme; and since it is called “All Souls’ Day” it makes sense to mention it now. “Centuries ago, in a Swiss mountain village, the dead miraculously came to rescue the living. Today one of them is about to do it again…”

This story is part of the collection The Snow Cow, which was published a decade and a half ago. One of our longest-standing supporters reads it every year on November 2. Now you can too. The full story is here.

Thank you all for using Universalis. If you have trouble or questions, or suggestions, do write to us at universalis@universalis.com or use the Contact Us button in one of the apps.

Let us all keep one another in our prayers, as always.