MANILA, Philippines – For those who can’t visit the cemetery on Friday, November 1, or those who want aid in prayer, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) offers a website that sets the mood for Undas.

The CBCP Media Office recently relaunched www.undasonline.com, a site that contains prayers, readings, videos, and podcasts on Undas, a Filipino and Catholic custom to honor dead relatives and friends.

The website also accepts prayer requests for the dead. One simply needs to fill out a form on the website or e-mail a request to undasonline@yahoo.com. The CBCP promises to include the prayer intentions in its 11:30 am Masses from November 1 to 8.

“Itong ating undasonline.com ay talagang inaalay po namin sa inyong lahat, para kahit papa’no, in the privacy of your room, kung ikaw ay nagtratrabaho sa Middle East, o ‘di kaya kung ika’y nasa barko, sa privacy ng inyong kinalalagyan, in your cot, ay mag-celebrate po kayo ng Undas,” CBCP Media Office director Msgr Pedro Quitorio III said in one of the podcasts.

(We are offering undasonline.com to all of you, so that in any case, in the privacy of your room, if you’re working in the Middle East or aboard a ship, in the privacy of your room, in your cot, you can celebrate Undas.)

On the site’s “About Us” page, the CBCP Media Office said it conceptualized the project with the following persons in mind: 

• “Filipinos who are homebound and have no way of visiting the cemeteries;

• “Filipinos who are far from their loved ones, such as those in other countries; and

• “Filipinos who are seafarers”

The site has been up since as early as 2011, and is revived each year in time for Undas.

Two important events

The Catholic Church celebrates All Saints’ Day on November 1 and All Souls’ Day on November 2.

Filipinos mark both events on November 1, a day known as Undas.

In a reflection on undasonline.com, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz said it is important to draw a distinction between the two days.

Cruz noted that All Saints’ Day is properly called the Solemnity of All Saints, while All Souls’ Day is called the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed.

He explained: “The ‘Solemnity of All Saints’ is intended to give recognition not only to those relatively few holy men and women who have been canonized and placed in churches the world over, for veneration by their ‘devotees’ pleading for their intercessions before the Good Lord – but also has respectful reference to those millions of equally holy people enjoying the company of God in the eternal Kingdom although they have not been officially elevated to sainthood.”

Cruz added, “The ‘Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed’ says it all.”

“Let the living remember their dead parents, brothers and sisters, relatives, and friends, and pray for their eternal repose in the eternal Kingdom just like all the saints. Thus it is that 1st November is properly a day for giving respects to the saints, and 2nd November is the rightful day for praying for the dead – lest we forget their need for prayers the whole year round,” he said. – Rappler.com