Twelfth Day: Grand Display is of no Value to the Holy Souls
by VP
Posted on Tuesday November 12, 2024 at 01:00AM in Meditations
"In Regard to pompous displays for the departed, St. Augustine says: "Costly funerals and expensive displays may afford the living some consolation, but are of no benefit to the departed." He adds, however: "Let care be bestowed upon funerals and the erection of monuments: for Holy Writ reckons these among good works. Let all perform these last services for their departed, and hereby relieve their own sorrow; but let them show greater zeal, care, and generosity in succoring the souls of the departed, by Masses, prayers and alms, and thus give evidence not only of a temporal, but also a spiritual love for those who are departed in body only, but not in spirit. According to a rule of the Church, flowers should be used at funerals of children only; circumstances may at times justify a deviation from this rule, but, at all events, it is unpardonable if the expense connected with this display deprives the soul departed of any spiritual assistance."
Prayer: We beseech Thee, O Lord, by Thy infinite mercy, do not despise our prayers in behalf of the souls in Purgatory, but grant them the peace and consolation we desire for them. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Prayer for Priests in Purgatory: My Jesus, by the sorrows Thou didst suffer in Thine Agony in the Garden, in Thy Scourging and Crowning with thorns, in the Way to Calvary, in Thy Crucifixion and Death, have mercy on the souls of priests in Purgatory, especially those most forgotten and who have no one else to pray for them. I wish to remember all those priests who ministered to me, the priests my heart has never forgotten, and for those that I no longer recall due to my frailty of memory. Do Thou deliver them from the dire torments they endure; call them and admit them to Thy most sweet embrace in Paradise.
Pope Saint Pius X and Saint John Vianney, pray for us and especially for our priests. Amen
Special Intercession: Pray for the souls of those who were remembered by a pompous funeral only, and have no relief in their pain.
Lord grant them eternal rest, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen. (three times)
Invocation: My Jesus, mercy!
Source: Manual of the Purgatorian Society, Redemptorist Fathers. 1907