CAPG's Blog 

Stop missing out on the Mass, to understand what is happening there, to make the Eucharist the source and summit of your Christian life, follow our online training THE MASS IN MY LIFE. More information and free registration on

https://www.massinmylife.org/

The videos are in French with English subtitles.
The Fraternity Youtube Channel

Stop missing out on the Mass, to understand what is happening there, to make the Eucharist the source and summit of your Christian life, follow our online training THE MASS IN MY LIFE. More information and free registration on

https://www.massinmylife.org/

The videos are in French with English subtitles.
The Fraternity Youtube Channel

Stop missing out on the Mass, to understand what is happening there, to make the Eucharist the source and summit of your Christian life, follow our online training THE MASS IN MY LIFE. More information and free registration on

https://www.massinmylife.org/

The videos are in French with English subtitles.
The Fraternity Youtube Channel

source:  Fraternity of Saint Vincent Ferrer and Souls of Christian Apostolate.

 The Fraternity of Saint Vincent Ferrer (FSVF), whose priory is located in Chémeré-le-Roi (France), is a traditional religious community inspired by the Dominican spirit. Disciples of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Brothers are apostles whose preaching is oriented to the salvation of souls. With great enthusiasm the FSVF extends their apostolate to the English speaking world with The Mass in My Life.

Souls of the Christian Apostolate (SOCA), headquartered in Denver, is a lay apostolate based on the spiritual classic, The Soul of the Apostolate by Dom Chautard. SOCA’s mission is to ignite renewal in the Church and the salvation of souls with “the one thing necessary”: the interior life. In many ways inspired by the formation provided by the FSVF, SOCA is excited to partner with the brothers and introduce the English speaking world to their timeless formation.

"Heaven and earth shall pass always". St. Luke 21.33.

Ah! my friend, how are you? How do you do? Where are you going? These are everyday expressions, dear brethren. Probably some neighbor spoke to you thus as you were coming to Mass. This is the first Sunday in Advent, the Sunday of Judgment, and I am going to put the same questions to you. I begin with the last one. Where are you going? young men, old men, women, girls, children, people, priests, rich and poor, where are you all going? are you going to church or for a walk? No, we have a trial at court and are summoned to appear. Whose trial? Our own. Yes, we are all going to judgment, the trial of eternity before the all-seeing Judge. We are all formed in a great procession. No matter whether we are good or bad, in a state of grace or of mortal sin, no matter if our cause be just or unjust, we are all going to judgment - all going to the great trial, in which every living soul, each man and woman and child, shall be the prisoners at the bar, and God, the judge of all, shall sit upon the great white Throne.

When will that trial day come? No one knows, not even the angels, our Lord says. Judgment will come suddenly. Times has been given you. You have been told "beforehand." The actual coming will be sudden. "Behold, I come as a thief in the night." "Behold, I come quickly." "Behold, I come as the lighting." Such are the terms in which our Lord speaks of His second advent. When men are eating and drinking, marrying, buying, and selling, burying the dead, laboring, prayer, waking or sleeping, then there will be a cry heard, "behold the Bridegroom cometh; go ye forth to meet him." Go forth just as you are; just as the moment finds you; without a moment more to prepare, without an instant in which to say, "God help me!"

Where are you going, then? going to judgment. Going to a sudden judgment. Going to meet accusers who will rise out of the graves of earth and from the pit of hell to bear witness against sinners for all the commandments they have broken, all the duties they have neglected, all the scandal and bad example they have given. Woe to bad parents in that day! Woe to disobedient children in that day! Woe to the drunken, the impure, the thieves, the liars, the false witnesses, the apostates in that day! Ah! then, how do you do, Christian, Catholic! How are you baptized of God? How is your health, the health of your soul? Are you in the fever of sin? Do you see upon your souls great livid plague-spots of mortal offenses against the Almighty! Then tremble, for you have to face the God "whose eyes are brighter than the noonday sun"! He will ask: "How are you? What mean these stains upon your soul? Where is the white garment that I gave you? Where is my image and likeness?" Woe to every one who cannot answer these questions; for to be unable to answer means to be unable to go to heaven, it means that you will be found guilty by the Eternal Judge and condemned to everlasting death. Let, then, these two questions ring in your ears: Where are you going? How are you in God's sight? You are going to judgment. Are you in a fit state to appear there?

Brethren, it will be an awful day, that day of judgment, even for the just. "Where, then, shall the unjust and the sinner appear?" Look up to the heavens as you leave this church. The clouds are not yet riven. The sun is not yet darkened. Oh! then there is yet time. There is a moment's lull before the storm breaks; a second's pause before the trumpet sounds. But the day of judgment will come, for Jesus Christ has told us so, and, as he says: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."

Source: Five minute sermons for Low Masses on all Sundays of the year the Paulist Fathers

According to St. Paul, the Apostle, the honor and glory of God should be the principal motive of all our actions: "Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do; do all things for the glory of God." (1 Cor. X. 31.) "The glorification of God ought to be our especial aim in our works, most particularly in our acts of charity for the dead; and justly so, for, by delivering these holy souls, we lead them to Heaven, where alone God is perfectly known, loved and glorified.

If St. Teresa and other saints have declared their readiness to suffer all tortures imaginable for the promotion of God's glory in a single degree, what should we not do and suffer for the deliverance of these souls from the flames of Purgatory, since by so doing we increase His glory by millions of degrees, and not for one moment only, but for all eternity.

Prayer: Increase, O Lord, Thy honor, and glory, that all created beings may praise Thy mercy forever, because Thou hast shown clemency towards the souls who love Thee and ardently desire to behold Thee. Comfort them, therefore, O Lord. Let them behold Thy face in the land of the blessed, where they shall honor, praise and glorify Thee, world without end. 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 who, while on earth, promoted the glory of God.

Lord grant them eternal rest, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen. (Three times)

Practice: Make a good intention before every work you perform.

Invocation: My Jesus, mercy!

Source: Manual of the Purgatorian Society, Redemptorist Fathers. 1907

The prayers and works of Charity which we bestow on the suffering souls in Purgatory, not only increase our spiritual merit, they also call forth the gratitude of the holy ransomed souls; for, when these dear souls are, by our endeavors, admitted to the vision of God, they cease not to prove the warmth of their thankfulness and love by imploring for us the help of which we are so much in need in the manifold dangers and great troubles of life. How can the faithful departed who are loved by God so tenderly, and predestined to glory, fail to pray, not indeed for themselves, but for their benefactors who still live in this vale of tears. Not only will they speedily pay their debt of gratitude to those who befriend them, but our dear Lord Himself, whose greater honor and glory we have promoted by our devotion to the holy souls, will readily assist them to requite the services rendered them by the faithful upon earth. St. Alphonsus of Liguori says: "He who assists these distressed souls, so tenderly loved by God, may confidently hope for his salvation; for, when such a soul obtains deliverance through his prayers and good works, it incessantly prays for this salvation, and God will deny nothing to such a soul."

Prayer: We beseech Thee, O Lord, vouchsafe to hear the suffering souls, who supplicate Thee for their benefactors, that we, in union with these holy souls, for whom we offer fervent prayers upon earth, may praise Thy mercies forever, 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 who suffer for their faults against charity.

Lord grant them eternal rest, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen. (three times)

Practice: Bestow charity upon others without expecting gratitude.

Invocation: My Jesus, mercy!

Source: Manual of the Purgatorian Society, Redemptorist Fathers. 1907

St. Thomas of Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor, affirms that the succor and suffrage given to the departed is more acceptable to God than that which is bestowed upon the living, because the former are more in need and are unable to obtain help for themselves. The Venerable Ludovico Blosio, a great master of the spiritual life, says: "Our good and merciful Lord loves the souls of His elect, who must be purified after death. And He desires their release so ardently that whenever in Christian charity we set free by our suffrages any soul from Purgatory, we do a thing as acceptable to God as if we had delivered the Lord Himself from a hard captivity. And He promises to give us as full recompense as such a work of mercy practiced towards Himself from a hard captivity.  For He Himself has said: "Amen, I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these, My least brethren, you did it to Me." (Matth. XXV. 40.)

The same is asserted by St. Ambrose: "Whatever we do for the suffering souls with a pious intention, will revert to our own merit, and shall be returned a hundred-fold in the hour of death."

Prayer: O God of love and mercy, animated with charity and compassion for our departed brothers and sisters, we offer Thee our prayers and good works and supplicate Thee to accept them as a propitiatory sacrifice in their behalf. 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 negligent in offering good works for the suffering souls.

Lord grant them eternal rest, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen. (three times)

Practice: Bear your sufferings with patience, and offer them for the holy souls.

Invocation: My Jesus, mercy!

Source: Manual of the Purgatorian Society, Redemptorist Fathers. 1907

"9. Do not imitate those false preachers who are steeped in worldliness, who inject into preaching the spirit of the flesh and motives of avarice and vanity, who preach themselves and not Christ Crucified, using eloquence only for their glory and gratification, who fill the holy office of preaching simply as a means of livelihood and seek only flattery.

Never stoop to imitate those who preach not Christian virtues minimizing the dangers of hell. Do not imitate those who never use Scripture but depend upon profane authors, who refer to secular sciences rather than to the truth of the Gospel and utter honeyed words which contain no food for thought nor grace of conversion.

10. Finally, do not follow those whose sermons merely arouse expressions of opinion concerning the preacher himself, such as, "What a learned man! What an eloquent speaker!" If listeners who praise in these words were asked what the priest said, they would be at a loss to give the slightest idea of his sermon for it was empty and devoid of substance. Whosoever would work for the salvation of souls, and not be reproved for failing in his duty, should never fall into these faults of misguided preachers, who endanger their own and the faithful's salvation."

Source: The Priest his dignities and obligations, St. John Eudes

Imitation of the Sacred Heart

Divine Savior, Jesus Christ, Who Hast entrusted the weal and woes of Thy Holy Church to priests, with all the fervor of my heart I recommend to Thee the wants of my pastor and all priests. Enrich them more and more with true priestly sanctity. Give them generous, all embracing, apostolic hearts, full of love for Thee and for all Thy soul, so that they, being themselves sanctified in Thee, may sanctify us who are confided to their care, and may lead us safely to heaven. Bestow upon them in rich abundance all Thy priestly graces!
Let them ever give us a glowing example of love and fidelity towards Holy Mother Church, towards the Pope, and bishops, and grant that by word and example they may shine as models of every virtue.
Most loving Jesus, bless all their priestly labors and sacrifices! Bless all their prayers and words at the altar and in the confessional, in the pulpit, and in school, in confraternities, and at the bedside of the sick! Protect and preserve them in all dangers from within and from without.
Divine Savior, give to Thy Church priests who abound in true holiness! Call many good boys and young men to the priestly and religious state! Aid and sanctify all those who are to become Thy priests! And to the souls of departed priests grant everlasting rest.
But to me give a true spirit of faith and humble obedience, in order that in my pastor I may ever behold the representative of God and willingly follow all his teachings. Amen

Source: Used with permission The Salvatorian Fathers

"Oh, my friends, let us pray much, and let obtain many prayers from others, for the poor dead; the good God will render us back the good we do to them a hundredfold. Ah! if every one knew how useful this devotion to the holy souls in purgatory is to those who practice it, they would not be forgotten so often; the good God regards all that we do for them as if it were done to Himself."
-- St. John Mary Vianney (Blessed Sacrament Book, Fr. Francis X. Lasance)