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. 1907Saint Martin, Pope and Martyr, A.D. 655.
by VP
Posted on Tuesday November 12, 2024 at 12:00AM in Saints
"He was bishop of Rome, and faithful in all the duties of his pastoral charge. Having laboured for some time to reclaim Paul, patriarch of Constantinople, from the errors of the Monothelites, but without effect, he at length, in a council at Rome of one hundred and five bishops, condemned him; and by this drew upon himself the fury of the Emperor Constans. The emperor sent an order either to cause St. Martin to be massacred, or to send him a prisoner into the East. But the officer who had undertaken to murder the holy pope, was struck with blindness, and could not see him. The emperor then sent another to seize him, who carried him off at midnight; and after long delay and great sufferings, he was brought to Constantinople. There he was cast into a dungeon for nearly three months; after which he was dragged about the city with an iron collar round his neck, and then thrown into prison with murderers. Here he continued in great suffering for three months; at the end of which he was banished to Chersonesus, where having no other comfort but what came from heaven, he surrendered his soul to God, in the year 655.
Pray for the present bishop of that holy See, that God would assist him with all blessings necessary for so great a charge. Pray for all pastors of the Church,
that they may be zealous against all errors and abuses. And learn from
this prelate, not only to suffer reproaches, but all extremities, rather
than favour, or comply with, what is unlawful, or unjust. Suffering here cannot be long: but suffering hereafter may be eternal. It is worth your trouble to prevent one by the other. Your present uneasiness will be your comfort at the hour of death. Be upon the watch, neither to flatter those who raise slanders and false reports, nor to join with them in believing, or spreading their calumnies. Suspend all judgment and assent, as to what you hear against others; that you may escape the too common guilt of rashly judging, or helping to defame your neighbour." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
