Third Day: The Doctrine of Purgatory
by VP
Posted on Sunday November 03, 2024 at 01:00AM in Meditations
The destiny awaiting us at death is not the same for all men: "He will render to every man according to his works." (Matthew XVI. 27) Heaven, Hell and Purgatory are the three places into which the souls of the departed are received. Heaven is the happy destination of perfectly pure and holy souls only; Hell the final doom of the reprobate; Purgatory, temporarily for the just, who are not, as yet, entirely purified. There God completes the punishment due to their faults, which were not sufficiently atoned for on earth; there He submits these holy souls to the last purgation, to cleanse them from the least stain, and, by fire, to bring them to that degree of perfected purity, which is necessary for them before being admitted to eternal bliss.
Hence there are two classes of souls in Purgatory:
1. Those who depart this life, stained by venial sins and imperfections.
2. Those who have repented, and if possible, confessed their mortal sins without, however, having done sufficient penance for them. Judging from our lives, experience teaches us that most men deserve Purgatory for both causes.
Prayer: Graciously hear, O Lord, the fervent prayers we offer Thee for the suffering souls in Purgatory, who, not being able to satisfy Thy divine justice, confide in Thine infinite mercy and our intercessions. Extend unto them Thy consolations, and redeem them, through Christ, our Lord. AmenPrayer 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 suffer in Purgatory for little faults.
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. 1907THE HOLY SACRIFICE
by VP
Posted on Sunday November 03, 2024 at 01:00AM in Sermons
My words shall not pass."-MATT. xxiv. 35.
I. The wonderful words that Christ has spoken to us each Sunday of the year.
2. There is one the Church has specially taken and obeyed day after day.
3. By obeying this word our Redemption is renewed daily.
4. And the faithful partake in this Sacrifice ordained by Christ.
On this the last Sunday of the ecclesiastical year, the gospel ends, " But My words shall not pass." The wonderful words of our Lord, which we have heard each Sunday of the year, arise before our minds. We have listened to His doctrines and teachings, the parables of all kinds, with which we are so familiar; His warnings and rebukes; yea, and His sweet words of love"I am the good Shepherd," "Be of good heart, son, thy sins are forgiven thee," "I will, be thou made clean," and so many more.
But amongst all the words, there is one that the Church has taken to heart, and has never let pass, but day after day has kept it faithfully. By just keeping this one word, the Church and each of us obeys Him, in faith and hope and love. This obedience proves our faith in His Divinity, our hope in His Redemption, our love because we trust in His continued mercy. He said, the night before He died, "Do this, for a commemoration of Me" (Luke xxii. 19). Oh! word of love, of infinite and individual love! It has never been forgotten; never for a day disobeyed. How the Church treasures this blessed word, by obeying which the Sacrifice of Calvary is renewed morning after morning on the altars of many thousands of churches, and has been since the days of the Apostles. This word is His own, though uttered by His priests; this word is as efficacious and powerful now as when He instituted the Holy Eucharist, the divine sacrament of His Body and Blood. This word shall never pass, because He promised to be with us till the consummation of the world.
The obeying this divine word, "Do this, for a commemoration of Me," is the very life of the Church. The mission of the Church, its very existence, which is guaranteed to it by God, is simply that it may save souls. And our Blessed Saviour has by this word given it the power to bring His Redemption home to the souls of men. To know and believe all the other words of Christ, and yet stop at this, reminds us of Moses beholding the vision of the promised land, yet not allowed to enter in. What excuse can men make for not accepting this word, the very culmination of the mercy of God, if they believe the other words of Christ our Lord? Why did He declare that He was the Bread of Life, and work miracles—multiplying the loaves to emphasize His teaching, if the Bread of Life was never to exist? Why did He say to His disciples, “This is My Body: This is My Blood," and gave to them to eat and drink thereof, if that was to be the solitary and only consecration and Communion? If men disobey this word, "Do this for a commemoration of Me," no wonder they are driven to deny His other words, "This is My Body," and dare to maintain that, though He said these words, He did not mean them. His divine Presence in the Holy Eucharist is denied and disbelieved.
What becomes of all the words of Christ, if one or other can be passed over and denied? The man that doubts or disbelieves one is leaving Christ. "Then Jesus said to the twelve: Will you also go away? And Simon Peter answered Him: Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life" (John vi. 68, 69). The words of eternal life! How loyally we must cling to this! And how providentially-arranged by the all-wise God indeed-it is that every member of the Church can prove by deed that he accepts and stands by the words of Christ that can never pass. A poor, humble Catholic may not be able to argue, and there is no need to argue-he simply comes to Holy Mass. And by so doing he is saying like Peter, "To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of life." And why does he kneel before the altar? He is waiting for the priest to obey the Lord Jesus, Who said, "Do this for a commemoration of Me." And that Catholic man or woman or child looks up to the altar, and awaits devoutly the coming of the Lord. The word is spoken; the consecration takes place; and Jesus our Lord, Who died to save us from our sins, is there upon the altar, in the priest's hands raised up for adoration, and with the same love and power as on Calvary. He offers Himself once again for us! And the Catholic's faith, hope, love is given to His Lord, and his heart and soul raised up with His Saviour's to the Eternal Father.
Let us learn to treasure this divine word of Christ more and more. If we believe in this we believe in all; if we reverence it, obey it, and love it, we reverence, obey, and love all the words that lead to everlasting life. In action, perhaps daily action, we can prove how we do this by attending Holy Mass. The blessed result of attending Mass! Each day our love and loyalty will increase. We are the children of the Lord, so why should we be kept from His table? So humbly and reverently we shall begin to receive Holy Communion frequently, yea, daily. And each Communion is a pledge of future glory; we are the children of the inheritance: how it becomes us to walk piously, faithfully through life, rejoicing that, united to the Church, we are daily doing this for a commemoration of Him, Who lives in the Holy Eucharist for love of us." Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Fr. Francis Paulinus Hickey (Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost)
Second day Anniversary of "All-Souls"
by VP
Posted on Saturday November 02, 2024 at 01:00AM in Meditations
Our Lady of Guadalupe's Cemetery, Newton Grove NC
The anniversary of "All-Souls" was instituted by the Church as a day of special prayer for all the faithful departed who are as yet deprived of the blissful contemplation of God, and the possession of Heaven. These holy souls endure most agonizing torments, and count the lingering moments of time, while awaiting release from prison, or, at least, some relief in their intense pain. They have special confidence in their friends and relatives upon earth, hoping to be lovingly cherished in their memory, and aided by their fervent prayers. With holy Job they cry out: "Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you, my friends, because the hand of the Lord hath touched me." (Job XIX, 21.)
The anniversary of All-Souls should serve to revive and confirm our devotion in behalf of the suffering souls in Purgatory, and induce us to make ample amends for our neglect of this duty during the year. "A gift hath grace in the sight of all the living, and restrain not grace from the dead." (Eccl. VII. 37.)
Prayer: O God, Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of Thy servants pardon of all their sins, that by pious supplications they may graciously obtain the remission they have always desired, Thou Who livest and reignest 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 of those who suffer the greatest torments.
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. 1907Nov 1: Prayers for the Holy Souls In Purgatory
by VP
Posted on Friday November 01, 2024 at 01:00AM in Meditations
"One of the most consoling doctrines of the Catholic Church is that of the Communion of Saints. All, the saints in Heaven, we upon earth, the souls in Purgatory, are members of one great family. By this "bond of perfection" which unites the Suffering and Triumphant Church with the Militant Church upon earth, incorporating them into one body, mutual charity becomes an obligation. This reciprocal love, being the duty of all men, renders it imperative that all should pray for one another, for in this general prayer, offered mutually, Christian charity is most beautifully and eloquently expressed.
From this general obligation we derive the special duty to pray for the suffering souls in Purgatory, who are unable in their extreme distress to do aught for their own relief. It has always been the belief of Holy Church that the faithful, united in the Communion of Saints, can mutually assist each other. As the saints in Heaven pray for us, so must we also offer our petitions for the suffering souls in Purgatory, that God in His goodness and mercy, may mitigate and shorten their punishment, and hasten their entrance into Heaven. It is the doctrine of the Church that the faithful upon earth are really able to relieve the temporal punishment of the holy souls in Purgatory. "In this," says the Roman Catechism, "we must praise the infinite goodness and mercy of God with greatest thankfulness, that He has granted to human weakness the grace that one can make satisfaction for another."
Prayer: O Lord Jesus Christ, Thou Who hast said, "Where there are two or three gathered together in My name, there Am I in the midst of them," (Matthew XVIII. 20) look mercifully upon Thy holy Church, who implores Thy clemency in behalf of her suffering members. End their intense pain, and open unto them the portals of the heavenly Jerusalem, that they may praise and bless Thee forever and ever. AmenPrayer 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 those who, during the course of their earthly lives, did most to relieve the souls in Purgatory.
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
Feast of all Saints: The Church reviews Her Successes
by VP
Posted on Friday November 01, 2024 at 01:00AM in Sermons
Fra Angelico: The Forerunners of Christ with Saints and Martyrs
"Our yearly liturgical course in living with Christ is fast drawing to a close. That is the reason why these last Sunday Masses have been showing us various aspects of the final reckoning when Christ our Judge will examine us to see how we have profited by all those countless opportunities of grace lavished upon us in every Sacrifice and sacrament throughout the year. What therefore could be more natural for us than, finding within ourselves the same un-Christly Christians as of yore, to feel a sense of frustration at the thought of so great a discrepancy between what was expected of us and what we have actually achieved? Can the liturgical life really be so marvelous a thing, if it shows so little proof of its power in our own daily living? Just such a sense of discouragement on our part the Church seems to have anticipated. For right here, almost at the close of her annual course, she gives us in review a veritable pageant of successful lives lived by those whom she has already graduated into eternity summa cum laude.
These multitudes of human beings from every race and nation, from every clime and century - what are they, one and all, but drops of water in the vast ocean of Christ's redemptive work? Each one, as a member of the Mystical Body on earth, has not only been saved thereby but has also helped to "fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ,...for his body, which is the Church." Col. 1:24. Douay-Rheims.
The ocean of redemptive merits became so vast a thing in its multiple human aspect that we could only gaze in wonderment at its unfathomable extent and depth. This is why, for those of us who are able to go to weekday Mass, the liturgy allowed us to examine this redeeming accomplishment of Christ a drop at a time, while we celebrated the feast days of the saints. Thus holding up a tiny particle of Christly glory to the great sun of God's infinite perfections, we could study their separate rays as they were refracted in the various hues of those personalities through which they passed. For the divine attributes, incarnate in mortal men, are, as it were, split into tiny human colors, so that we may more easily study them and try to adapt them to our own poor way of life.
To say, for instance, that God is love does not pass beyond the cold, clear realm of our intellect. But to learn that Francis of Assisi, in reflecting this divine charity, loved every flower and bird and uncouth clod of humankind to romantic folly, has set seven hundred years ablaze. When we are told that God is good, we nod assent and stifle a yawn. But when we read that a Peter Claver, filled to the brim by a participation in this goodness, could spend years of devoted service amid the nauseating slave ships in his endeavor to salvage souls for eternity- ah! then we begin to think that goodness is something real after all.
Thus through this past year the Church has carefully marshaled before us her procession of successes, men, women, and even children. All from the dawn of Christianity have chosen to live the Christ-Life to its fullest extent, regardless of the cost. Each of these heroes has paid in some way the price of life itself, if not by the actual shedding of his blood, then at least by the slow and relentless extermination of self in every form, so that it might be no longer he that lived but Christ in him.
Since, however, the vast majority of Christians, unable to go to daily Mass, cannot study this pageant of Christ's heroes gradually throughout the year, the Church has set aside this feast as a day of obligation. Now all her members may see in one grand review all those whose outstanding success bears witness to the potency of the Christ-Life as lived in and through the liturgical signs which make that Life an ever present reality.
Also the Church's object in thus honoring her heroes is to make us realize her great doctrine, the Communion of Saints. This is that celestial plan of distributive wealth, whereby the millionaires of heaven from their own abundance may effectively subsidize us, their needy brethren. This means that through the very special grace of today's feast of All Saints, we may fill our souls to overflowing with all the riches of Christ's members, who have traded with their talents so as to enrich not only themselves but also their brethren of every age and race and nation."
Companion to the Missal, Sister M Cecilia OSB
"Oh! (...) My brethren, let the world have its gods and worship them; let it have its wisdom, which is foolishness with God; let it deride and mock at penance, at asceticism, at Religious vows, at practices of humiliation, at pilgrimages, at devotions, at prayer itself. But let us remember that Christ, and His Church after Him, have cursed the world. Voe Mundo! Let us stand firm, though power, and wealth, and culture be in conspiracy against us. Let us stand firm, though we be persecuted and vilified, and our name cast out as evil for Christ's sake. Let us keep the faith. Let us be imitators of the Saints as they also were of Christ. Let us fix our eyes on the end of all things, on the prize of our high calling in Christ Jesus. Let us never forget those words,so full at once of terror and consolation: " Then shall the just stand with great constancy against those that have afflicted them and taken away their labors. Those seeing it, shall be troubled with terrible fear, and shall be amazed at the suddenness of their unexpected salvation, saying within themselves, repenting, and groaning for anguish of spirit: There are they, whom we had sometime in derision, and for a parable of reproach. We fools esteemed their life madness, and their end without honor. Behold, how they are numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the Saints. " Wisdom v. 1-5."
Source: Sermons by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, Vol. 3, Feast of all Saints.
