Is\u00a0it a matter of saying the Lord’s Prayer, Hail Mary and the Glory Be with the\u00a0Eternal Rest prayers around the time of a person’s death, or only on the\u00a0anniversary of death of a loved one or friend? Somehow I doubt it.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0law of charity that I think Christians are called to live with certainty makes\u00a0a claim on us to pray for the dead and dedicate some portion of prayer, fasting\u00a0and almsgiving for the Church Suffering (the Holy Souls) so that one day they\u00a0become part of the Church Triumphant. Being Friends in the Lord (disciples of\u00a0Christ) can’t be indifferent to those who have died. We believe that the bonds\u00a0of love don’t unravel with the death of the body. We promise the dying that we\u00a0won’t forget them. If this is true, then why do we so often forget to have a\u00a0Mass offered for their intentions, or say a rosary for our loved ones, or\u00a0absent ourselves from visiting the cemetery? Mass, the rosary and a visit are\u00a0concrete acts of love that have a real consequence for real people we knew and\u00a0loved in this life.<\/p>\n
Consider\u00a0the image of posted above is a example of spiritual works effecting the soul of\u00a0another. Here the Baroque Master Giovanni Battista Crespi, “Il\u00a0Cerano” (1573-1632) paints in 1617 Saint Gregory the Great\u00a0“delivering the soul of a monk.” The deliverance is the result of the\u00a0monk and pope Gregory offering Mass for the soul of a monk. The depths of mercy\u00a0and love are mined by the devotion of the Mass for another.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
What does the Church teach about Purgatory?<\/p>\n
In the\u00a0Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/i>\u00a0states:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Paragraph 1030: All who\u00a0die in God’s grace and friendship<\/b>, but still imperfectly purified,\u00a0are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Paragraph 1031: The Church gives the name Purgatory to this\u00a0final purification\u00a0of the elect, which is\u00a0entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture,\u00a0speaks of cleansing fire. As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age but certain others in the age to come.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Paragraph 1472 excerpted: This purification frees one from what is called the “temporal punishment” of sin.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n For more on purgatory you can\u00a0read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Holy Souls in Purgatory. Purgatory has been described, as a “cleansing fire” that burns away the dross of sins on our souls. Saint Paul wrote those of being saved “yet so as through fire” and whether or not the soul endures a literal fire, its purification does involve suffering. The time each soul spends there, and the severity of the pains it experiences, varies. However, our prayers for these souls can help alleviate their sufferings and help them reach heaven more quickly.\u00a0Although they can no longer pray for themselves, they can and do pray for us as well out of gratitude!\u00a0In addition we can help them by having masses said for the departed and by engaging in works of cha The\u00a0month of November is the Month of the Holy Souls in Purgatory. I was thinking\u00a0after a funeral celebrated earlier today for a friend, Jack, who died last\u00a0Saturday, about my\u00a0on-going\u00a0responsibility for the souls in purgatory.\u00a0This after being reminded that I am called, as are all the baptized, to be an\u00a0echo of the encounter with Christ … Continue reading Souls in Purgatory and our obligation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1801,3014,2162,3019],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27253"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27253"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29126,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27253\/revisions\/29126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\nrity and sacrifice on their behalf.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"