PURGATORY

MARIAN TITLES, MARTYRS, NOVEMBER - Month of the SOULS in PURGATORY, PURGATORY, SAINT of the DAY, The HOLY SOULS

The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed – All Souls Day, Notre-Dame D’Emminont / Our Lady of Emminont. Abbeville, France (12th Century) and Memorials of the Saints – 2 November

Posted on November 2, 2021November 1, 2021 by AnaStpaul

The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed – All Souls Day (Commemoration): Commemoration of the faithful departed in Purgatory. Abbot Odilo of Cluny instituted it in the Monasteries of his congregation in 998, other religious orders took up the observance and it was adopted by various Diocese and gradually by the whole Church. The Office of the Dead must be recited by the clergy on this day and Pope Benedict XV granted to all Priests, the privilege of saying three Masses of requiem –
• one for the souls in Purgatory
• one for the intention of the Holy Father
• one for the Priest’s intentions
If the feast should fall on Sunday it is kept on 3 November.
Patronage: Monselice, Italy

Details here:
https://anastpaul.com/2018/11/02/commemoration-of-all-souls-day-2-november/
AND:
https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2017/11/02/the-commemoration-of-all-the-holy-souls-in-purgatory-2-november/

Notre-Dame D’Emminont / Our Lady of Emminont. Abbeville, France (12th Century) – 2 November:

The Shrine to Our Lady of Emminont, or Notre-Dame D’Emminont, is near Abbeville in France. It is much visited by pilgrims devoted to the Mother of God who at their prayers and petitions, still performs many miracles and favours for her people.

The relics of Saint Wulfram (also spelled Wulfran or Vulfran) of Sens, who died in 656, were brought to the Shrine in the year 1058. Until that time, the Church had been known as the Collegiate Church of Our Lady in Abbeville but after the relics of Saint Wulfram were interred there, the Church was rededicated in Saint Wulfram’s honour. The Church retains that name to this day.

Franciscan Friars, well-versed in wood carving, cared for the Shrine. They were consulted in 1510 concerning work on the Cathedral of Amiens. In richness of detail, Abbeville surpasses many other Cathedrals. The nave was built between the years 1488 to 1539 and the small choir between 1661 and 1663. The construction was paid for by the King of France, and Count of Ponthieu and the faithful of Abbeville. The Church is much smaller than it was originally intended to be, as the initial blueprint for the Church was never completed. The nave is quite short, has only two bays and the choir is extremely small. Still, the façade is a superb masterpiece of the flamboyant Gothic style.
During the French Revolution the Church of Saint Wulfram was profaned and given the name of a “Temple of Reason” by the unreasoning revolutionaries who sought to destroy the immutable God by demolishing priceless monuments and artifacts and even, the glory of their own history.
The Town of Abbeville was heavily bombed by the German’s during World War II, so that much of what is seen there today is of fairly modern origin. The Church was also damaged, but efforts were made to restore it to its former grandeur.
The list of favours granted by Our Lady of Emminont, is indeed very long. It includes miraculous cures, astounding spiritual and temporal favours and streams of graces and blessings.

St Ambrose of Agaune
St Ambrose of Agaune
St Amicus of Fonte Avellana
St Amicus of Rambone
St Baya of Scotland
St Domninus of Grenoble
St Erc of Slane
St Eustochium of Tarsus
St George of Vienne
Bl John Bodey
St Jorandus of Kergrist
St Justus of Trieste

Blessed Pius of St Aloysius CP (1868-1889) Passionist Seminarian died aged 21.
Biography:
https://anastpaul.com/2019/11/02/saint-of-the-day-2-november-blessed-pius-of-st-aloysius-cp-1868-1889/

St Marcian of Chalcis
Bl Margaret of Lorraine
St Mateo López y López
St Maura of Scotland
St Theodotus of Laodicea
St Victorinus of Pettau (Died c 304) Bishop Martyr

St Willebald of Bavaria
—
Martyrs of Isfahan – 5+ saints: Acindynus, Pegasius and Anempodistus were Persian priests who were imprisoned, tortured, interrogated and martyred in the persecutions of king Sapor II of Persia; he considered any Christian to be a Roman spy and anti-Persian. The three were brought back to life, miraculously healed, freed from their chains and began preaching Christianity, miraculously healing Sapor II in the process. This defiance enraged Sapor so much that he ordered them executed again; they were thrown into a cauldron of molten lead but walked out unharmed. This miracle brought one of the torturers, Aphthonius, to convert; he was immediately martyred. Other attempts were made to kill them, and they emerged each time unharmed. Senator Elpidiphorus led a group speaking in favour of the Christians for their courage and faith; he was immediately executed. In the end the original three Christians were burned to death. Martyrs all – Acindynus, Anempodistus, Aphthonius, Elpidephorus and Pegasius.
They were born in Persia and Died:
• c.350 in Isfahan, Persia
• relics transferred to Constantinople and enshrined in a church dedicated to them
• some relics taken to France in 1204 during the 4th Crusade
• relics in France were lost when hidden from anti-Christian forces in the French Revolution
• relics in France re-discovered in 1892 in Grozon.

Martyrs of Sebaste – 10 saints: A group of ten soldiers in the imperial Roman army of Emperor Licinius Licinianus who were executed together for refusing to burn incense as a sacrifice to the emperor. The only details that have survived are five of their names – Agapius, Cartherius, Eudoxius, Styriacus and Tobias. They were burned at the stake in 315 in Sebaste (in modern Turkey).

CATHOLIC-PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH, NOVEMBER - Month of the SOULS in PURGATORY, PURGATORY

Devotion for the Month of November – The Holy Souls in Purgatory

Posted on November 1, 2021October 31, 2021 by AnaStpaul

Devotion for the Month of November – The Holy Souls in Purgatory

“Twelve Months Sanctified by Prayer”
By Father Antoine Ricard (1834 – 1895)

“It has been said and with reason, that “amongst all Catholic devotions, one of the most solid, most fruitful and the most conformed to that spirit of charity which constitutes the soul and principle of Christian morality, is, without doubt, devotion to the souls in Purgatory.”

And now, let us see what really is the end of this beautiful devotion. Is it not to deliver from expiatory flames, souls who find in our suffrages, a compensation for the slowness of their painful expiation? But the real and immediate object of devotion to the souls in Purgatory, leads to various consequences, which multiply its fruits. For to deliver a soul from Purgatory, is it not to procure the glory of God, since it allows that soul to praise Him in heaven for all eternity? And to deliver a soul from Purgatory, is it not to exercise one of the best works of charity a Christian could practice, since it procures for that soul, the greatest of all benefits, heavenly bliss?

To deliver a soul from Purgatory, is to create for ourselves in heaven, a most powerful friend, whose gratitude will never fail us.

Finally, to work for the deliverance of the souls in Purgatory, is to compel ourselves, so to say, to the frequent remembrance and serious consideration of our last end and consequently, to obtain a pledge and infallible means of salvation, according to the word of the Holy Ghost: “Remember thy last end and thou shalt never sin.” (Page 13 – 14)

ETERNAL REST

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord
and may perpetual light shine upon them
and may the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God,
rest in peace.
Amen

MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, PURGATORY, QUOTES on HELL, QUOTES on MORTAL SIN, QUOTES on REPARATION, QUOTES on SIN, QUOTES on VIRTUE

Thought for the Day – 31 July – Little Things

Posted on July 31, 2021 by AnaStpaul

Thought for the Day – 31 July – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

Little Things

“Just as there are ordinary acts of virtue, so there are very ordinary sins.
But it would be rash to regard acts of deception, vanity and impatience, as insignificant.
Every deliberate sin is an offence against God our highest good and our Redeemer.

How can God be indifferent to these ungrateful violations of His law?
After all, even as He has assured us, that a cup of cold water given in His Name to a thirsty man, will have its reward (Cf Mt 10:42), so He has assured us, that not even the slightest trace of sin can enter into eternal glory!
We shall not be condemned to Hell for venial sins alone but, we shall suffer a decline in grace and shall be obliged to expiate our sins, either in this life, or in Purgatory.

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

PART ONE HERE:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/08/14/thought-for-the-day-14-august-little-things/

CHRIST the PHYSICIAN, CHRIST the WORD and WISDOM, DIVINE MERCY, FATHERS of the Church, JULY - The MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD, NOVEMBER - Month of the SOULS in PURGATORY, PURGATORY, QUOTES on CHARITY, QUOTES on FORGIVENESS, QUOTES on MERCY, QUOTES on OBEDIENCE, QUOTES on REPENTANCE, QUOTES on SIN, The MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD, The WORD, THOMAS a KEMPIS

Quote/s of the Day – 13 July – Repent!

Posted on July 13, 2021 by AnaStpaul

Quote/s of the Day – 13 July – “Month of the Precious Blood” – Readings: Exodus 2: 1-15a; Psalms 69: 3, 14, 30-31, 33-34; Matthew 11: 20-24

“Jesus began to reproach the towns
where most of his mighty deeds had been done,
for their failure to repent.”

Matthew 11:20

“Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.
Rend your hearts, not your garments
and return to the LORD, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he,
slow to anger,
rich in kindness
and relenting in punishment.”

Joel 2:12-13

“Let us fix our thoughts on the Blood of Christ
and reflect how Precious that Blood is, in God’s eyes,
inasmuch, as its outpouring for our salvation,
has opened the grace of repentance to all mankind.”

St Pope Clement I (c 35-99)

“… In the conceitedness of our souls,
without taking the least trouble
to obey the Lord’s commandments,
we think ourselves worthy
to receive the same reward
as those who have resisted sin to the death!”

St Basil the Great (329-379)
Father and Doctor of the Church

“For this all-powerful Physician,
nothing is incurable.
He heals without charge!
With one word, He restores to health!
I would have despaired of my wound were it not,
that I placed my trust in the Almighty.”

St Gregory the Great (540-604)
Pope, Father, Doctor of the Church

“ … Yet only grant me repentance here below
That I may make reparation for my sins, …
That these tears may extinguish the blazing furnace
With its burning flames. …

And, instead of acting like the merciless,
Set merciful compassion within me,
That, by showing mercy to the poor,
I may obtain Your mercy.”

St Nerses Chnorhali (1102-1173)
Armenian Bishop

“ It is better to atone for sin now and to cut away vices,
than to keep them for purgation in the hereafter.
In truth, we deceive ourselves
by our ill-advised love of the flesh.
What will that fire feed upon but our sins?
The more we spare ourselves now
and the more we satisfy the flesh,
the harder will the reckoning be
and the more we keep for the burning.”

Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471)

ASPIRATIONS and EJACULATIONS, INDULGENCES, JULY - The MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD, NOVEMBER - Month of the SOULS in PURGATORY, Our MORNING Offering, PAPAL PRAYERS, PARTIAL Indulgence, PLENARY Indulgences, PRECIOUS BLOOD PRAYERS, PURGATORY, QUOTES of the SAINTS, The HOLY SOULS, The MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD

Our Morning Offering – 8 July – Indulgenced Act of Oblation to Our Father By Servant of God Pope Pius VII

Posted on July 8, 2021 by AnaStpaul

Our Morning Offering – 8 July – “Month of the Most Precious Blood”

By the Merit of the
Precious Blood of Jesus
By Servant of God Pope Pius VII (1742-1823)
Papacy from 1800 to 1823
Indulgenced Act of Oblation to Our Father

Eternal Father!
I offer Thee the merit
of the Precious Blood of Jesus,
Thy well-beloved Son,
my Saviour and my God,
for all my wants,
spiritual and temporal,
in aid of the Holy Souls in Purgatory
and chiefly for those
who most loved this Precious Blood,
the price of our redemption
and who were most devout
to the sorrows and pains
of most Holy Mary,
our dear Mother.

Glory be to the Blood of Jesus,
now and forever
and throughout all ages.
Amen.

Indulgence of 300 days, each time this prayed is offered
22 September 1817 with a Plenary Indulgence, once a month,
under the usual conditions.

In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI approved and granted it the Nihal Obstat – (nothing stands against), the process towards Canonising Pope Pius VII and he was granted the title Servant of God.
In late 2018, the Bishop of Savona announced that the cause for Pius VII would continue following the completion of initial preparation and investigation. The Bishop named a new Postulator and a Diocesan tribunal began work into the cause. The first Postulator for the cause, was Father Giovanni Farris (2007-18) and the current Postulator since 2018, is Father Giovanni Margara.

Note of Interest: On 15 August 1811 – the Feast of the Assumption – it is recorded that the Pope celebrated Mass and was said to have entered a trance and began to levitate in a manner that drew him to the Altar. This particular episode aroused great wonder and awe among attendants, which included the French soldiers guarding him, who were awestruck at what had occurred and left records of it.

CONFESSION, CONFESSION/PENANCE, INDULGENCES, MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, NOVEMBER - Month of the SOULS in PURGATORY, PURGATORY, QUOTES on CONSCIENCE, QUOTES on CONVERSION, QUOTES on GRACE, QUOTES on MORTAL SIN, QUOTES on REPENTANCE, QUOTES on SIN

Thought for the Day – 16 March – Purification

Posted on March 16, 2021March 16, 2021 by AnaStpaul

Thought for the Day – 16 March – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

Purification

“God has given us two supernatural means of purifying ourselves after we have sinned – the Sacrament of Penance and Indulgences.
The Sacrament of Penance is the plank of salvation to which we can cling when we have been shipwrecked by sin and, by means of Indulgences, we can draw on the infinite treasury of the merits of Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Saints, in order to make partial or total satisfaction for the temporal punishment due to our sins.
In this way, we can shorten our purgatory in this life and escape it in the next!

We should make good use of the Sacrament of Penance.
If we fall into mortal sin, let us have recourse at once to this fount of grace.
Even when we are not in mortal sin, let us be faithful to the practice of weekly or at least, fortnightly, confession.

We should not abuse this great gift simply because it seems such a simple method of obtaining pardon.
God is infinitely just, we must remember and, He expects us to co-operate with His graces.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Part One Here:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/07/25/thought-for-the-day-25-july-purification/Adv

"Follow Me", CONFESSION/PENANCE, LENT, LENT 2021, LENTEN THOUGHTS, PURGATORY, QUOTES for CHRIST, QUOTES on CONVERSION, QUOTES on FEAR, QUOTES on HUMILITY, QUOTES on PRIDE, QUOTES on REPENTANCE, QUOTES on SIN, The LAST THINGS, THOMAS a KEMPIS

Day Eight of our Lenten Journey – 24 February – Imitating Christ with Thomas à Kempis – On the Last Judgement and the Punishment for Sins

Posted on February 24, 2021February 24, 2021 by AnaStpaul

Day Eight of our Lenten Journey – 24 February – – Wednesday of the First week of Lent, Readings: Jonah 3:1-10,Psalms 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19, Luke 11:29-32

Imitating Christ with Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471)

In You is the source of life
and in Your Light Lord, we see light
Psalm 35(36)

“This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign but no sign will be given to it, except the sign of Jonah.” – Luke 11:29

IN ALL things consider the e,d; how you shall stand before the strict Judge from Whom nothing is hidden and Who will pronounce judgement in all justice, accepting neither bribes nor excuses. And you, miserable and wretched sinner, who fear even the countenance of an angry man, what answer will you make to the God Who knows all your sins? Why do you not provide for yourself against the day of judgement when no man can be excused or defended by another because each, will have enough to do, to answer for himself? In this life your work is profitable, your tears acceptable, your sighs audible, your sorrow satisfying and purifying.

The patient man goes through a great and salutary purgatory when he grieves more over the malice of one who harms him than for his own injury; when he prays readily for his enemies and forgives offenses from his heart; when he does not hesitate to ask pardon of others; when he is more easily moved to pity than to anger; when he does frequent violence to himself and tries to bring the body into complete subjection to the spirit.

It is better to atone for sin now and to cut away vices than to keep them for purgation in the hereafter. In truth, we deceive ourselves by our ill-advised love of the flesh. What will that fire feed upon but our sins? The more we spare ourselves now and the more we satisfy the flesh, the harder will the reckoning be and the more we keep for the burning.

For a man will be more grievously punished in the things in which he has sinned. There the lazy will be driven with burning prongs and gluttons tormented with unspeakable hunger and thirst; the wanton and lust-loving will be bathed in burning pitch and foul brimstone; the envious will howl in their grief like mad dogs.

Every vice will have its own proper punishment. The proud will be faced with every confusion and the avaricious pinched with the most abject want. One hour of suffering there, will be more bitter, than a hundred years of the most severe penance here. In this life men sometimes rest from work and enjoy the comfort of friends, but the damned have no rest or consolation.

You must, therefore, take care and repent of your sins now so that on the day of judgement you may rest secure with the blessed. For on that day, the just will stand firm against those who tortured and oppressed them and he, who now submits humbly to the judgement of men, will arise to pass judgement upon them. The poor and humble will have great confidence, while the proud will be struck with fear. He who learned to be a fool in this world and to be scorned for Christ, will then appear to have been wise.
(Book 1 Ch 24:1-4)

CONFESSION, CONFESSION/PENANCE, INDULGENCES, LENT, LENT 2021, MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, PURGATORY, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES on GRACE, QUOTES on MORTAL SIN, QUOTES on SIN

Thought for the Day – 19 February – Purification

Posted on February 19, 2021March 16, 2021 by AnaStpaul

Thought for the Day – 19 February – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

Purification

We should not abuse this great gift simply because it seems such a simple method of obtaining pardon.
God is infinitely just, we must remember and, He expects us to co-operate with His graces.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Part One Here:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/07/25/thought-for-the-day-25-july-purification/

DOCTRINE, MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, NOVEMBER - Month of the SOULS in PURGATORY, PURGATORY, QUOTES on DEATH, QUOTES on SIN

Thought for the Day – 7 February – Purgatory

Posted on February 7, 2021 by AnaStpaul

Thought for the Day – 7 February – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

“Devotion to the dead and the belief in a place of expiation and purification after death, can be traced back, not only to the early days of the Church but, even to the dawn of the human race.
Although Luther denied the existence of Purgatory, he was compelled to acknowledge the existence of this ancient and universal belief, sanctioned by Tradition, by faith and by human reason.
This belief was already present among pagan people, as is attested by the better-known writers of antiquity such as Homer, Sophocles, Plato and Virgil and, by ancient funeral inscriptions.
Evidence of the belief among the Jews, is found in Sacred Scripture, where it is related that, after he had conquered the worshippers of Jamnia, Judas Machabaeus, collected twelve thousand drachmas of silver, in order to have sacrifices offered for the dead.
It is a holy and wholesome thought, adds the text, to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins (2 Macc 12:46).

This is a very consoling doctrine.
It is comforting to know, that one day we shall find a way of purifying ourselves of all trace of sin and imperfection and, that meanwhile, we can be spiritually united with our departed loved ones and can help them by our prayers.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

NOVEMBER - Month of the SOULS in PURGATORY, PRACTISING CATHOLIC, PRAYER WARRIORS, PRAYERS of the CHURCH, PURGATORY, The HOLY SOULS

Devotion for the Month of November – The Souls in Purgatory

Posted on November 1, 2020November 1, 2020 by AnaStpaul

Devotion for the Month of November – The Holy Souls in Purgatory

The month of November is dedicated to the Holy Souls in Purgatory.
The Church commemorates all her faithful children who have departed from this life but, have not yet attained the joys of heaven.
St Paul warns us, that we must not be ignorant concerning the dead, nor sorrowful, “even as others who have no hope … For the Lord Himself shall come down from heaven … and the dead who are in Christ shall rise.

The Church has always taught us to pray for those who have gone into eternity.
Even in the Old Testament prayers and alms were offered for the souls of the dead by those who thought “well and religiously concerning the resurrection.” It was believed that “they who had fallen asleep with godliness had great grace laid up for them” and that “it is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.”
We know that a defiled soul cannot enter into heaven.

ETERNAL REST

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord
and may perpetual light shine upon them
and may the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God,
rest in peace.
Amen

CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, Our MORNING Offering, PRAYERS for SEASONS, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, PURGATORY, The HOLY SOULS

Our Morning Offering for the Faithful Departed – 16 November

Posted on November 16, 2019November 16, 2019 by AnaStpaul

Our Morning Offering for the Souls in Purgatory – 16 November – Saturday of the Thirty Second week in Ordinary Time, Year C

Prayer for the Faithful Departed
By St John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

Meditations and Devotions of the Late Cardinal Newman

O God of the Spirits of all flesh,
O Jesu, Lover of souls,
we recommend unto Thee,
the souls of all those Thy servants,
who have departed with the sign of faith
and sleep the sleep of peace.
We beseech Thee, O Lord and Saviour,
that, as in Thy mercy to them,
Thou became man,
so now, Thou would hasten the time
and admit them to Thy Presence above…
May the heavens be opened to them
and the Angels rejoice with them …
May all the Saints and elect of God,
who in this world suffered torments
for Thy Name, befriend them,
that, being freed from the prison beneath,
they may be admitted into the glories of that Kingdom,
where, with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
Thou lives and reigns,
one God, world without end …
Eternal rest give to them, O Lord.
And may perpetual light shine on them.
Amen prayer for the faithful departed no 2 st john henry newman 16 nov 2019.jpg

CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, JESUIT SJ, PRACTISING CATHOLIC, PRAYERS for SEASONS, PRAYERS for VARIOUS NEEDS, PURGATORY, QUOTES of the SAINTS, QUOTES on CONVERSION, QUOTES on DEATH, QUOTES on HELL, QUOTES on REPENTANCE, QUOTES on SIN, SAINT of the DAY, The HOLY SOULS

Thought for the Day – 13 November – Reaching our own country …

Posted on November 13, 2019November 13, 2019 by AnaStpaul

Thought for the Day – 13 November – St Stanislaus Kostka SJ (1550-1568) Jesuit Novice and the Month of the Holy Souls

Stanislaus kept a journal during his novitiate. His notes, for one so young, reflect a great understanding of the need to constantly prepare for death. Here are a few excerpts:

“Consider how hard it is for a person to be separated from any place he has loved deeply. How much harder the soul will find it when the time comes to leave the mortal body, its companion so dear. And the great fear it will experience in that moment, because its salvation is at stake and it must stand in the presence of the one it has so offended. If the just man will scarcely be saved, what about me a sinner?

But think of the great joy the good will feel, at the thought of the service they’ve paid to God. They will be glad, because they’ve suffered something for love of Him back there and didn’t fix their hope and attention on the things of this world, that we leave so soon. Think of the joy that the soul will feel, in its escape from the prison of this body. So long has it lived in perpetual exile, expelled from its own heavenly home. How much greater it’s uncontainable joy and complete satisfaction when it arrives in its own country, to enjoy the vision of God, with the angels and the blessed.

I am so ashamed and confused, because I see how many have been lost, on account of a single mortal sin and how many times, I have deserved eternal damnation.

I shall reflect on myself and ask: “What have I done for Christ? What am I doing for Christ? What ought I do for Christ?”

Nine months into his novitiate he became very sick. Saint Stanislaus had drawn as his monthly patron for August the glorious martyr Saint Lawrence and in his honour he performed daily some penance or devotion. On the eve of his feast, he obtained leave to take the discipline, in the morning he went to Communion and then laid before the image of the saint a letter addressed to Our Lady, in which he begged that he might die on her Feast of the Assumption and he prayed Saint Lawrence to present to her his petition.
That night he was seized with a slight fever, which, however, rapidly increased and on Assumption Eve, he received the last sacraments. Then, as he lay dying, he had brought to him a little book containing a litany in his own writing of his monthly patron saints, whom he constantly invoked. At 3 a.m. on the Feast of the Assumption, he face suddenly lit up with joy and he breathed forth his soul to the Mother of God, who had come to conduct him to heaven. His confidence in the Blessed Virgin, which had already brought him many signal favours, was this time again rewarded. And shortly afterward he died. Stanislaus was only seventeen years old when he “arrived in his own country to enjoy the vision of God.”

The entire city proclaimed him a saint and people hastened from all parts to venerate his remains and to obtain, if possible, some relics.

Let us raise this prayer to God

God of infinite mercy,
we entrust to Your immense goodness all those
who have left this world for eternity,
where You wait for all humanity,
redeemed by the precious blood of Christ Your Son,
who died as a ransom for our sins.
Look not, O Lord, on our poverty, our suffering,
our human weakness, when we appear before You,
to be judged for joy or for condemnation.
Look upon us with mercy,
born of the tenderness of Your heart
and help us to walk in the ways
of complete purification.

Pope Francis – Angelus, 2 November 2014

St Stanislaus Kostka, Pray for Us, still in exile and for all the souls in Purgatory, who long to arrive too, in their own country!

CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, Our MORNING Offering, PURGATORY, The HOLY SOULS

Our Morning Offering – 9 November – You are the Lord of Life and Death

Posted on November 9, 2019November 9, 2019 by AnaStpaul

Our Morning Offering – 9 November – Month of the Holy Souls

You are the Lord of Life and Death
By Saint Gregory Nazianzen (330-390)
Father & Doctor of the Church

Lord and Creator of all
and especially of Your creature man,
You are the God and Father
and Ruler of Your children,
You are the Lord of life and death,
You are the guardian and benefactor of our souls.
You fashion and transform all things in their due season
through Your creative Word,
as You know to be best
in Your deep wisdom and providence.
Receive now those who have gone ahead of us
in our journey from this life.
And receive us too at the proper time,
when You have guided us in our bodily life
as long as may be for our profit.
Receive us prepared indeed
by fear of You but not troubled,
not shrinking back on that day of death or uprooted by force
like those who are lovers of the world and the flesh.
Instead, may we set out eagerly
for that everlasting and blessed life
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
To Him be glory forever and ever.
Amen you are the lord of life and death - prayer for the holy souls - st gregory of naziazen 9 nov 2019.jpg

CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, PURGATORY, QUOTES of the SAINTS, QUOTES on DEATH, QUOTES on PRAYER

Quote/s of the Day – 2 November – Death

Posted on November 2, 2019 by AnaStpaul

Quote/s of the Day – 2 November – Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls)

“When once you have departed this life,
there is no longer any place for repentance,
no way of making satisfaction.
Here life is either lost or kept.
Here, by the worship of God and by the fruit of faith,
provision is made for eternal salvation.
Let no-one be kept back, either by his sins,
or by his years, from coming to obtain salvation.
To him who still remains in this world
there is no repentance that is too late.”

St Cyprian of Carthage (c 200- c 258)
Bishop and Martyr, Father of the Church

“Let us help and commemorate them.
If Job’s sons were purified
by their father’s sacrifice [Job 1:5],
why would we doubt,
that our offerings for the dead
bring them some consolation?
Let us not hesitate to help those
who have died and to offer
our prayers for them.”

St John Chrysostom (347-407)
Father & Doctor of the Church

“It is not Death that will come to fetch me,
it is the good God.
Death is no phantom, no horrible specter,
as presented in pictures.
In the catechism it is stated,
that death is the separation of soul and body, that is all!
Well, I am not afraid of a separation
which will unite me to the good God forever.”

St Therese of the Child Jesus/Lisieux (1873-1897)
Doctor of the Church

More here:
https://anastpaul.com/2018/11/02/quote-s-of-the-day-2-november-the-commemoration-of-all-the-faithful-departed-all-souls/ it is not death that will come to fetch me - st therese of the child jesus 2 nov 2019.jpg

BREVIARY Prayers, CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, CATHOLIC-PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH, HYMNS, ONE Minute REFLECTION, PRAYERS for VARIOUS NEEDS, PRAYERS of the CHURCH, PURGATORY, QUOTES of the SAINTS, QUOTES on DEATH, QUOTES on HEAVEN, The HOLY FACE, The HOLY SOULS, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 2 November – ‘O my Lord, what a day, a long day without ending …’

Posted on November 2, 2019November 2, 2019 by AnaStpaul

One Minute Reflection – 2 November – The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls), Gospel: John 6:37-40

‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’ … John 6:34 john 6 34 - come o blessed of my father 2 nov 2019.jpg

REFLECTION – “Thomas came and touched Thy sacred wounds. O will the day ever come when I shall be allowed actually and visibly to kiss them? What a day will that be when I am thoroughly cleansed from all impurity and sin and am fit to draw near to my Incarnate God in His palace of light above! what a morning, when having done with all penal suffering, I see Thee for the first time with these very eyes of mine, I see Thy countenance, gaze upon Thy eyes and gracious lips without quailing and then kneel down with joy to kiss Thy feet and am welcomed into Thy arms.
O my only true Lover, the only Lover of my soul, Thee will I love now, that I may love Thee then. What a day, a long day without ending, the day of eternity, when I shall be so unlike what I am now, when I feel in myself a body of death and am perplexed and distracted with ten thousand thoughts, anyone of which, would keep me from heaven.
O my Lord, what a day when I shall have done once for all with all sins, venial as well as mortal and shall stand perfect and acceptable in Thy sight, able to bear Thy presence, nothing shrinking from Thy eye, not shrinking from the pure scrutiny of Angels and Archangels, when I stand in the midst and they around me!” … Saint John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

PRAYER- Breviary Hymn – Psalter Week 3 – It were my Soul’s Desire

It were my soul’s desire
To see the face of God;
It were my soul’s desire
To rest in His abode.

Grant, Lord, my soul’s desire,
Deep waves of cleansing sighs;
Grant, Lord, my soul’s desire
From earthly cares to rise.

It were my soul’s desire
To imitate my King,
It were my soul’s desire
His ceaseless praise to sing.

It were my soul’s desire
When heaven’s gate is won
To find my soul’s desire
Clear shining like the sun.

This still my soul’s desire
Whatever life afford,
To gain my soul’s desire
And see Thy face, O Lord. it-were-my-souls-desire-breviary-hymn-sat-psalter-week-3-18-aug-2018 and 2 nov 2019.jpg

CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, CATHOLIC-PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH, Our MORNING Offering, PRAYERS for VARIOUS NEEDS, PRAYERS of the CHURCH, PURGATORY, The HOLY SOULS

Our Morning Offering – 2 November – O Most Gentle Heart of Jesus

Posted on November 2, 2019November 2, 2019 by AnaStpaul

Our Morning Offering – 2 November – Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls)

O Most Gentle Heart of Jesus
A Prayer for the Souls in Purgatory

O most gentle Heart of Jesus,
ever present in the Blessed Sacrament,
ever consumed with burning love
for the poor captive souls in Purgatory,
have mercy on the souls
of Your departed servants.
Be not severe in Your judgements,
but let some drops of Your Precious Blood
fall upon the devouring flames.
And do You, O Merciful Saviour,
send Your holy angels to conduct them
to a place of refreshment, light and peace.
Amen prayer-for-the-holy-souls-o-most-gentle-heart-of-jesus-month-of-the-holy-souls-1-nov-2018 and 2019.jpg

FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, MARIAN TITLES, PURGATORY, SAINT of the DAY, The BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Twenty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C +2019, Feasts of Our Lady and Memorials of the Saints – 8 September

Posted on September 8, 2019September 7, 2019 by AnaStpaul

Twenty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C +2019

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Feast)
On this Marian Feast Day:
https://anastpaul.com/2017/09/08/feast-of-the-nativity-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary-8-september/

Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, Cuba

Our Lady of Covadonga: is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the name of a Marian shrine devoted to her at Covadonga, Asturias. The shrine in northwestern Spain rose to prominence following the Battle of Covadonga in about 720, which was the first defeat of the Moors during their invasion of Spain. A statue of the Virgin Mary, secretly hidden in one of the caves, was believed to have miraculously aided the Christian victory.
Our Lady of Covadonga is the patron of Asturias, and a basilica was built to house the current statue. St Pope John Paul II visited the shrine to honour Our Lady of Covadonga to honour, whose feast day is 8 September. 450px our lady of covadonga at -Santina.jpg

Our Lady of Health of Vailankanni: This is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary by people as she twice appeared in the town of Velankanni, Tamil Nadu, India, in the 16th to 17th centuries. The Feast of the Nativity of Mary, is also commemorated as the feast of Our Lady of Good Health. The celebration starts on 29 August and ends on the day of the feast. The feast day prayers are said in Tamil, Marathi, East Indian, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Konkani, Hindi and English. 800px-ND_de_Fourvière_ND_de_Vailankanni.jpg

Our Lady of Meritxell: This is an Andorran Roman statue depicting an apparition of the Virgin Mary. Our Lady of Meritxell is the patron saint of Andorra. One 6 January in the late 12th century, villagers from Meritxell, Andorra were going to Mass in Canillo. Though it was winter, they found a wild rose in bloom by the roadside. At its base was a statue of the Virgin and Child. They placed the statue in a chapel in the church in Canillo. The next day the statue was found sitting under the wild rose again. Villagers from Encamp took the statue to their church but the next day the statue had returned to the rose bush. Though it was snowing, an area the size of a chapel was completely bare and the villagers of Meritxell took this to mean that they should build a chapel to house the statue and so they did. On 8-9 September 1972 the chapel burned down and the statue was destroyed, a copy now resides in the new Meritxell Chapel.
The feast day of Our Lady of Meritxell is 8 September and the Andorran National Day.

Our Lady of Ripalta: Patroness of Cerignola, Foggia in Puglia. Madonna Di Ripalta.jpg

___
St Adam Bargielski
St Adela of Messines
Bl Alanus de Rupe
St Corbinian
St Disibod of Disenberg
St Ethelburgh of Kent
St Faustus of Antioch
St Isaac the Great
St István Pongrácz
St Kingsmark
St Peter of Chavanon
Bl Seraphina Sforza
St Pope Sergius I
St Timothy of Antioch
Bl Wladyslaw Bladzinski
—
Martyrs of Alexandria – (5 saints)
A group of Christians martyred together in the persecutions of Diocletian – Ammon, Dio, Faustus, Neoterius and Theophilus. Martyred in Alexandria, Egypt.

Martyrs of Japan – (21 beati):
A group of 21 missionaries and converts who were executed together for their faith.
• Antonio of Saint Bonaventure
• Antonio of Saint Dominic
• Dominicus Nihachi
• Dominicus of Saint Francis
• Dominicus Tomachi
• Francisco Castellet Vinale
• Franciscus Nihachi
• Ioannes Imamura
• Ioannes Tomachi
• Laurentius Yamada
• Leo Aibara
• Lucia Ludovica
• Ludovicus Nihachi
• Matthaeus Alvarez Anjin
• Michaël Tomachi
• Michaël Yamada Kasahashi
• Paulus Aibara Sandayu
• Paulus Tomachi
• Romanus Aibara
• Thomas of Saint Hyacinth
• Thomas Tomachi
Died on 8 September 1628 in Nagasaki, Japan
Beatified on 7 May 1867 by Pope Pius XI

Martyred in England:
Bl John Norton
Bl Thomas Palaser

Martyred in the Spanish Civil War:
• Blessed Adrián Saiz y Saiz
• Blessed Apolonia Lizárraga Ochoa de Zabalegui
• Blessed Bonifacio Rodríguez González
• Blessed Dolores Puig Bonany
• Blessed Eusebio Alonso Uyarra
• Blessed Ismael Escrihuela Esteve
• Blessed Josefa Ruano García
• Blessed Josep Padrell Navarro
• Blessed Mamerto Carchano y Carchano
• Blessed Marino Blanes Giner
• Blessed Miguel Beato Sánchez
• Blessed Pascual Fortuño Almela
• Blessed Segimon Sagalés Vilá
• Blessed Tomàs Capdevila Miquel

MORNING Prayers, PAPAL PRAYERS, PAPAL SERMONS, PRAYERS for VARIOUS NEEDS, PURGATORY, QUOTES on ETERNAL LIFE, QUOTES on HEAVEN, QUOTES on HOPE, SAINT of the DAY, The HOLY SOULS

One Minute Reflection – 2 November – Today’s Gospel: Matthew 25:31–46- The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls)

Posted on November 2, 2018 by AnaStpaul

One Minute Reflection – 2 November – Today’s Gospel: Matthew 25:31–46- The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls)

‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…’…Matthew 25:34 matthew 25 34 come o blessed of my father - 2 nov all souls day

REFLECTION – “Yesterday and today, many have been visiting cemeteries, which, as the word itself implies, is the “place of rest”, as we wait for the final awakening. It is lovely to think, that it will be Jesus Himself to awaken us. Jesus Himself revealed, that the death of the body is like a sleep from which He awakens us. But today we are called to remember everyone, even those who no one remembers. We remember the victims of war and violence, the many “little ones” of the world, crushed by hunger and poverty, we remember the anonymous who rest in the communal ossuary. We remember our brothers and sisters killed because they were Christian and those who sacrificed their lives to serve others. it is lovely to think that jesus himself - pope francis - 2 nov 2018

PRAYER – Let us raise this prayer to God: “God of infinite mercy, we entrust to Your immense goodness all those who have left this world for eternity, where You wait for all humanity, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ Your Son, who died as a ransom for our sins. Look not, O Lord, on our poverty, our suffering, our human weakness, when we appear before You to be judged for joy or for condemnation. Look upon us with mercy, born of the tenderness of Your heart and help us to walk in the ways of complete purification.”…Pope Francis – Angelus, 2 November 2014

CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, MORNING Prayers, PRAYERS for VARIOUS NEEDS, PURGATORY, QUOTES of the SAINTS, QUOTES on SUFFERING, SAINT of the DAY, The HOLY SOULS

Thought for the Day – 2 November – The Solemnity of All Souls On Purgatory, by Saint John Vianney

Posted on November 2, 2017 by AnaStpaul

Thought for the Day – 2 November – The Solemnity of All Souls
On Purgatory, by Saint John Vianney

“I come on behalf of God. Why am I up in the pulpit today, my dear brethren? What am I going to say to you? Ah! I come on behalf of God Himself. I come on behalf of your poor parents, to awaken in you that love and gratitude which you owe them. I come to bring before your minds again all those kindnesses and all the love which they gave you while they were on earth. I come to tell you that they suffer in Purgatory, that they weep and that they demand with urgent cries the help of your prayers and your good works. I seem to hear them crying from the depths of those fires which devour them: “Tell our loved ones, tell our children, tell all our relatives how great the evils are which they are making us suffer. We throw ourselves at their feet to implore the help of their prayers. Ah! Tell them that since we have been separated from them, we have been here burning in the flames!”

Oh! Who would be so indifferent to such sufferings as we are enduring? Do you see, my dear brethren, do you hear that tender mother, that devoted father and all those relatives who helped and tended you? “My friends,” they cry, “free us from these pains; you can do it.” Consider then, my dear brethren:

(a) the magnitude of these sufferings which the souls in Purgatory endure; and

(b) the means which we have of mitigating them: our prayers, our good works, and, above all, the holy sacrifice of the Mass.

I do not wish to stop at this stage to prove to you the existence of Purgatory. That would be a waste of time. No one among you has the slightest doubt on that score. The Church, to which Jesus Christ promised the guidance of the Holy Ghost and which, consequently, can neither be mistaken herself nor mislead us, teaches us about Purgatory in a very clear and positive manner. It is certain, very certain, that there is a place where the souls of the just complete the expiation of their sins before being admitted to the glory of Paradise, which is assured them. Yes, my dear brethren and it is an article of faith: if we have not done penance proportionate to the greatness and enormity of our sins, even though forgiven in the holy tribunal of Penance, we shall be compelled to expiate them…. In Holy Scripture there are many texts which show clearly that although our sins may be forgiven, God still imposes on us the obligation to suffer in this world by temporal hardships or in the next by the flames of Purgatory.

Look at what happened to Adam. Because he was repentant after committing his sin, God assured him that He had pardoned him and yet He condemned him to do penance for nine hundred years, penance which surpasses anything that we can imagine.

See again: David ordered, contrary to the wish of God, the census of his subjects but, stricken with remorse of conscience, he saw his sin and, throwing himself upon the ground, begged the Lord to pardon him. God, touched by his repentance, forgave him indeed. But despite that, He sent Gad to tell David that he would have to choose between three scourges which He had prepared for him as punishment for his iniquity: the plague, war or famine. David said: “It is better that I should fall into the hands of the Lord (for his mercies are many) than into the hands of men.” He chose the pestilence, which lasted three days and killed seventy thousand of his subjects. If the Lord had not stayed the hand of the Angel, which was stretched out over the city, all Jerusalem would have been depopulated! David, seeing so many evils caused by his sin, begged the grace of God to punish him alone and to spare his people, who were innocent. See, too, the penance of Saint Mary Magdalen; perhaps that will soften your hearts a little. Alas, my dear brethren, what, then, will be the number of years which we shall have to suffer in Purgatory, we who have so many sins, we who, under the pretext that we have confessed them, do no penance and shed no tears?

You, our brethren, deliver us from these torments! You can do it! Ah, if you only experienced the sorrow of being separated from God! … Cruel separation! To burn in the fire kindled by the justice of God! … To suffer sorrows incomprehensible to mortal man! . . . To be devoured by regret, knowing that we could so easily have avoided such sorrows! … Oh! My children, cry the fathers and the mothers, can you thus so readily abandon us, we who loved you so much? Can you then sleep in comfort and leave us stretched upon a bed of fire. Will you have the courage to give yourselves up to pleasure and joy while we are here suffering and weeping night and day? You have our wealth, our homes, you are enjoying the fruit of our labours and you abandon us here in this place of torments, where we are suffering such frightful evils for so many years! … And not a single almsgiving, not a single Mass which would help to deliver us! … You can relieve our sufferings, you can open our prison, and you abandon us. Oh! How cruel these sufferings are! … Yes, my dear brethren, people judge very differently, when in the flames of Purgatory, of all those light faults, if indeed it is possible to call anything light which makes us endure such rigorous sorrows. What woe would there be to man, the Royal Prophet cries, even the most just of men, if God were to judge him without mercy. If God has found spots in the sun and malice in the angels, what, then, is this sinful man? And for us, who have committed so many mortal sins and who have done practically nothing to satisfy the justice of God, how many years of Purgatory! “…St John Vianney

The Holy Souls cannot help themselves. For them, the night has come when no one can work (John 9:4). It is our great privilege, as brothers and sisters in Christ, to be able to shorten their time of separation from God by our prayers, good works and especially, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Therefore, the Church has always taught us to pray for the Holy Souls in purgatory. Souls in Purgatory cannot offer physical sufferings in expiation for sin as we do and rely on us to aid them in their purification by our prayers. This is why we celebrate Mass for the holy souls today. They need our prayers for their purification. When our loved ones die let us not abandon them but help them by our prayers and sacrifices. A mystical source has said that when we pray for our loved ones by name they can see us on earth. Below are a few prayers for the Holy Souls in Purgatory to be prayed especially during the month of November, but always:

PRAY FOR THE HOLY SOULS, OFFER MASS, GOOD WORKS AND ALMSGIVING, NEVER FORGET THEM as we ourselves will be those souls one day!

A PRAYER FOR A DECEASED MOTHER
O God, who has commanded us to honour our father and our mother;
in Your mercy have pity on the soul of my mother
and forgive her her trespasses.
Grant me to see her again in the joy of everlasting brightness.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen

A PRAYER FOR A DECEASED FATHER
O God, who has commanded us to honour our father and our mother;
in Your mercy have pity on the soul of my father
and forgive him his trespasses.
Grant me to see him again in the joy of everlasting brightness.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen

FOR THE SOULS IN PURGATORY
O Lord, who are ever merciful and bounteous with Your gifts,
look down upon the suffering souls in purgatory.
Remember not their offenses and negligences
but be mindful of Your loving mercy,
which is from all eternity.
Cleanse them of their sins and fulfill their ardent desires
that they may be made worthy to behold You face to face in Your glory.
May they soon be united with You and hear those blessed words
which will call them to their heavenly home:
“Come, blessed of My Father,
take possession of the kingdom prepared for you ]
from the foundation of the world.”
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be and Eternal rest. pray for the holy souls prayer for the souls in purgatory

CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, MORNING Prayers, PURGATORY, QUOTES of the SAINTS, The HOLY SOULS

Quote/s of the Day 2 November – The Solemnity of All Souls

Posted on November 2, 2017 by AnaStpaul

Quote/s of the Day 2 November – The Solemnity of All Souls

St James the Apostle gives a method of avoiding or lessening our stay in Purgatory.
He says: “He who saves a soul saves his own and satisfies for a multitude of sins.” (James 1:20)

“Let us help and commemorate them. If Job’s sons were purified by their father’s sacrifice (Job 1:5), why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them”.

St John Chrysostom (347-407) Doctor of the Church – (Homilies on 1 Corinthians 41:5 [A.D. 392]

“But by the prayers of the Holy Church and by the salvific sacrifice and by the alms which are given for their spirits, there is no doubt that the dead are aided, that the Lord might deal more mercifully with them than their sins would deserve. The whole Church observes this practice which was handed down by the Fathers: that it prays for those who have died in the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, when they are commemorated in their own place in the sacrifice itself; and the sacrifice is offered also in memory of them, on their behalf. If, then, works of mercy are celebrated for the sake of those who are being remembered, who would hesitate to recommend them, on whose behalf prayers to God are not offered in vain? It is not at all to be doubted that such prayers are of profit to the dead; but for such of them as lived before their death in a way that makes it possible for these things to be useful to them after death”.

St Augustine (354-430) Doctor of the Church (The City of God 21:13 [A.D. 419]

“I would go so far as to say that if there was not purgatory, then we would have to invent it, for who would dare say of himself that he was able to stand directly before God. And yet we don’t want to be, to use an image from scripture, ‘a pot that turned out wrong’, that has to be thrown away; we want to be able to be put right. Purgatory basically means that God can put the pieces back together again. That He can cleanse us in such a way that we are able to be with Him and can stand there in the fullness of life. Purgatory strips off from one person what is unbearable and from another the inability to bear certain things, so that in each of them a pure heart is revealed and we can see that we all belong together in one enormous symphony of being.”

Pope Benedict XVI

“If today we are remembering
these brothers and sisters of
ours who lived before us and are
now in heaven, they are there
because they were washed in the
Blood of Christ, that is our hope
and this hope does not disappoint.
If we live our lives with the Lord,
he will never disappoint us.”

Pope Francis

CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, MORNING Prayers, PURGATORY, QUOTES of the SAINTS, SAINT of the DAY, The HOLY SOULS, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 2 November – The Commemoration of All Souls Day

Posted on November 2, 2017November 2, 2017 by AnaStpaul

One Minute Reflection – 2 November – The Commemoration of All Souls Day

We believe that Jesus died and rose again; so we believe that God will bring with Jesus, those who have died believing in him.…1 Thessalonians 4:14 thess 4 14

REFLECTION – “What great power the holy souls in purgatory have over the heart of God!
If we realised this fact and averted to all the graces that we can gain through their
intercession, these souls would not be so forgotten.”….St John Vianney (1786-1859) what great power - st john vianney - 2 nov 2017.2

PRAYER – O God our Creator and Redeemer, grant to the souls in purgatory the remission of their sins.
And may their prayers also be of benefit to me and all your faithful here on earth. Holy Souls we pray for you please pray for us too! Amen holy souls pray for us - 2 nov 2017

PURGATORY, SAINT of the DAY, The HOLY SOULS

The Commemoration of All the Holy Souls in Purgatory – 2 November

Posted on November 2, 2017November 2, 2020 by AnaStpaul

The Commemoration of All the Holy Souls in Purgatory – 2 November Purgatoryweb

All Souls Day is a solemn celebration in the Roman Catholic Church commemorating all of those who have died and are now in Purgatory, being cleansed of their venial sins and the temporal punishments for the mortal sins that they had confessed and being made pure before entering into the presence of God in Heaven. 1074-Souls-in-Purgatory OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

THE HISTORY OF ALL SOULS DAY
The importance of All Souls Day was made clear by Pope Benedict XV (1914-1922), when he granted all priests the privilege of celebrating three Masses on All Souls Day: one for the faithful departed; one for the priest’s intentions; and one for the intentions of the Holy Father. On only a handful of other very important feast days are priests allowed to celebrate more than two Masses.

While All Souls Day is now paired with All Saints Day (1 November), which celebrates all of the faithful who are in Heaven, it originally was celebrated in the Easter season, around Pentecost Sunday (and still is in the Eastern Catholic Churches).

By the tenth century, the celebration had been moved to October; and sometime between 998 and 1030, St Odilo of Cluny decreed that it should be celebrated on 2 November in all of the monasteries of his Benedictine congregation. Over the next two centuries, other Benedictines and the Carthusians began to celebrate it in their monasteries as well and soon the commemoration of all the Holy Souls in Purgatory spread to the entire Church.

381px-Pedro_Machuca_-_The_Virgin_and_Souls_in_Purgatory_-_WGA13802

OFFERING OUR EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF THE HOLY SOULS
On All Souls Day, we not only remember the dead but we apply our efforts, through prayer, almsgiving and the Mass, to their release from Purgatory. There are two plenary indulgences attached to All Souls Day, one for visiting a church and another for visiting a cemetery. (The plenary indulgence for visiting a cemetery can also be obtained every day from November 1-8, and, as a partial indulgence, on any day of the year.) While the actions are performed by the living, the merits of the indulgences are applicable only to the souls in Purgatory. Since a plenary indulgence removes all of the temporal punishment for sin, which is the reason why souls are in Purgatory in the first place, applying a plenary indulgence to one of the Holy Souls in Purgatory means that the Holy Soul is released from Purgatory and enters Heaven.

Praying for the dead is a Christian obligation. In the modern world, when many have come to doubt the Church’s teaching on Purgatory, the need for such prayers has only increased. The Church devotes the month of November to prayer for the Holy Souls in Purgatory and participation in the Mass of All Souls Day is a good way to begin the month.

slide9_3 slide10_4 slide11_3 slide12_3

CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, DEVOTIO, MORNING Prayers, PRACTISING CATHOLIC, PRAYERS for VARIOUS NEEDS, PRAYERS of the CHURCH, PURGATORY, The HOLY SOULS

Devotion for the Month of November – The Holy Souls/The Faithful Departed

Posted on November 1, 2017October 31, 2017 by AnaStpaul

Devotion for the Month of November – The Holy Souls/The Faithful Departed november - the month of the holy souls

As Christmas approaches, it is natural that our thoughts turn to those whom we have loved who are no longer with us.

How appropriate, then, that the Catholic Church offers us November, which begins with All Saints Day and All Souls Day, as the Month of the Holy Souls in Purgatory—those who have died in grace, yet who failed in this life to make satisfaction for all of their sins.

In recent years, perhaps no Catholic doctrine has been more misunderstood by Catholics themselves than the doctrine of Purgatory. Consequently, we tend to downplay it, even seem a little embarrassed by it and it is the Holy Souls who suffer because of our discomfort with the doctrine.

Purgatory is not, as many people think, one last trial. All of those who make it to Purgatory will one day be in Heaven. Purgatory is where those who have died in grace but who have not fully atoned for the temporal punishments resulting from their sins, go to finish their atonement before entering Heaven. A soul in Purgatory may suffer but he has the assurance that he will ultimately enter Heaven when his punishment is complete. Catholics believe Purgatory is an expression of God’s love, His desire to cleanse our souls of all that might keep us from experiencing the fullness of joy in Heaven.

As Christians, we don’t travel through this world alone. Our salvation is wrapped up with the salvation of others and charity requires us to come to their aid. The same is true of the Holy Souls. In their time in Purgatory, they can pray for usand we should pray for the faithful departed that they may be freed from the punishment for their sins and enter into Heaven.

We should pray for the dead throughout the year, especially on the anniversary of their death but in this Month of the Holy Souls, we should devote some time every day to prayer for the dead. We should start with those closest to us—our mother and father, for instance—but we should also offer prayers for all the souls,and especially for those most forsaken.

We believe that those Holy Souls for whom we pray will continue to pray for us after they have been released from Purgatory. If we live Christian lives, we too will likely find ourselves in Purgatory someday and our acts of charity toward the Holy Souls there now will ensure that they remember us before the throne of God when we are most in need of prayers. It’s a comforting thought and one that should encourage us, especially in this month of November, to offer our prayers for the Holy Souls.

Let us Pray:

Incline Your ear, O Lord, unto our prayers,
wherein we humbly pray to You.
to show Your mercy upon the souls of Your servants,
whom You have commanded to pass out of this world,
that You would place them in the region of peace and light
and bid them be partakers with Your Saints.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen incline your ear o lord - nov month of the holy souls

MORNING Prayers, PURGATORY, The HOLY EUCHARIST, The HOLY NAME

The Wonders of the Holy Name – Fr Paul O’Sullivan, O.P. – “Revealing the Simplest Secret Ever of Holiness and Happiness.” Part Thirteen – 22 July

Posted on July 22, 2017July 21, 2017 by AnaStpaul

Previous – here: https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/category/the-holy-name/

the wonders of the holy name-day thirteen-22 july

The Doctrine of the Holy Name contd

The Passion:

The second meaning of the word Jesus is –
Jesus-dying-on-the-Cross for St. Paul tells us that our
Lord merited this most Holy Name by His sufferings
and death.
Therefore when we say Jesus we should also
wish to offer the Passion and Death of Our Lord
to the Eternal Father for His greater glory and
for our own intentions.
Just as Our Lord became man for each one of
us, as if that one were the only one in existence,
so He died not for all men in general but for
each one in particular. When He was hanging
on the Cross He saw me, He saw you, dear reader, –

and offered every pang of dreadful agony, every
drop of His Precious Blood, all His humiliations,
all the insults and outrages for me, for you, for
each one of us. He has given us all these infinite
merits as our very own. We may offer them
hundreds and hundreds of times every day to
the Eternal Father for ourselves and for the WorId.
We do this every time we say Jesus. At the
same time let us wish to thank Our Lord for all
He has suffered for us.
It is appalling that many Christians know so
little of this Holy Name and all that it means. As
a result they are losing every day precious graces
and forfeiting the greatest rewards in Heaven.
Sad, deplorable ignorance!

How to share in 500.000 Masses:

The third intention we ought to have when
saying Jesus is to offer all the Masses that are
being said all over the World for the glory of God,
for our own needs and for the World at large.
About 500.000+ Masses are celebrated daily. And
we can and should share in all these.
The Mass is Jesus. He once more becomes man,
renews the Incarnation in every Mass as really as
when He became man in His mother’s womb. He
also dies on the Altar as really and truly as He
died on Calvary. The Mass is said not only for
all those who assist at it in Church but for all those
who wish to hear it and offer it with the priests.
All we have to do is to say reverently Jesus.
Jesus with the intention of offering these Masses
and participating in them. By doing this we have
a share in all of them.
It is a wonderful grace to assist at and to offer
one Mass; what will it not be to offer and share in
500.000 Masses every day!
Therefore every time we say Jesus, let it
be our intention.
1. To offer to God all the infinite. love
and merits of the Incarnation.
2. To offer to God the Passion and Death
of Jesus Christ.
3. To offer to God all the 500.000
Masses being celebrated in the World
for His glory and our own intentions.
All that we have to do is to say the one word
Jesus but knowing what we are doing.

St Mechtilde was accustomed to offer the Passion
of Jesus in union with all the Masses of the
World for the souls in Purgatory.
Our Lord once showed her Purgatory open and
thousands of souls going up to Heaven as the
result of her little prayer.
When we say Jesus we can offer the Passion
and the Masses of the World either for ourselves
or for the souls in Purgatory or for any other
intention we please.
We should always. too, offer them for the World
at large and our own country in particular.

DEVOTIO, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, PURGATORY, SAINT of the DAY, The BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel – 16 July

Posted on July 15, 2017July 16, 2020 by AnaStpaul

Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel – 16 July

Since the 15th century, popular devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel has centered on the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, also known as the Brown Scapular, a sacramental associated with promises of Mary’s special aid for the salvation of the devoted wearer. Traditionally, Mary is said to have given the Scapular to an early Carmelite named Saint Simon Stock. The liturgical feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is celebrated on 16 July.

CARMEL TITLE PIC

July16-OurLadyofMt.C_794227

Mt_carmel1

The solemn liturgical feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was probably first celebrated in England in the later part of the 14th century. Its object was thanksgiving to Mary, the patroness of the Carmelite Order, for the benefits she had accorded to it through its difficult early years. The institution of the feast may have come in the wake of the vindication of their title “Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary” at Cambridge, England in 1374. The date chosen was 17 July; on the European mainland this date conflicted with the feast of St. Alexis, requiring a shift to 16 July, which remains the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel throughout the Catholic Church. The Latin poem “Flos Carmeli” (meaning “Flower of Carmel”) first appears as the sequence for this Mass.

The Carmelite Order was the only religious order to be started in the Crusader States. In the 13th century, some of its people migrated west to England, setting up a chapter and being documented there about 1241-1242. A tradition first attested to in the late 14th century says that Saint Simon Stock, believed to be an early English prior general of the Carmelite Order soon after its migration to England, had a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary in which she gave him the Brown Scapular. This formed part of the Carmelite habit after 1287. In Stock’s vision, Mary promised that those who died wearing the scapular would be saved.

The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is known to many Catholic faithful as the “scapular feast,” associated with the Brown Scapular of the Carmelite order. This is a devotional sacramental signifying the wearer’s consecration to Mary and affiliation with the Carmelite order.

Based on available historical documentation, the liturgical feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel did not originally have a specific association with the Brown Scapular or the tradition of Stock’s vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary . This tradition grew gradually, as did the liturgical cult of St. Simon. The latter has been documented in Bordeaux, where Stock died, from the year 1435; in Ireland and England, from 1458; and in the rest of the Order, from 1564. Historians have long questioned whether Stock had the vision of Mary and the scapular. Although Simon Stock was never officially canonised, his feast day was celebrated in the church.

Also associated with Our Lady of Carmel was a papal bull saying that there was a Sabbatine privilege associated with devotion to the saint; that is, that until the late 1970s, the Catholic liturgy for that day expressed the scapular devotion. Vatican II resulted in scrutiny of the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as that of Saint Simon Stock, because of the historical uncertainties about the origins. The liturgies were revised and, in the 21st century, neither, even in the Carmelite proper, makes reference to the scapular. The Carmelite convent of Aylesford, England, was restored and a relic of Saint Simon Stock was placed there in 1951. The saint’s feast is celebrated in the places dedicated to him.

Church teaching: A 1996 doctrinal statement approved by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments states that

“Devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel is bound to the history and spiritual values of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and is expressed through the scapular. Thus, whoever receives the scapular becomes a member of the order and pledges him/herself to live according to its spirituality in accordance with the characteristics of his/her state in life.”

According to the Church on the Brown Scapular: “The scapular is a Marian habit or garment. It is both a sign and pledge. A sign of belonging to Mary; a pledge of her motherly protection, not only in this life but after death. As a sign, it is a conventional sign signifying three elements strictly joined: first, belonging to a religious family particularly devoted to Mary, especially dear to Mary, the Carmelite Order; second, consecration to Mary, devotion to and trust in her Immaculate Heart; third, an urge to become like Mary by imitating her virtues, above all her humility, chastity, and spirit of prayer.”

Association with Purgatory: Since the Middle Ages, Our Lady of Mount Carmel has been related to Purgatory, where souls are purged of sins in the fires. In some images, she is portrayed as accompanied with angels and souls wearing Brown Scapulars, who plead for her mediation. In 1613, the Church forbade images to be made of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel descending into purgatory, due to errors being preached about certain privileges associated with the Brown Scapular (known as “the Sabbatine Privilege”).

That privilege appears in the noted Decree of the Holy Office (1613). It was inserted in its entirety (except for the words forbidding the painting of the pictures) into the list of the indulgences and privileges of the Confraternity of the Scapular of Mount Carmel. In the 21st century, the Carmelites do not promote the Sabbatine Privilege. They encourage a belief in Mary’s general aid and prayerful assistance for their souls beyond death, especially her aid to those who devoutly wear the Brown Scapular and commend devotion to Mary especially on Saturdays, which are dedicated to her.

CARMEL-3

Miracles: In Palmi, Italy, the anniversary of the earthquake of 1894 is observed annually on 16 November. The earthquake had its epicenter in the city. An associated event has been classified as the “miracle of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.” For 17 days preceding this earthquake, many of the faithful had reported strange eye movements and changes in the colouring of the face in a statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The local and national press reported these occurrences.

In the evening of 16 November, the faithful improvised a procession carrying the statue of the Virgin of Carmel on their shoulders through the streets. When the procession reached the end of the city, a violent earthquake shook the whole district of Palmi, ruining most of the old houses along the way. But, only nine people died out of a population of about 15,000 inhabitants, as almost all of the population had been on the street to watch the procession and were not trapped inside the destroyed buildings. Therefore, the city commemorates the 1894 procession each year, accompanied by firecrackers, lights, and festive stalls.

The Catholic Church has officially recognised the miracle. On November 16, 1896 the statue of the Virgin was crowned, based on the decree issued September 22, 1895 by the Vatican Chapter.

Use in the peace movement: The first atomic bomb was exploded in the United States at the Trinity test site on 16 July 1945, near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The Catholic anti-war movement has built on the coincidence between this date and the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. In 1990, the Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, a priest of the Eastern Rite (Byzantine-Melkite) of the Catholic Church, initiated the “16 July Twenty-Four Hours Day of Prayer,” for Forgiveness and Protection with Our Lady of Mount Carmel, at Trinity Site in the New Mexico desert. Each year on 16 July, a prayer vigil is conducted at the Trinity site to pray for peace and the elimination of nuclear weapons.

CATECHESIS, HOLY WEEK, MORNING Prayers, PURGATORY

Holy Saturday – 15 April – The Lord’s descent into hell

Posted on April 15, 2017April 15, 2017 by AnaStpaul

Holy Saturday – 15 April – The Lord’s descent into hell

The Creed proclaims “He descended into Hell.” This homily for Holy Saturday from the 4th Century treats of the “harrowing of hell” and the rescue of Adam and Eve. Note the parallels between Adam and Eve’s sin, which lost paradise for us and the passion of Christ, which won for us not simply an earthly paradise, but eternal life. It was to the Limbo of the Fathers that Christ descended, a place of the dead that was emptied through His Passion, Resurrection and Ascension and no longer exists. By this “Harrowing of Hell,” as His Descent is sometimes called, the doors to Heaven were swung open so that those who die in a state of grace may enter in, alleluia! Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, the good thief on the cross — all the righteous were illuminated by the Presence of Christ in the place of death, making Sheol itself a paradise. They remained there with Him until His Bodily Resurrection when the the “bars of Hell” were broken down and they were later able to enter into Heaven itself with His glorious Ascension.

“What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled.

Truly he goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep; he wishes to visit those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains, he who is God, and Adam’s son.

The Lord goes in to them holding his victorious weapon, his cross. When Adam, the first created man, sees him, he strikes his breast in terror and calls out to all: ‘My Lord be with you all.’ And Christ in reply says to Adam: ‘And with your spirit.’ And grasping his hand he raises him up, saying: ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.

‘I am your God, who for your sake became your son, who for you and your descendants now speak and command with authority those in prison: Come forth, and those in darkness: Have light, and those who sleep: Rise.

‘I command you: Awake, sleeper, I have not made you to be held a prisoner in the underworld. Arise from the dead; I am the life of the dead. Arise, O man, work of my hands, arise, you who were fashioned in my image. Rise, let us go hence; for you in me and I in you, together we are one undivided person.

‘For you, I your God became your son; for you, I the Master took on your form; that of slave; for you, I who am above the heavens came on earth and under the earth; for you, man, I became as a man without help, free among the dead; for you, who left a garden, I was handed over to Jews from a garden and crucified in a garden.

‘Look at the spittle on my face, which I received because of you, in order to restore you to that first divine inbreathing at creation. See the blows on my cheeks, which I accepted in order to refashion your distorted form to my own image.

‘See the scourging of my back, which I accepted in order to disperse the load of your sins which was laid upon your back. See my hands nailed to the tree for a good purpose, for you, who stretched out your hand to the tree for an evil one.

`I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side, for you, who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side healed the pain of your side; my sleep will release you from your sleep in Hades; my sword has checked the sword which was turned against you.

‘But arise, let us go hence. The enemy brought you out of the land of paradise; I will reinstate you, no longer in paradise, but on the throne of heaven. I denied you the tree of life, which was a figure, but now I myself am united to you, I who am life. I posted the cherubim to guard you as they would slaves; now I make the cherubim worship you as they would God.

“The cherubim throne has been prepared, the bearers are ready and waiting, the bridal chamber is in order, the food is provided, the everlasting houses and rooms are in readiness; the treasures of good things have been opened; the kingdom of heaven has been prepared before the ages.”

A reading from an ancient homily for Holy Saturday – prepared by Pontifical University Saint Thomas Aquinas, Rome. While it appears that this comes from a Holy Saturday homily written in Greek dating back to the fourth century liturgy (PG 43, 439, 462f), the author of this text is unknown.

Note:
For our Edification – what does Hell mean?
Christ is in His tomb. Rather, His Body is in the tomb but when His Soul left His Body, He descended into Hell to “free the captives.” “Hell” here refers to the place of the dead in general (“Sheol” in the Hebrew, or “Hades” in the Greek), not to the place of torment with which the word “Hell” is most usually associated with today. The world “Hell” in the loosest, earliest sense includes:

1. the Limbo of the Fathers, the place for those who were righteous by charity and faith in the coming Messiah and who died before His Coming

2. the Limbo of Infants, where, possibly, those who are sent who die without personal guilt but without Baptism after the time of Christ, or who died without charity and faith in the coming Messiah before the time of Christ. This would be a place of beautiful, natural happiness, no punishment and no sensible suffering.

3. Purgatory, where righteous people go to be cleansed of the temporal effects of their sins

4. Gehenna, the “Hell of the Lost,” the eternal place of punishment for the damned, the place we usually refer to as simply “Hell” today

PURGATORY

HOW TO AVOID PURGATORY By Fr. Paul O’Sullivan O.P.

Posted on March 5, 2017March 5, 2017 by AnaStpaul

HOW TO AVOID PURGATORY By Fr. Paul O’Sullivan O.P.

For those who have not read this little book and to refresh myself, I will be posting the entire book in daily doses. (To read later find in the Purgatory Category).

Appendix

THE BROWN SCAPULAR

(The following official information was obtained from the National Scapular
center, Darien, Illinois, May 9, 1986.)

Two wonderful promises of Our Lady of Mount Carmel are available to those
who have been enrolled in the Brown Scapular.

The great promise of the Blessed Virgin Mary, given to St. Simon Stock on
July 16, 1251, is as follows: “Whoever dies wearing this scapular shall not
suffer eternal fire.”

Our Lady’s second Scapular Promise, known as the Sabbatine Privilege (the
word “Sabbatine” meaning “Saturday”), was given by the Blessed Virgin Mary
to Pope John XXII in the year 1322 and is as follows: “I, the Mother of
Grace, shall descend on the Saturday after their death and whomsoever I
shall find in Purgatory, I shall free.”

There are three conditions for obtaining this privilege: 1) the wearing of
the Brown Scapular; 2) the practice of chastity according to one’s state of
life; 3) the daily recitation of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin
Mary.

Those who cannot read can abstain from meat on Wednesdays and Saturdays
instead of reciting the Little Office. Also, any priest who has diocesan
faculties (this includes most priests) has the additional faculty to
commute (change) the third requirement into another pious work–for
example, the daily Rosary.

Because of the greatness of the Sabbatine privilege, the Carmelite Order
suggests that the third requirement not be commuted into anything less than
the daily recitation of seven Our Fathers, seven Hail Marys and seven
Glory Bes.

THE END

thebrownscapular-howtoavoidpurgatory

PURGATORY

HOW TO AVOID PURGATORY By Fr. Paul O’Sullivan O.P.

Posted on March 4, 2017March 4, 2017 by AnaStpaul

HOW TO AVOID PURGATORY By Fr. Paul O’Sullivan O.P.

For those who have not read this little book and to refresh myself, I will be posting the entire book in daily doses. (To read later find in the Purgatory Category).

Chapter 14 HOW WE CAN HELP THE HOLY SOULS

I. The first means is by joining the Association of the Holy Souls. The
conditions are easy.

ASSOCIATION OF THE HOLY SOULS

Approved by the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon, June, 1936

1. The members are asked to send their full name and address to:
Association of the Holy Souls, Dominican Nuns of the Perpetual Rosary, Pius
XII Monastery, Rua do Rosario 1, 2495 Fatima, Portugal.

2. The members must offer up a Mass once a week for the Holy Souls
(Sunday’s Mass can fulfil this obligation).

3. The members pray for and promote devotion to the Holy Souls. (We
recommend the booklets Read Me or Rue It and How to Avoid Purgatory.)

4. The members are asked to contribute a yearly alms to the Mass Fund. The
alms is used to have Masses said for the Holy Souls every month.

II. A second means of helping the Holy Souls is having Masses offered for
them. This is certainly the most efficacious way of relieving them.

III. Those who cannot get many Masses offered, owing to want of means,
ought to assist at as many Masses as possible for this intention.

A young man who was earning a very modest salary told the writer: “My wife
died a few years ago. I got 10 Masses said for her. I could not possibly do
more but heard 1,000 for her dear soul ”

IV. The recital of the Rosary (with its great indulgences) and the Way of
the Cross (which is also richly indulgenced) are excellent means of helping
the Holy Souls.

St. John Massias, as we saw, released from Purgatory more than a million
souls, chiefly by reciting the Rosary and offering its great indulgences
for them.

V. Another easy and efficacious way is by the constant repetition of short
indulgenced prayers, offering up the indulgences for the Souls in
Purgatory. Many people have the custom of saying 500 or 1,000 times each
day the little ejaculation, “Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in
Thee” or the one word, “Jesus” These are most consoling devotions and bring
oceans of graces to those who practice them and give immense relief to the
Holy Souls.

Those who say the ejaculations 1,000 times a day gain 300,000 days
Indulgence! What a multitude of souls they can thus relieve! What will it
not be at the end of a month, a year–or 50 years? And if they do not say
the ejaculations, what an immense number of graces and favours they shall
have lost. It is quite possible and even easy to say these ejaculations
1,000 times a day. But if one does not say them 1,000 times, let him say
them 500 or 200 times.

VI. Still another powerful prayer is:

“Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Jesus, with all
the Masses being said all over the world this day, for the Souls in
Purgatory.”

Our Lord showed St. Gertrude a vast number of souls leaving Purgatory and
going to Heaven as a result of this prayer which the Saint was accustomed
to say frequently during the day.

VII. The Heroic Act consists in offering to God in favour of the Souls in
Purgatory all the works of satisfaction we practice during life and all the
suffrages that will be offered for us after death. If God rewards so
abundantly the most trifling alms given to a poor man in His name, what an
immense reward will He not give to those who offer all their works of
satisfaction in life and death for the souls He loves so dearly.

This Act does not prevent priests from offering Mass for the intentions
they wish, or lay people from praying for any persons or other intentions
they desire. We counsel everyone to make this act.

ALMS HELP THE HOLY SOULS

St. Martin gave half of his cloak to a poor beggar, only to find out
afterwards that it was to Christ he had given it. Our Lord appeared to him
and thanked him.

Blessed Jordan of the Dominican Order could never refuse an alms when it
was asked in the name of God. One day he had forgotten his purse. A poor
man implored an alms for the love of God. Rather than refuse him, Jordan,
who was then a student, gave him a most precious belt or cincture which he
prized dearly. Shortly afterwards, he entered a church and found his
cincture encircling the waist of an image of Christ Crucified. He, too, had
given his alms to Christ. We all give our alms to Christ.

RESOLUTION

a) Let us give all the alms we can afford; b) Let us have said all the
Masses in our power; c) Let us hear as many more as is possible; d) Let us
offer all our pains and sufferings for the relief of the Holy Souls.

We shall thus deliver countless souls from Purgatory, who will repay us ten
thousand times over.

chapter-fourteen-howtoavoidpurgatory

PURGATORY

HOW TO AVOID PURGATORY By Fr. Paul O’Sullivan O.P.

Posted on March 3, 2017March 3, 2017 by AnaStpaul

HOW TO AVOID PURGATORY By Fr. Paul O’Sullivan O.P.

For those who have not read this little book and to refresh myself, I will be posting the entire book in daily doses. (To read later find in the Purgatory Category).

Chapter 13 TO AVOID PURGATORY, DO AS FOLLOWS

1. In every prayer you say, every Mass you hear, every Communion you
receive, every good work you perform, have the express intention of
imploring God to grant you a holy and happy death and no Purgatory. Surely
God will hear a prayer said with such confidence and perseverance.

2. Always wish to do God’s will. It is in every sense the best for you.
When you do or seek anything that is not God’s will, you are sure to
suffer. Say fervently, therefore, each time you recite the Our Father: “Thy
will be done”

3. Accept all the sufferings, sorrows, pains and disappointments of life,
be they great or small: ill health, loss of goods, the death of your dear
ones, heat or cold, rain or sunshine, as coming from God. Bear them calmly
and patiently for love of Him and in penance for your sins. Of course one
may use all his efforts to ward off trouble and pain but when one cannot
avoid them let him bear them manfully.

Impatience and revolt make sufferings vastly greater and more difficult to
bear.

4. Christ’s life and actions are so many lessons for us to imitate.

The greatest act in His life was His Passion. As He had a Passion, so each
one of us has a passion. Our passion consists in the sufferings and labours
of every day. The penance God imposed on man for sin was to gain his bread
in the sweat of his brow. Therefore, let us do our work, accept its
disappointments and hardships and bear our pains in union with the Passion
of Christ. We gain more merit by a little pain than by years of pleasure.

5. Forgive all injuries and offences, for in proportion as we forgive
others, God forgives us.

6. Avoid mortal sins and deliberate venial sins and break off all bad
habits. Then it will be relatively easy to satisfy God’s justice for sins
of frailty. Above all, avoid sins against charity and against chastity,
whether in thought, word or deed, for these sins [and the expiation for
them] are the reason why many souls are detained in Purgatory for long
years.

7. If afraid of doing much, do many little things, acts of kindness and
charity, give the alms you can, cultivate regularity of life, method in
work and punctuality in the performance of duty; don’t grumble or complain
when things are not as you please; don’t censure and complain of others;
never refuse to do a favour to others when it is possible.

These and suchlike little acts are a splendid penance.

8. Do all in your power for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Pray for them
constantly, get others to do so, join the Association of the Holy Souls and
ask all those you know to do likewise. The Holy Souls will repay you most
generously.

9. There is no way more powerful of obtaining from God a most holy and
happy death than by weekly Confession, daily Mass and daily Communion.

10. A daily visit to the Blessed Sacrament–it need only be three or four
minutes–is an easy way of obtaining the same grace. Kneeling in the
presence of Jesus with eyes fixed on the Tabernacle, sure that He is
looking at us, let us for a few minutes repeat some little prayer like
these: “My Jesus, mercy.” “My Jesus, have pity on me, a sinner” “My Jesus,
I love You” “My Jesus, give me a happy death”

chapter-13-howtoavoidpurgatory

PURGATORY

HOW TO AVOID PURGATORY By Fr. Paul O’Sullivan O.P.

Posted on March 1, 2017March 1, 2017 by AnaStpaul

HOW TO AVOID PURGATORY By Fr. Paul O’Sullivan O.P.

For those who have not read this little book and to refresh myself, I will be posting the entire book in daily doses. (To read later find in the Purgatory Category).

Chapter 12 THOSE WHO EARNESTLY HELP THE HOLY SOULS MAY WELL HOPE TO AVOID PURGATORY

The Holy Souls whom we relieve or release by our Masses and good works pray
for us with such indescribable fervour that God cannot refuse to hear their
prayers. One of the principal graces they ask for their friends is that
these shall have little or no Purgatory. No one knows better than they the
awful intensity of the Purgatorial flames; no one, therefore, can pray for
us as they do. Let us remember that:

a) God thanks as done to Himself what we do to others. When we relieve or
release any of the Holy Souls, we relieve or release, as it were, God
Himself. How ready, therefore, will He not be to hear the prayers offered
by these souls for us.

b) Our Blessed Lord lays down clearly the great law: “By that measure by
which you measure, it will be measured to you again” In proportion,
consequently, to our generosity towards the Holy Souls will God’s mercy and
generosity be towards us. Those who work heart and soul for the relief of
the Holy Souls may thus well hope that their Purgatory will be entirely
remitted, or notably lessened. On the other hand, those who neglect the
Holy Souls may justly fear a severe judgment and a long Purgatory.

RESOLUTION

Let everyone without fail join the Association of the Holy Souls. All the
members of the family should do so. The conditions are very easy. If the
Association is not established in your Parish, write to: Association of the
Holy Souls, Dominican Nuns of the Perpetual Rosary, Pius XII Monastery, Rua
do Rosario 1, 2495 Fatima, Portugal, which is one of the centres of the
devotion.

St. James the Apostle gives another very effectual method of avoiding or
lessening our stay in Purgatory. He says: “He who saves a soul, saves his
own, and satisfies for a multitude of sins”

If someone were fortunate enough to save the life of a King’s only son, the
heir to his throne, from a horrible death, what reward might he not expect
to receive from the grateful monarch? No King, however, could be as
grateful to and anxious to reward the person who saved his son as God is
grateful and ready to reward the person who saves one soul from Hell.

All of us may, in a thousand different ways, save not one but many souls
from Hell. For instance :

1. We can do so by praying earnestly for them. How often does not a mother
save her son’s soul by her fervent prayers. We can save souls by giving
good advice and also by our good example. How many boys owe their sterling
qualities to the wise counsels of a good Father or friend!

2. Another efficacious method of saving souls is by propagating the Faith,
viz., Catholic Action.

The incredible ignorance, apathy and indifference of Catholics is the evil
of the day!

It is the bounden duty of Catholics to spread about thousands and thousands
of pamphlets of all kinds, full of life, vigour and burning interest,
crisp, incisive, clear and strong. Otherwise, these are useless.

Each pamphlet or leaflet must carry a message straight to the heart of the
reader, rousing him, convincing him, galvanising him into action.

chapter-twelve-howtoavoidpurgatory

	Thought for the Day… on Thought for the Day – 5…
	Quote/s of the Day –… on Quote/s of the Day – 5 June –…
	Beata Vergine dell’A… on Saint of the Day – 5 Jun…
	Beata Vergine dell’A… on Saint of the Day – 5 Jun…
	Beata Vergine dell’A… on Saint of the Day – 5 June – St…

Share this:

Like this:

“Twelve Months Sanctified by Prayer”By Father Antoine Ricard (1834 – 1895)

Share this:

Like this:

Little Things

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Share this:

Like this:

Matthew 11:20

Joel 2:12-13

St Pope Clement I (c 35-99)

St Basil the Great (329-379)Father and Doctor of the Church

St Gregory the Great (540-604)Pope, Father, Doctor of the Church

St Nerses Chnorhali (1102-1173)Armenian Bishop

Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471)

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Purification

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Share this:

Like this:

Imitating Christ with Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471)

In You is the source of lifeand in Your Light Lord, we see lightPsalm 35(36)

“This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign but no sign will be given to it, except the sign of Jonah.” – Luke 11:29

Share this:

Like this:

Purification

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Share this:

Like this:

Purgatory

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

St Stanislaus Kostka, Pray for Us, still in exile and for all the souls in Purgatory, who long to arrive too, in their own country!

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

St Cyprian of Carthage (c 200- c 258) Bishop and Martyr, Father of the Church

St John Chrysostom (347-407) Father & Doctor of the Church

St Therese of the Child Jesus/Lisieux (1873-1897) Doctor of the Church

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

St John Chrysostom (347-407) Doctor of the Church – (Homilies on 1 Corinthians 41:5 [A.D. 392]

St Augustine (354-430) Doctor of the Church (The City of God 21:13 [A.D. 419]

Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Francis

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Appendix

“Twelve Months Sanctified by Prayer”
By Father Antoine Ricard (1834 – 1895)

St Basil the Great (329-379)
Father and Doctor of the Church

St Gregory the Great (540-604)
Pope, Father, Doctor of the Church

St Nerses Chnorhali (1102-1173)
Armenian Bishop

In You is the source of life
and in Your Light Lord, we see light
Psalm 35(36)

St Cyprian of Carthage (c 200- c 258)
Bishop and Martyr, Father of the Church

St John Chrysostom (347-407)
Father & Doctor of the Church

St Therese of the Child Jesus/Lisieux (1873-1897)
Doctor of the Church

The incredible ignorance, apathy and indifference of Catholics is the evil
of the day!