ALL SOULS DAY
I feel so blessed to be a Catholic and all the celebrations we have. Today is a day to remember those who have gone before us and pay need our prayers. Fr.Dennis my parish priest wrote a wonderful discription of this feast day so I will share it with you.All Souls Day - November 2nd: The Feast of All Souls also reminds us of our eternal destiny. This day is set aside in the Church’s liturgical calendar to remember the faithful who have departed this life and need our help, through our prayers, to pass through their purification from the temporal effects of sin, to eternal beatitude with God in heaven. When we die, we are immediately judged. This is our particular or personal judgment. At the end of time, we will experience a Second Judgment, when Jesus comes again in glory, as we say in the Nicene Creed, “to judge the living and the dead.” When we are judged at the time of our death, the final judgment will only confirm this particular or personal judgment. When a person dies and is found worthy of eternal life, there may be found in the soul, the remnants of venial sin. Whenever we sin, our relationship with God is always affected. However, our relationship with others and with the temporal order is also affected. This is revealed to us in Scripture. We see this in the first or original sin. When Adam and Eve sinned in disobedience to God, God revealed to them that their sin not only affected their relationship with Him, symbolically portrayed in the Genesis account by Adam and Eve hiding in the garden: “When they heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the garden at the breezy time of the day, the man and his wife hid themselves from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. The Lord God then called to the man and asked him, Where are you? He answered, I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself." (Genesis 3:8-10)
But their sin also affected how they related to one another, and how they related to the created order. God revealed to them: “Then the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you shall be banned from all the animals and from all the wild creatures; on your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel. To the woman he said: I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing; in pain shall you bring forth children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall be your master. To the man he said: because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat, cursed be the ground because of you! In toil shall you eat its yield all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, as you eat of the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat, until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; for you are dirt, and to dirt you shall return.” (Genesis 3:14-19)
That first or “original” sin, as we call it, disrupted all of the relationships that mankind knew – their relationship to God, to one another, to the created order. All was in harmony before that act of disobedience. These “effects”
of the fall, we call “the temporal effects of our sin.” We don’t see it now so much when we sin, because the world is so affected, so deeply mired in sin. But from time to time, we do see it. The holocaust, other sins of violence, racism, pornography, alcoholism, which interestingly professionals call the “family disease,” and many other, we do get a glimpse of how sin affects more than just my relationship with God. Sin affects everything! Sickness, war, disease, hunger, violence – all these and more are no from God, they are from our sins. Sin perpetuates this cycle of death and moral destruction. So when a believer dies, if they are in a state of grace, we know that they will be with God in heaven. However, sometimes the temporal effects of our sins may still remain. This is where purgatory cleanses us from these temporal effects and ushers us into the presence of Almighty God. Purgatory is not a third place or an alternative destiny. It is merely a purification of the redeemed so that they may enter into God’s presence totally purified from sin and its effects.
Ancient traditions
Visiting the graves of believers: We get the word cemetery from an old Latin word for “inn” or “hotel” or “resting place.” The early Christians knew that the souls of the faithful departed were “resting in peace” awaiting that great and glorious day of the Second Coming of Christ and the General Resurrection. This is why we have the custom of saying at funeral “eternal rest grant onto them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.”
We know that it is the pious tradition during these days for faithful to go visit the graves of their dear ones and to pray for them. By praying at the gravesite, where those who preceded us in the sign of faith lie, we pray for the repose of their souls, especially for those about whom no one thinks, as well as for the many victims of violence.
St. Joseph and a Happy Death: Another important tradition is praying to St. Joseph for a happy death. St. Joseph has always been associated with “dying in the Lord,” in part from the private revelations that some of the saints receive, for example, the "Mystical City of God" by Venerable Mother Mary of Jesus of Agreda (1602-1665), nun who received private revelations from the Blessed Virgin Mary about the life of St. Joseph. He is the foster father of the Eternal Judge. He is terrible to the demons; the Church calls him the Terror of demons. According to venerable tradition, his own death was most beautiful, for he died in the arms of Jesus and Mary.
Below is the traditional prayer to St. Joseph:
O Blessed St. Joseph, you gave your last breath in the loving embrace of Jesus and Mary. When the seal of death shall close my life, come with Jesus and Mary to aid me. Obtain for me this solace for that hour – to die with their holy arms around me. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I commend my soul, living and dying, into your sacred arms. Amen.
The sad truth today is that our kids know more
about Halloween than they do about All Saints and All Souls and how important it is to pray for the deceased and the souls in purgatory. All of this is a sign that our Christian culture is being secularized and we are being influence by our culture more and more. This month, take time to speak to your children about these important feast days since they reflect our belief in eternal life, and even more importantly, to take the time with our children, to visit the graves of believers and pray. Let’s remind our children that for all those who “die in the peace of the Lord,” we will see them once again. We have such hope in the Lord! All these important aspects of our faith remind us that the Lord is risen from the dead and has conquered the power of sin and death. Let’s take time to remember all the faithful departed and to pray for the souls in purgatory, and teach our children to pray for a happy death; that we would live and die “in the Lord.”
God bless, Fr. Dennis
But their sin also affected how they related to one another, and how they related to the created order. God revealed to them: “Then the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you shall be banned from all the animals and from all the wild creatures; on your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel. To the woman he said: I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing; in pain shall you bring forth children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall be your master. To the man he said: because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat, cursed be the ground because of you! In toil shall you eat its yield all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, as you eat of the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat, until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; for you are dirt, and to dirt you shall return.” (Genesis 3:14-19)
That first or “original” sin, as we call it, disrupted all of the relationships that mankind knew – their relationship to God, to one another, to the created order. All was in harmony before that act of disobedience. These “effects”
of the fall, we call “the temporal effects of our sin.” We don’t see it now so much when we sin, because the world is so affected, so deeply mired in sin. But from time to time, we do see it. The holocaust, other sins of violence, racism, pornography, alcoholism, which interestingly professionals call the “family disease,” and many other, we do get a glimpse of how sin affects more than just my relationship with God. Sin affects everything! Sickness, war, disease, hunger, violence – all these and more are no from God, they are from our sins. Sin perpetuates this cycle of death and moral destruction. So when a believer dies, if they are in a state of grace, we know that they will be with God in heaven. However, sometimes the temporal effects of our sins may still remain. This is where purgatory cleanses us from these temporal effects and ushers us into the presence of Almighty God. Purgatory is not a third place or an alternative destiny. It is merely a purification of the redeemed so that they may enter into God’s presence totally purified from sin and its effects.
Ancient traditions
Visiting the graves of believers: We get the word cemetery from an old Latin word for “inn” or “hotel” or “resting place.” The early Christians knew that the souls of the faithful departed were “resting in peace” awaiting that great and glorious day of the Second Coming of Christ and the General Resurrection. This is why we have the custom of saying at funeral “eternal rest grant onto them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.”
We know that it is the pious tradition during these days for faithful to go visit the graves of their dear ones and to pray for them. By praying at the gravesite, where those who preceded us in the sign of faith lie, we pray for the repose of their souls, especially for those about whom no one thinks, as well as for the many victims of violence.
St. Joseph and a Happy Death: Another important tradition is praying to St. Joseph for a happy death. St. Joseph has always been associated with “dying in the Lord,” in part from the private revelations that some of the saints receive, for example, the "Mystical City of God" by Venerable Mother Mary of Jesus of Agreda (1602-1665), nun who received private revelations from the Blessed Virgin Mary about the life of St. Joseph. He is the foster father of the Eternal Judge. He is terrible to the demons; the Church calls him the Terror of demons. According to venerable tradition, his own death was most beautiful, for he died in the arms of Jesus and Mary.
Below is the traditional prayer to St. Joseph:
O Blessed St. Joseph, you gave your last breath in the loving embrace of Jesus and Mary. When the seal of death shall close my life, come with Jesus and Mary to aid me. Obtain for me this solace for that hour – to die with their holy arms around me. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I commend my soul, living and dying, into your sacred arms. Amen.
The sad truth today is that our kids know more
about Halloween than they do about All Saints and All Souls and how important it is to pray for the deceased and the souls in purgatory. All of this is a sign that our Christian culture is being secularized and we are being influence by our culture more and more. This month, take time to speak to your children about these important feast days since they reflect our belief in eternal life, and even more importantly, to take the time with our children, to visit the graves of believers and pray. Let’s remind our children that for all those who “die in the peace of the Lord,” we will see them once again. We have such hope in the Lord! All these important aspects of our faith remind us that the Lord is risen from the dead and has conquered the power of sin and death. Let’s take time to remember all the faithful departed and to pray for the souls in purgatory, and teach our children to pray for a happy death; that we would live and die “in the Lord.”
God bless, Fr. Dennis
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