How to help the souls in purgatory [essay]

Title

Language

English

Source

The Little Apostle of the Mountain Province 1 (6) November 1924

Year

1924

Subject

Philippine essay (English)

Purgatory

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

k~ ,f~-~~tt_ tL[_ APO~-~~~ ·· ~li:f ~A:~~,Ra~1- ~i";i How to HeJp the Souls in Purgatory F™l: OVE:UBER: the month of ~ N = the Souls in Purgatory. Go ~ = ye, therefore, you Chrisb::~ tians, to the Church. You hope by your prayers and Holy Communions to ohtai n Sflme possible relief for your dear departed. Go ye, children, to the grave of yoi,u father and mother: your prayer~ on that doubly sacred.place and the thought of your gratitude will wipe away the tears of your sorrow. Go ye, all who have some beloved in the other world, where none defiled shall .entt>r Heaven without first being cleansed in the fire of God's justice. Go ye to the· Church or the tomb: for your beloved ones in Purgatory, your intercession with God will dry up their tears and bring them to the kiss of eternal peace in IH~aven. You are Christians, children of God, redeemed by His Blood : for you there is hope and you hope also in God's 1.nercy for your relatives and friends departed. Not so for the Igorote, not so for the Pagan. He too has a heart that loves but not the means to sh6w a helping love towards his dead. Nay, he may cry and weep bitterly over the corpse of his father or mother, of his brother or sister, of his child or friend, but his tears are sterile. He may pray to his idols or worship the ghosts of his beloved; in reality his didnities have no ears and his invocations are of no avail. The lgorote, too, has an immortal soul, which is the image of his Creator. God, too, wants to save him, to bring him to Heaven. Did not His Son become man and die on the Cross to save all people? And a pagan so-ql redeemed by the waters of baptism, it, too, becomes an infinitely beloved child of the Father in Heaven. At the conversion of a Pagan, there is more joy in Heaven than at the perseverance of ninety nine Christians. Ah! Christian, you sob these days at the thought of your dead in sorrow and pain. You love them. Oh! if could only save them and bring them into Heaven, what a joy you would feel and what benefactors you would have placed near God's heavenly throne to be your protectors forever. You pray, you attend 106 masses, you receive HolJ· Communion. You do well, you follow thus the teaching of your ~Iother the Church. But h:l\'e you ever thought of making an exchange with God? Have you ever tried to give Him a soul on earth, to obtain the redemption of a beloved soul in Purgatory"? Have :rou done your very best to fill Hea\·en with joy, with more joy than Heaven can feel at the perse,·erance of ninety nine just? In one word: have you done something for the conversion of a Pagan? In memory of your departed father, of ~·otu dear dereased mother, have ynu made a sacrifice for the conversion .of a Pagan who does not call God his Father and knows no Church as his Mother"? ln memory of your never forgotten c•hild who left your side to go to the grave, have you ever thought of gh·in!l to God a ne\,· child on earth, procuring the com·ersion of a Pagan? l\Iake a sacrifice. If you haw, much, gh·e much; if you have only lit.tie, gh·e of the little you ha,·e, but make a sacrifice for your pagan brother; make an offering for his soul's redemption, for his spiritual birth in Christ. Help the Missionary to deli,·er pagan souls from the abys,; of i1morance and eternal hopeless loss. Help him in view of helping the :;>ouls of your beloved departed ; help him to give souls to God on earth, in exchange for the souls of your bel•wed deceased, and let these belm·ed souls thus enter heayen, to partake of the· joy you shall have caused among the celestial inhabitants, when your material help shall have c01n-erte<l a brother of the 1\lountain Province into a brother of Christ. r-=• :e.=-o:ir;•wlCiiiiil __ ...,,.....:•K1sD!!FN~O•TQll•Cic:E-.-.a~• •w -marmA ! Do not send money by ordinary mail. Send it by M. O. or by ! i registered mail. These last two months, several letters adi L.:es~:d to the4L:le4~postle, :~=~ 139::;.;ver arrived:.....J The underlying idea of a Protestant service for the dead is to comfort the stricken hearts of the mourners. According to the Catholic idea, the Requiem Mass is for the soul of the dead. When a Catholic bereft of SO\lle loved one really understands this, there is a comfort and consolation in the_ Church's service for the dead that passes the understanding of those who know the difference between the Protestant and Catholic belief. The Catholic Church comforts and helps the living, by helping the dead. According to Protestant teaching, the departed soul is beyond all aid from the living, and so the funeral services are directed towards the consolation of those who are left behind.-Sacred Heart Review.

pages

105-106

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