"Pray For Us"

Reflecting on the graces we received thanks to our pilgrimage, one of them has to be a heightened awareness of our responsibility for our brothers and sisters in Purgatory.  

As we travelled from Assisi to Loreto last Sunday, we stopped off at Tolentino both for lunch and to visit the sanctuary of St Nicholas of Tolentino, the great Augustinian wonder worker, and patron of the Holy Souls. 

Few known about St Nicholas today, and yet the example of his life is necessary for us.  He was a man dedicated to Christ, obedient to the Church and the Pope and always available to serve those in need, especially the poor and the Holy Souls who called out to him for prayer.

It was through a vision that Nicholas understood how important it was to pray for the Holy Souls, and so he devoted many prayers, and offered Holy Hours and Masses for them.  They came to thank him for his prayer.  In an age when many Catholics presume all the dead go straight to heaven and neglect to pray for the Holy Souls, St Nicholas has an important message for us: do not presume, but pray for the dead.

This is not a senseless pious exercise, but rather an important one.  Contrary to the prevaling spirit, we are all sinners and we have all been affected by our sins.  God does indeed love us as we are, but not because we are as we are - he urges us to do what we can to change, to become more virtuous.  Because we are sinners, most of us will end up in Purgatory - we will need to endure the purifying fires of love to be made holy.   So when we pray for the Holy Souls, we are acknowledging that one day we will need such prayers ourselves.  Now there's a sobering thought.

St Nicholas, pray for us; pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,

and let perpetual light shine upon them,

may they rest in peace. Amen.

By the way, the sanctuary in Tolentino is really lovely.  The body of the saint lies in a glass fronted casket, his face covered with a silver mask.  If you ever go to Italy, make sure you drop in. And if you do, offer a prayer for the Holy Souls.

All Carmelite Souls

In the two Carmelite Orders today, we commemorate All Carmelite Souls - the members of our Orders who are still in Purgatory, being purified so they may enter into the presence of God.  So we pray for all of them, and for all the faithful departed who are remembered most especially this month.

All Souls

We hear so little about Purgatory these days, and yet without it, there is no sense to today's commemoration.  I'm not going to provide a defence of the Church's teaching on Purgatory - it is in Scripture and in Tradition (that teaching handed down to us from the apostles), so that should be enough for the disciples of Christ.   But I am concerned about the souls who are no longer being prayed for.  As a priest in modern Ireland I have had to deal with immediate canonisation ceremonies (aka funerals).  Everyone now goes straight to heaven, it seems, even those who did not believe in God or did not live a good, moral life.  Today's commemoration reminds us that we cannot be so presumptuous, that we must realise that our sinfulness does have consequences and damages us.  While we may not be damned, we do need to undergo a period of purification so we can enter into glory of heaven.  That purification requires assistance from the living by means of prayers, sacrifices and acts of charity.  The effectiveness of these pious works on behalf of the dead is a indication of the union which exists within the Body of Christ.

Today I will offer my three Masses for the Holy Souls: I encourage all my brother priests to avail of that privilege for the sake of our brothers and sisters being purified.   I would also appeal to them to remind the faithful of the Church's teaching on Purgatory so prayer for the Holy Souls will not be neglected as it has been for many years.  We ourselves hope to one day benefit from the prayers and sacrifices of the Church on earth.  I would also encourage the laity to have Masses offered for the Holy Souls.  My late singing teacher, Evelyn Dowling, made a resolution to have a Mass offered every month for the Holy Souls, and she remained faithful to that until her death.  I imitated her practice and as a layman arranged for Mass to be offered each month for the Holy Souls - now I offer the monthly Mass myself - one of my own and separate from Mass requests -not a bad practice for priests to adopt. 

In honour of the Holy Souls on their day, a little piece from Blessed John Henry Newman's Dream of Gerontius in which Gerontius asks to be taken into Purgatory so he may be purified and prepared for heaven:

"Take me away, and in the lowest deep
              There let me be,
And there in hope the lone night-watches keep,
              Told out for me.
There, motionless and happy in my pain,
              Lone, not forlorn,—
There will I sing my sad perpetual strain,
              Until the morn.
There will I sing, and soothe my stricken breast,
              Which ne'er can cease
To throb, and pine, and languish, till possest
              Of its Sole Peace.
There will I sing my absent Lord and Love:—
              Take me away,
That sooner I may rise, and go above,
And see Him in the truth of everlasting day."

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them

may they rest in peace.