Have Souls in Purgatory Visited?

Have souls in Purgatory visited people on earth?: Vatican City, Nov 4, 2016 CNA/EWTN News.- Nestled in Rome just outside the Vatican, a small unassuming museum dedicated to the souls in Purgatory displays simple items such as prayer books and clothing supposedly from deceased souls begging for prayers.



In 1869, Father Victor Jouet founded the Association for the Suffrage of the Sacred Souls in Purgatory. The chapel the Association met in, caught fire in 1869.  Father Jouet rushed in to see what could be saved and saw the face of a very sad man burned in the wall.

"After this occurrence, the priest decided to create a museum dedicated to the artifacts of other appearances of souls in Purgatory. He travelled around Europe and Italy collecting the items and testimonies.

Each piece in the museum was collected by Fr. Jouët from the same person who experienced the vision. The image of the man from the chapel can also be found there.

While he travelled around, Fr. Jouët also asked for money to build a church on the site of the chapel, which he had received a message to build in a dream.

Other artifacts in the museum include the print of a hand and a cross left on a the wooden table of Venerable Clara Isabel Fornari, abbess of the Poor Clares of the Monastery of St. Francis in Todi, Italy, by the deceased Fr. Panzini, on Nov. 1, 1731.

There is also a copy of an Italian 10 lira banknote, one of 30 notes left at the Monastery of St. Leonardo in Montefalco by a deceased priest between Aug. 18 and Nov. 9, 1919.

Catholic teaching on the afterlife is that there are three places for a soul to go after death: Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, those who go to Heaven are “(t)hose who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ.”

Those souls that go to Hell are those who have freely chosen through mortal sin “exclusion from communion with God and the blessed.”

Purgatory is a place where the souls go who die in friendship with God but are still imperfectly purified. Purgatory is where “after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.” These souls are ensured eventual entrance into Heaven, once they are purified.

The Church teaches that souls in Purgatory rely on the prayers of souls still on Earth to relieve some of their temporal suffering and speed their journey to Heaven. In return, the souls in Purgatory can also pray for those on earth.

On Nov. 2, the Feast of All Souls, Pope Francis offered Mass for all the departed in Flaminio Cemetery in Rome. Speaking about the sadness of losing a loved one, the Pope said that “in this sadness we bring flowers as a sign of hope, and also, I dare to say, of celebration – not now, but in the future.”

“All of us will make this journey,” he said. “Sooner or later, but everyone. With pain, some more some less, but all. But with the flower of hope, with that strong thread of hope that is anchored in the hereafter.” 

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The Pope Loves Prisoners

November 5 and 6, Pope Francis will celebrate Mass with prisoners.  It is a Jubilee for prisoners.  Too bad he can't free them all like a real Jubilee Year of Mercy.  Remember the bull declaring a year of mercy, Pope Francis said,

“My thoughts also turn to those incarcerated, whose freedom is limited. The Jubilee Year has always constituted an opportunity for great amnesty, which is intended to include the many people who, despite deserving punishment, have become conscious of the injustice they worked and sincerely wish to re-enter society and make their honest contribution to it. May they all be touched in a tangible way by the mercy of the Father Who wants to be close to those who have the greatest need of His forgiveness. They may obtain the Indulgence in the chapels of the prisons. May the gesture of directing their thought and prayer to the Father each time they cross the threshold of their cell signify for them their passage through the Holy Door, because the mercy of God is able to transform hearts, and is also able to transform bars into an experience of freedom”.

and the pope hopes all cardinals visit prisons on Nov. 5 & 6.

The Caravaca Cross

This cross with two arms is unusual.  I did a little searching and learned its interesting history.  Caravaca de la Cruz is a town in southeastern Spain.  It is the fifth holy city of Catholic Christianity, having been granted the privilege to celebrate the jubilee every seven years.

The town is dominated by the castle of Santa Cruz and contains several convents and a church with a miraculous cross celebrated for its healing power, in honor of which a yearly festival is held on May 3.  The cross, itself, is a double-cross-barred crucifix on which Jesus is hung.  Two winged angels are kneeling on either side of the cross.  The cross first appeared in Caravaca de la Cruz in the 14th century.  People believe it contains  Jesus' True Cross. 

Since the town has such ancient religious history, legends abound.  The Knights Templar are credited by some for bringing the cross to the church.  Others say two angels brought the cross to the church.  The area is well known to archaeologists as one of the oldest settlements in Spain.

The cross was brought to Mexico, by the early colonists, maybe even Padre Junipero Serra, himself.  However it came to America, it still plays an important part in Mexican religious folklore.

But since some Mexican and African Catholic religion has been corrupted by Santeria, voodoo, etc., one has to be careful that the devotion to the caravaca cross is reverential honor and not just wish-fulfilling superstition.

Flaminio Cemetery

Credit:Catholic News Agency picture which credits  L'Osservatore Romano.

This morning's article in Catholic News Agency, November 3, caught my eye.  It's a picture of Pope Francis walking through an aisle of ... of ... (I don't know)... flowers in boxes.  I read the article to learn what was going on.  The article is by Hannah Brockhaus and titled, Pope Francis at Cemetery: Christ gives us hope -- even in death.  The picture is of Pope Francis walking through a cemetery.

Yes, the aisle the pope is walking through are the graves.  The cemetery is Flaminio Cemetery, also known as Prima Porta Cemetery.  Roads travel right through for daily commuters. There are buildings housing the graves surrounding the roads.  It's a new concept for cemeteries.  What do you think?

I don't know what I think.  Death is part of life, so this arrangement makes death seem very ordinary.  I mean if you commuted to work twice a day through Flaminio, you'd forget that it's a cemetery.  But on second thought, do you want to forget your dead?

Would it be acceptable to post signs?  Caution--grieving people crossing.  Pray!  Slow--respect the dead.

Not a Kindle Book

For the past year, I've been reading Church of Spies: The Pope's War Against Hitler by Mark Riebling.  I was reading it on my kindle.  It was not a good experience.  I found that there were too many characters to keep straight and it's not easy to flip pages back and forth, on a kindle.  Yes, you can do it, but not as easy as a real book.  Additionally, the book is heavily notated.  It was too much trouble to go look up the referenced notes, so I didn't.  I gave up on the book.

That is until it was selected as a book for my book club.  OK, I gave Church of Spies another shot.  Let me tell you, it ended up being a good spy thriller.  I couldn't put it down.  And was I surprised when I came to the end and I had only read 48% of the book.  All the rest were the notes!  

Well!  I was impressed and so will you be when you read Church of Spies: The Pope's War Against Hitler.  But don't buy it for kindle.

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (September 29, 2015)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465022294
• ISBN-13: 978-0465022298
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Lectio Divina for All

@ http://www.standrewskyrenia.org/soul-day/

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed

Jesus does not reject anyone

Lectio

Jesus said to the crowds, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. But I told you that although you have seen me, you do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.” (Jn 6: 37-40)

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The Gospel begins with Jesus declaring that He is the bread of life. St. Augustine tells us that we will always hunger and thirst for God. Is not bread called the “staff of life?” And Jesus begins by telling us that He is Our Bread. Jesus reproves those who do not believe Him. …although you have seen me, you do not believe. Without a deep trust and faith, one cannot satisfy their hunger and thirst for God. Jesus is there, always. We need to accept Him because He … will not reject anyone … Jesus wants us to enter into relationship with Him. He is offering Himself, completely and forever. We need not worry that we are not worthy because He promises He will not reject anyone. This is what God wants. And if we accept Jesus, we will have eternal life. Eternal life—where our hunger and thirst will be satiated.

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Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. 

These words of Jesus reassure us of His constant presence. Sometimes we may question “Where is God?” God is always there. He doesn’t move. We are the ones who move away. If we are honest with ourselves, we should see that it is we who have loosened our grip on God’s hand. But we must not worry. It is God’s will that Jesus not “lose anything of what He gave ...” Persevere in trusting God.

Pope Francis reminded us: 

“Today the liturgy invites us to commemorate the faithful departed. Church Tradition has always urged prayer for the deceased, in particular by offering the Eucharistic Celebration for them: it is the best spiritual help that we can give to their souls, particularly to those who are the most forsaken. The foundation of prayer in suffrage lies in the communion of the Mystical Body.

Remembering the dead, caring for their graves and prayers of suffrage, are the testimony of confident hope, rooted in the certainty that death does not have the last word on human existence, for man is destined to a life without limits, which has its roots and its fulfillment in God. 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. Let none of your children be lost in the eternal fire, where there can be no repentance. We entrust to you, O Lord, the souls of our beloved dead, of those who have died without the comfort of the sacraments, or who have not had an opportunity to repent, even at the end of their lives. May none of them be afraid to meet You, after their earthly pilgrimage, but may they always hope to be welcomed in the embrace of your infinite mercy. May our Sister, corporal death find us always vigilant in prayer and filled with the goodness done in the course of our short or long lives. Lord, may no earthly thing ever separate us from You, but may everyone and everything support us with a burning desire to rest peacefully and eternally in You. Amen” (Fr Antonio Rungi, Passionist, Prayer for the Dead).” (Pope Francis, 2014)

HideOratio

Bless us Father with Your ever constant grace. May Your love always embrace us. Ungrateful as we are wont to be, please accept our petitions. Help us to persevere in faithfulness. We want to love You and be with You eternally. May Jesus always find us. Amen.

Contemplatio: 

We remember how You loved us. 
And still we celebrate
For You are with us here.
Lord, we remember; we celebrate;
we believe.

Pope offers new Beatitudes for Saints of a New Age

Photo from Reuters

Pope offers new Beatitudes for saints of a new age: MALMO, Sweden (CNS) -- The saints are blessed because they were faithful and meek and cared for others, Pope Francis said. At the end of an ecumenical trip to Sweden, Pope Francis celebrated the feast of All Saints Day with a Mass and six new beatitudes:

-- "Blessed are those who remain faithful while enduring evils inflicted on them by others and forgive them from their heart.

-- "Blessed are those who look into the eyes of the abandoned and marginalized and show them their closeness.

-- "Blessed are those who see God in every person and strive to make others also discover him.


-- "Blessed are those who protect and care for our common home.

-- "Blessed are those who renounce their own comfort in order to help others.

-- "Blessed are those who pray and work for full communion between Christians."