This month especially we pray "to empty Purgatory" - a wondrous ambition.
A priest friend of mine always makes a point of visiting any non Catholic cemetery he happens to be passing in order to say an eternal rest or three for those buried there. That is an admirable practice.
Those souls have no one to pray for them and they carry the stain of their earthly sin until such time that recompense has been judged to have been made.
They are branded with the infection of sin; sin that needs to be eradicated just as an infected wound is cauterized, by fire.
And to carry the metaphor still further, iron loses its properties (sin) in fire and then, if heated to the correct degree and annealing takes place, it becomes harder and stronger then before.
It becomes perfect just as our souls will become perfect so that we may enter into God's kingdom for all time.
A priest friend of mine always makes a point of visiting any non Catholic cemetery he happens to be passing in order to say an eternal rest or three for those buried there. That is an admirable practice.
Those souls have no one to pray for them and they carry the stain of their earthly sin until such time that recompense has been judged to have been made.
They are branded with the infection of sin; sin that needs to be eradicated just as an infected wound is cauterized, by fire.
And to carry the metaphor still further, iron loses its properties (sin) in fire and then, if heated to the correct degree and annealing takes place, it becomes harder and stronger then before.
It becomes perfect just as our souls will become perfect so that we may enter into God's kingdom for all time.
Cristobal de Morales - Missa Pro de Defunctis
"It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins" 2 Mac 12:46.
ReplyDeleteI've always remembered this from childhood and daily pray for those who have no-one to pray for them.
It's in the sure knowledge that one day I shall be among them and will need all the prayers of the faithful I can get.
Like the metaphor and thanks for the Morales, one of my fave liturgical composers.