All Souls Day is moment when the Holy Catholic Church commemorates and prays for the holy souls in Purgatory, undergoing purification of their sins before entering heaven.
All Souls Day follows All Saints Day, and commemorates the faithful departed, those who die in God's faith and friendship. However, Catholics believe that not all those who die in God's grace are immediately ready for the Beatific vision, i.e. the reality and goodness of God and heaven, so they must be purified of "lesser faults," and the temporal effects of sin.
Day 1
Sin is the one thing that holds back the progress of man's ascent to God.
Only sin blocks his path.
Vice and crime throw human beings back to animal levels when they should be mounting toward the angels.
Death in mortal sin means the complete failure that is hell.
It flings a man, who is destined for eternal happiness, into eternal loss and pain. Death in venial sin or with the punishment due to sin still on the soul means a halt in the progress toward heaven.
The poor soul---poor indeed in his eagerness to reach God and the tedious, painful delay that keeps him from God---must linger in God's prisonhouse.
This is the sad land of Purgatory.
It is a place of anxious, almost impatient waiting. Since there are in purgatory relatives we loved and friends we knew and thousands of others who call to us for help, we pause and say:
The Prayer for the Holy Souls
O God, the Creater and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of thy servants and handmaids departed, the remission of all their sins; that through pious supplications they may obtain the pardon they have always desired. Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
All Souls Day follows All Saints Day, and commemorates the faithful departed, those who die in God's faith and friendship. However, Catholics believe that not all those who die in God's grace are immediately ready for the Beatific vision, i.e. the reality and goodness of God and heaven, so they must be purified of "lesser faults," and the temporal effects of sin.
Day 1
Sin is the one thing that holds back the progress of man's ascent to God.
Only sin blocks his path.
Vice and crime throw human beings back to animal levels when they should be mounting toward the angels.
Death in mortal sin means the complete failure that is hell.
It flings a man, who is destined for eternal happiness, into eternal loss and pain. Death in venial sin or with the punishment due to sin still on the soul means a halt in the progress toward heaven.
The poor soul---poor indeed in his eagerness to reach God and the tedious, painful delay that keeps him from God---must linger in God's prisonhouse.
This is the sad land of Purgatory.
It is a place of anxious, almost impatient waiting. Since there are in purgatory relatives we loved and friends we knew and thousands of others who call to us for help, we pause and say:
The Prayer for the Holy Souls
O God, the Creater and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of thy servants and handmaids departed, the remission of all their sins; that through pious supplications they may obtain the pardon they have always desired. Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment