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We are now entering one of my favorite times of year – the stretch of the year that runs through Thanksgiving and the end of the liturgical year with the celebration of this weekend’s great feast, Christ the King and the beginning of a new Church year next weekend with the 1st Sunday in Advent, leading to our celebration of Christmas and its Octave and on through the end of the Christmas Season. It is a brilliant and wonderful time of year.
As we move into Advent I wanted to draw your attention to a couple of things as we prepare for Christmas. The first is the Sacrament of Penance. If Advent is a season of preparing to celebrate the Nativity of the Lord, as well as a time to prepare for the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in glory, then a significant and important part of that preparation is ask for forgiveness for our own failures in living up to the faith that we profess and the sinfulness which too often can mar our hearts. God, in His wisdom, knows that we are weak human beings, but God, in His mercy, gives us a sacrament to restore that which is lost by sin. If you have not been to confession in a while or perhaps even a bit intimidated in thinking about it, I can assure you that there are few things more consoling in life than walking out of a confessional with our sins forgiven and a chance to begin again – there are numerous resources and guides on the internet to help people make a good confession and most Catholic prayer books will have some aid to help people go to confession. Be sure, in the midst of the busyness of this season, to make time to be fully reconciled to God through the Sacrament of Penance. St. Mary’s offers numerous times for confessions – confessions are heard on Saturday mornings at 8:30 after the morning Mass, on Friday afternoons from 2:00 – 5:00 and we will have two Penance Services with Individual Confessions, one at St. Dominic’s at 7:00 PM on Monday, December 11th and one here at St. Mary’s at 9:00 AM on Saturday, December 16th (please note this replaces the normal 8:30 confession time that day). I also will be adding two more opportunities for people to go to confession before Christmas – on Tuesday, December 19th at Noon and Thursday, December 21st, at 7:00 AM (following the 6:30 Mass) and later that same day at Noon. Secondly, as we look forward to the coming Advent and Christmas Seasons I just wanted to take a moment to share with you some information regarding the 4th Sunday of Advent and the Christmas Mass schedules here at St. Mary’s. As you may have already noticed, December 24th this year is both the 4th Sunday of Advent and Christmas Eve – this happens rarely and the last time it happened was over a decade ago, in 2006. Because of the convergence of these two days, St. Mary’s, in conjunction with its neighboring parishes, will be adjusting both its 4th Sunday of Advent Mass times, as well as its Christmas Mass times. On December 23rd, we will celebrate the 5:00 Mass as usual for the 4th Sunday of Advent, but on December 24th we will be adjusting our morning Mass times and there will be two Masses, one at 8:30 AM and the other at 10:00 AM, both for the 4th Sunday of Advent. Christmas Eve Masses will be celebrated that afternoon at their usual 4:00 PM and 10:30 PM times (with the regular Christmas Concert at 10:00 PM). On December 25th, we will not have a 7:30 AM Mass, but instead two Masses, the 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM Masses for Christmas. 4th Sunday of Advent Saturday, December 23rd - 5:00pm Sunday, December 24th - 8:30am and 10:00am Christmas Sunday, December 24th - 4:00pm and 10:30pm Monday, December 25th - 9:00am and 11:00am Thank you for understanding the need to change our schedule in light of so many Masses in such a limited amount of time. In last weekend’s bulletin we offered some prayers to be prayed by one who wants to fulfill the Church’s recommendation to pray for the dead, particularly during this month of November. In this weekend’s bulletin are prayers for the dead which are appropriate for each day of the week, each days prayer ends with an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and the praying of the De Profundis which can be found in last weekend’s bulletin:
A PRAYER FOR THE POOR SOULS FOR EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK SUNDAY O Lord God Almighty, I pray Thee, by the Precious Blood which Thy Divine Son Jesus shed in the garden, deliver the Souls in Purgatory, and especially that Soul amongst them all which is most destitute of spiritual aid; and vouchsafe to bring it to Thy glory, there to praise and bless Thee forever. Amen. Our Father. Hail Mary. De Profundis. MONDAY O Lord God Almighty, I pray Thee, by the Precious Blood which Thy Divine Son Jesus shed in His cruel scourging, deliver the Souls in Purgatory, and that Soul especially amongst them all which is nearest to its entrance into Thy glory; that so it may forthwith begin to praise and bless Thee forever. Amen. TUESDAY O Lord God Almighty, I pray Thee, by the Precious Blood which Thy Divine Son Jesus shed in His bitter crowning with thorns, deliver the Souls in Purgatory, and in particular that one amongst them all which would be the last to depart out of those pains, that it may not tarry so long a time before it comes to praise Thee in Thy glory and bless Thee forever. Amen. WEDNESDAY O Lord God Almighty, I pray Thee, by the Precious Blood which Thy Divine Son Jesus shed in the streets of Jerusalem, when He carried the Cross upon His sacred shoulders, deliver the Souls in Purgatory and especially that Soul which is richest in merits before Thee that so, in that throne of glory which awaits it, it may magnify Thee and bless Thee forever. Amen. THURSDAY O Lord God Almighty, I pray Thee, by the Precious Body and Blood of Thy Divine Son Jesus, which He gave with His Own hands upon the eve of His Passion to His beloved Apostles to be their meat and drink, and which He left to His whole Church to be a perpetual sacrifice and the life-giving food of His Own faithful people, deliver the Souls in Purgatory, and especially that one which was most devoted to this mystery of infinite love, that it may with the same Thy Divine Son, and with Thy Holy Spirit, ever praise Thee for Thy love therein in eternal glory. Amen. FRIDAY O Lord God Almighty, I pray Thee by the Precious Blood which Thy Divine Son shed on this day upon the wood of the Cross, especially from His most sacred hands and feet, deliver the Souls in Purgatory and in particular that Soul for which I am most bound to pray; that no neglect of mine may hinder it from praising Thee in Thy glory and blessing Thee forever. Amen. SATURDAY O Lord God Almighty, I beseech Thee. by the Precious Blood which gushed forth from the side of Thy Divine Son Jesus in the sight of, and to the extreme pain of His Most Holy Mother, deliver the Souls in Purgatory, and especially that one amongst them all which was the most devout to her; that it may soon attain unto Thy glory, there to praise Thee in her, and her in Thee, world without end. Amen. (This article is part of a series that will appear over the course of this year on the Monthly Devotions of the Church’s year). As was discussed in our last article, the devotion for November that the Church recommends is praying for those who have died and are undergoing purification in Purgatory. Here is one of the common prayers for the dead, as well as a prayer we can pray for ourselves so that we are prepared for the moment of death. The psalm most associated with praying for the dead is the psalm known as De Profundis, Psalm 130. Here it is:
Out of the depths I have cried to Thee, O Lord: Lord hear my voice. Let Thy ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. If Thou, O Lord, wilt mark iniquities; Lord, who shall stand it? For with Thee there is merciful forgiveness: and by reason of Thy law, I have waited for Thee, O Lord. My soul hath relied on His word: my soul hath hoped in the Lord. From the morning-watch even until night, let Israel hope in the Lord. Because with the Lord there is mercy: and with Him plentiful redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. V. Eternal rest give unto them. O Lord. R. And let perpetual light shine upon them. V. From the gate of Hell. R. Deliver their souls, O Lord. V. May they rest in peace. R. Amen. V. Lord, hear my prayer. R. And let my cry come unto Thee. Let us pray: O God, the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful, we beseech Thee to grant to the Souls of Thy servants the remission of their sins, so that by our prayers they may obtain pardon for which they long. O Lord, Who livest and reignest, world without end. Amen. May they rest in peace. Amen. PRAYER TO ST. JOSEPH FOR A HAPPY DEATH O Blessed Joseph, you gave your last breath in the loving embrace of Jesus and Mary. When the seal of death shall close my life, come with Jesus and Mary to aid me. Obtain for me this solace for that hour - to die with their holy arms around me. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I commend my soul, living and dying, into your sacred arms. Amen. PRAYER FOR A HAPPY DEATH O God, great and omnipotent judge of the living and the dead, we are to appear before you after this short life to render an account of our works. Give us the grace to prepare for our last hour by a devout and holy life, and protect us against a sudden and unprovided death. Let us remember our frailty and mortality, that we may always live in the ways of your commandments. Teach us to "watch and pray" (Lk 21:36), that when your summons comes for our departure from this world, we may go forth to meet you, experience a merciful judgment, and rejoice in everlasting happiness. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. PRAYER FOR FINAL PERSERVERANCE O God, Who, while condemning all men once to die, hast yet concealed from them the moment and the hour of their death, grant that, spending all the days of my life in justice and in holiness, I may be made worthy to depart out of this world in Thy holy love. Through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the Unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen. (This article is part of a series that will appear over the course of this year on the Monthly Devotions of the Church’s year). The Church’s calendar for November begins with two major feast days, the Feast of All Saints on November 1st, followed by the Commemoration of All Souls on November 2nd. These two feasts which begin this month direct our minds and hearts to our ultimate end – life with God and help us to consider our eternal destination and the reality of death and of what have traditionally been considered the last four things: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. In the midst of our consideration of those things the Church recommends that we also turn our minds towards the reality of Purgatory and to pray, in a particular way, for those who have died and are being purified in preparation for seeing God in the Beatific Vision. In our reflection on the monthly devotions of the Church, November is set aside in a particular way for prayers for the dead. In this first article of November, we will take a look at the Church’s understanding of Purgatory and then, secondly, how our prayers and sacrifices can affect those who are in Purgatory. The following two articles will present prayers that we can pray for the dead, as well as prayers to pray for ourselves that we may be spiritually prepared for the moment of our own death.
We begin with turning towards the Church’s doctrine on Purgatory. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire…” (CCC #1030-1031). We see here then that there are two important elements to keep in mind as we consider the Church’s doctrine on Purgatory. The first element is the reality of the effects of sin. Sin has its effects even once the sin itself is forgiven – there is still a debt that must be repaid even if the sin itself is forgiven. This notion is what underlies our understanding of the need to do penance for sin – even sin which has been forgiven. Over the course of our earthly lives, through prayer, sacrifices, acts of charity, etc., some of that debt is repaid. If, upon death, there is still some of that debt to be paid, it is paid for in purgatory. Perhaps we can liken it to a scar that one bears from surgery. The surgery deals with the illness or sickness, but the scar remains afterwards. If we use this analogy we can see that God’s mercy forgives the illness and sickness of sin, but a scar still remains, a scar which is then healed in Purgatory. The second element underlying the Church’s doctrine on Purgatory is the reality that we must be prepared and finally purified in order to see the face of the living God. In this sense then we can see Purgatory as the foyer of heaven, where the soul that has died prepares to encounter God Himself – anything of sin is removed so that one can enter into God’s sight in purity. Following from this, then, is our understanding that the prayers of those on earth can assist those souls going through this process of purification, we can, in effect, help make up for some of the debt that they owe from their own past sins – to repay a debt which is not ours in that sense. The Church goes on to state in the Catechism, “This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: ‘Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin’ (2 Maccabees 12:46). From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead: Let us help and commemorate them. If Job's sons were purified by their father's sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them” (CCC #1032). The greatest prayer that can be offered for someone who has died is the Mass. This is why we have Mass Intentions – the Mass Intention is the person for whom the Mass is being offered, when they are someone who is deceased it is to aid them in Purgatory. It is a noble and beautiful thing to have a Mass celebrated for one who has died. There is usually a monetary offering that is given to the Church when a Mass is requested. If you would like to request that one of your own loved ones be an intention at Mass, please contact the Parish Rectory where those are scheduled. Praying for the dead is one of the Spiritual Works of Mercy and is one that we particularly focus in on during the month of November. In the next few bulletins you will find prayers that can be offered for those who have died as well as a few prayers that we can pray for ourselves, so that, when that moment comes, we are ready. Books that may be helpful are Treatise on Purgatory by St. Catherine of Genoa; Life Everlasting by Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Legrance, OP; and Purgatory: Explained by the Lives and Legends of the Saints by Fr. F.X. Shouppe, SJ. (This article is part of a series that will appear over the course of this year on the Monthly Devotions of the Church’s year). |
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June 2023
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