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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Happy
November! In the Church, this month is devoted to remembering
and praying for our dead brothers and sisters. There are
several reasons for this. First of all, as we celebrated this
past week, November is the month of both All Saint’s Day and
All Soul’s Day. Another reason is that as we come to the end of
our liturgical year, both our prayers and our readings at all of
our Masses and other liturgical prayer take a good hard look at
the end times, and more specifically, our end. Our readings
this month remind us that no one is going to be here forever.
We are all souls passing through this world, on our way home to
Heaven, hopefully! These are good things to remember and to
think about. Finally, as the season of fall quickly fades into
winter, and as nature dies all around us (How many leaves have
you raked lately?), nature too reminds us that like the leaves
and the grass, we are dying. And we don’t like to think about
that. Many of us go to some pretty great lengths to pretend
that we are not dying. Even when people do die, we paint them
up and dress them up to look good for the viewing. How many
times have you heard at the funeral home, “Don’t they look just
like they were sleeping?”? I don’t know about you, but I don’t
want to look like I’m sleeping. I want to look dead.
So
November is our month to pray for the dead. As we have done for
the past several years, our Book of Remembrance is out at the
entrance to the main sanctuary. I invite each of you to write
down the names of family members and friends who have died so
that all of us can keep them in our prayers this month. And
then in your prayers this month, may all of us remember to pray
for all those listed in the Book of Remembrance.
This
November, I’d like to ask each one of us to reconsider how we
pray for the Poor Souls in Purgatory. Many times, the Poor
Souls are the part of the Church that gets forgotten. We forget
every day that there are countless souls waiting, suffering,
being purified in Purgatory, being prepared for Heaven. We are
the ones who can help them out. Our prayers for them are so
important. Praying for the Poor Souls in Purgatory is not just
a “nice thing” to do, it is our responsibility and obligation.
Plus, most likely, ALL OF US are going to have to spend some
time in Purgatory being prepared for entrance into Heaven.
Believe me, at that time, we are all going to wish that there
were people back here in this life praying for our souls. How
impatient will we be, waiting for the living to pray for us! I
wonder if our impatience in Purgatory will make us spend even
more time there!?! I don’t know. I’ve never thought about that
one. What I do know is that now is our time to pray for the
Poor Souls. In the morning when you say your morning prayers,
at meal times when you pray your meal prayers, at night before
you go to bed when you pray your night prayers, ALL OF US need
to be including prayers for the Poor Souls in Purgatory. Our
prayers really can make a difference! And what soul that makes
it home to Heaven sooner, because we prayed for them, is not
going to reciprocate by praying for us when they get home to
Heaven? This praying for each other thing really works. It’s
what keeps us Church!
I have
placed a bunch of copies of the Prayer of St. Gertrude the Great
on the information table in the narthex of the church. It is my
hope that by all of us praying this beautiful prayer often, we
will help those in purgatory who most need our help every day.
The Prayer of St. Gertrude the Great goes like this…
“Eternal Father, I offer
Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy
Divine Son, Jesus, in
union with the Masses said throughout
the world today, for
all the holy souls in Purgatory, for sinners
everywhere, for sinners
in the universal Church, those in my
own home and within my
family. Amen.”
It’s
not a long prayer. You can pray it many times every day. You
can pray it by yourself or with others. It doesn’t matter. But
it does do a lot of good! See if you can’t memorize it.
Next
Saturday, St. Maria Goretti is proud to welcome the Carmel
Symphony Orchestra and Choir to our church. The Concert is next
Saturday night at 7:30 PM. There will be a free dress rehearsal
performance on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 PM. This is a special
performance of church music for the dead. It is most
appropriate that this concert take place in a church. The
performance is entitled, “A Living Requiem - We Remember”.
Have a
great week and an awesome month!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
The Dictionary is the only place
where success comes before work.
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