Posted on 10/31/2008 10:14:18 PM PDT by Salvation
THE SAINTSFrom Around the Year with the TRAPP FAMILY |
I don't know what I would have done without the saints in bringing up our large family. Long before our children could memorize the Apostle's Creed and pronounce, "I believe in the Communion of Saints," they were already participating in it. Very early they had learned that the Communion of Saints is one large, happy family whose members have one thing in common: they want to go to heaven. Some of them, like ourselves, are still living here on earth, working hard to reach the goal. Very many, however, have already reached it. These are our big sisters and brothers, the saints. And there is still another group. As Our Lord has said once that nothing unclean can enter the Kingdom of Heaven, most of the souls, after they leave the body in death, are not found ready and have to be purified in Purgatory from the last stain of sin. Even while suffering, these souls are happy because they know that, for them, time with its great dangers is over and soon they will be forever united with their Lord and God. "Be ye perfect even as your Heavenly Father is perfect," says Our Lord, and "This is the will of God--your sanctification," explains St. Paul. We mothers cannot begin early enough to make it seem quite natural to our little ones that we all--they and we--must strive to become saints just like....And this is where our big sisters and brothers enter in. The most precious thing about the saints is that they were not born that way. They had their faults just as all of us do, and they had to work hard to overcome them. Some of them were quick-tempered like St. Peter or St. Francis de Sales; some even lied and stole and cheated their mother, as St. Augustine tells us about himself; some were quite wicked, like St. Paul or Mary Magdalene; others were meek and mild from the beginning, like little St. Therese and Dominico Savio. We parents could learn from the great eagerness with which the children take to certain TV programs or movies with Hopalong Cassidy or other popular performers that every young soul is a hero-worshipper. Children simply need someone to look up to, to imitate. Well, there is no Hollywood hero who could not be easily outdone by one of the saints. Among that very large number of our big sisters and brothers who "made it" there is one for every kind of child. There are the Old Testament saints. Some of their stories are more exciting than all of Grimm's fairy tales. Think of the stories of Abraham when he goes up the mountain to sacrifice his only son; of King David and King Solomon; the prophet Jeremiah; Daniel in the lion's den; and Tobias with his friend, Raphael; not to forget our saintly first parents, Adam and Eve, whose feast the Church celebrates on the vigil of the birth of Our Lord, December 24th. There are the stories of the holy women--Judith, Throughout the centuries Christian people have adopted this same policy.
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It cannot be stressed enough that perhaps the most important books in the home, after Holy Scriptures, are those dealing with the lives of the saints. Besides the classic Butler, there are other collections. We always liked Omer Englebert's "The Lives of the Saints," (New York, David McKay Co.) which gives the story of several saints for every day, thus providing one with many "true stories." Looking through those "Lives" becomes more and more fascinating as we realize the many links uniting these people of long ago with us in the twentieth century. To my amazement I discovered that there is a patron saint for practically every profession--though we have to distinguish between saints appointed by the people themselves and others appointed by Rome. Thus the Holy Father, Pius XII, named St. Michael the patron of policemen, St. Albert the Great And once in a while somebody would come running with a special discovery.
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Did you find your favorite saint here?
As Our Lord has said once that nothing unclean can enter the Kingdom of Heaven, most of the souls, after they leave the body in death, are not found ready and have to be purified in Purgatory from the last stain of sin.
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I **respectfully** ask the following:
Is there any reference in the Bible for purgatory?
Since there are very few perfect Christians ( we must be perfected in Christ) I would think that Catholics would be terrified of death. Instead of peace in the arms of Jesus they would think they would be facing the suffering of purgatory.
This thread is about All Saints Day. Not All Souls Day.
The Veneration and Imitation of the Saints
Hallowe'en -- Eve of All Saints, October 31st
For All the Saints (Secular College Campuses Seeing Catholic Processions)
Know Your Saints Quiz for families -- Catholic/Orthodox Caucus
Anonymous Saints [Solemnity of All Saints]
All Saints, All Souls and the Four Last Things
All Saints Day in Poland (beautiful photos)
The Feast of All Saints - What are the origins of All Saints Day and All Souls Day?
All Saints Day - November 2005
VESPERS (Evening Prayer)Nov.1 2003 Feast of ALL SAINTS
Ideas for Sanctifying Halloween, All Saints Day and All Souls Day
1. I am the apostle to the Gentiles whose letters you read in the Bible.
2. I am the first American citizen to be canonized whose work among the immigrants gave me the title of 'Patron of All Immigrants.'
3. I am the Carmelite saint whose "Little Way" shows us how offering joys and sorrows daily can make us a great saint.
4. I am the foster father of Christ and the patron of a happy death.
5. I am the cousin of Jesus who prepared the way for the Lord.
6. I am the woman who offered my veil to wipe Jesus' face when He was carrying His cross.
7. I am the apostle chosen by Christ to be head of His Church.
8. I am the missionary who made Ireland famous for its piety and learning.
9. I am the beloved apostle and the writer of the fourth gospel.
10. I am the cousin of the Blessed Virgin Mary whose baby was Presanctified.
11. I am the patron saint of music because I sang the praises of God while I was cruelly put to death.
12. I am the modern day saint who chose martyrdom rather than to be impure.
13. I am the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the grandmother of Jesus.
14. I am the valiant young girl who led France to victory over England and then suffered death by being burned at the stake.
15. I am the 'Little Poverino' whose order is now the largest in the world and who so resembled Christ in my life that I was privileged to bear His sacred wounds in my own body.
16. I am the 'Wonder Worker' of Padua and a Doctor of the Church.
17. I am the Patron saint of schools who was once called the Dumb Ox by my classmates but who wrote many treatises on the faith. My teacher was St. Albert the Great.
18. I am the saint who reformed the Carmelite Order and who became the first woman Doctor of the Church.
19. I am the simple parish priest who was tormented by the devil because my great sanctity brought my people closer to God.
20. I am the Visitation nun to whom Jesus appeared showing His Sacred Heart and to whom He delivered His message of love and plea for reparation.
Choices:
St. Peter |
St. Therese of Lisieux |
St. Anthony |
St. Joan of Arc |
St. Elizabeth |
St. Anne |
St. John the Baptist |
St. John the Apostle |
St. Margaret Mary |
St. Patrick |
St. Maria Goretti |
St. Paul |
St. Teresa of Avila |
St. Cecilia |
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton |
St. John Vianney |
St. Joseph |
St. Thomas Aquinas |
St. Francis Assisi |
St. Veronica |
* 20 point bonus for those who know the century in which their saint lived.
* 5 points for each piece of information you know about your saint.
Very heartwarming. Real family fun, God centered.
Please allow me to respectfully add some scriptures to your post.
Philippians 1:1 ¶Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: (All true believers in Jesus Christ are saints)
Job 15:15 Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. (God puts no trust in his saints. Neither should we.)
Acts 26:10 Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.
11 And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. (Saints aren’t perfect, just forgiven - some of them under pressure even blasphemed.)
Ephesians 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; (We are not instructed to pray TO all saints, but FOR all saints.)
It all comes down to a misunderstanding of what a saint is. A saint is sanctified, set apart. Every true believer in Jesus Christ as the only mediator between God and man is sanctified and set apart as a saved child of God. This doesn’t make him perfect, but he is forgiven and reconciled to God by the death of Jesus Christ. Oh what a Saviour!!!
Is there any reference in the Bible for Sola Scriptura?
Purgatory isn't so much a place as a condition. Once bapitized, we receive new life is Christ; therefore, we cannot die. When our spirits leave our bodies, we go not to the place of the dead (Hades), but to our Lord in Heaven. Christ's death and resurrection pays our way, so to speak, cancelling out the guilt of our mortal sins. Few of us, however, are in a state of perfection when we die; even though we are saved from our sins themselves, we still bear upon ourselves the natural consequences of our sins the stains upon our souls created by our sins. Since only that which is perfect can enter the Presence of God, these stains must be cleansed before we "arrive" in Heaven. As we approach the Almighty, the Force of His divine Love "burns away" these stains; the pain we experience in the process is real, but it is tempered by the joy we feel as we approach the Savior. Then, as the holy fire of the Lord purges us of our last links to sin and death, we enter His Presence, spotless.
Imagine a man who had led a good and holy life dies. He has loved Jesus, his neighbor, and his fellow man all his life, and has sacrificed everything for God, enduring great suffering in so doing. He goes to Heaven, right? Of course. Now imagine another man who has been evil for his entire life suddenly seeing the light while on his deathbed. He accepts Christ as Lord and Savior, is baptized, and dies. His soul goes to Heaven as well. Is it right that both men receive the same treatment in the afterlife? True, both are saved, but the formerly evil man still carries on his soul the damage done to it by every act of evil he ever did. It only makes sense that the formerly wicked man should be completely perfected before he sees the Face of God. That purification is called Purgatory.
I sometimes imagine that Purgatory will be something like a movie of my life on Earth, in which every detail of every sin will be relived in excruciating exactness. Every pain I caused to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, every time I insulted the Immaculate Heart of Our Lady, every time I disrespected the Saints, created scandal, or failed to love my neighbor will be experienced by me once more. I will be made to feel the pain of every person I used, hurt, or treated as less than human during my life. As I am drawn to the Savior in Heaven, the Light will become so bright that every stain on my soul will be revealed in its blinding light, and I will writhe in shame at my appearance in contrast to the perfection of our Lord.
And then a voice will say, "All these, I forgive. I give you new raiment, washed white as snow. Enter into the joy of the Lord, my son." The suffering will be over. With joy, I will release my stained garment and become perfect, as He is perfect.
"The glorious company of the apostles praise Thee.
The goodly fellowship of the prophets praise Thee.
The white-robed army of martyrs praise Thee.
All Thy saints and elect with one voice do acknowledge Thee,
O Blessed Trinity, one God!"-- Feast of All Saints (November 1), Antiphon at Lauds. from the Te Deum
Prayers - Scripture Readings | Family Activities
Origin of All Saint's Day as a feast of the Church What makes this feast so important that the Church celebrates both the night before All Saints and the day after it?The Church has always honored those early witnesses to the Christian faith who have died in the Lord. (The Greek word for "witness" is martyr.) During the first three hundred years Christians were serverly persecuted, often suffering torture and bloody death -- because they were faithful . They refused to deny Christ, even when this denial might have saved their own lives, or the lives of their children and families.
The early history of the Church is filled with stories of the heroic faith of these of witnesses to Christ's truth. The stories of these saints -- these baptized Christians of all ages and all states in life, whose fidelity and courage led to their sanctity or holiness -- have provided models for every other Christian throughout history.
Many of those especially holy people whose names and stories were known, the Church later canonized (that is, the Church formally recognized that the life of that person was without any doubt holy, or sanctified -- a "saint" who is an example for us.) The Church's calendar contains many saint's days, which Catholics observe at Mass -- some with special festivities.
But there were thousands and thousands of early Christian martyrs, the majority of whose names are known only to God -- and throughout the history of the Church there have been countless others who really are saints, who are with God in heaven, even if their names are not on the list of canonized saints.
In order to honor the memory -- and our own debt -- to these unnamed saints, and to recall their example, the Church dedicated a special feast day -- a sort of "memorial day" -- so that all living Christians would celebrate at a special Mass the lives and witness of those "who have died and gone before us into the presence of the Lord".
This feast that we know as All Saint's Day originated as a feast of All Martyrs, sometime in the 4th century. At first it was celebrated on the first Sunday after Pentecost. It came to be observed on May 13 when Pope St. Boniface IV (608-615) restored and rebuilt for use as a Christian church an ancient Roman temple which pagan Rome had dedicated to "all gods", the Pantheon. The pope re-buried the bones of many martyrs there, and dedicated this Church to the Mother of God and all the Holy Martyrs on May 13, 610.
About a hundred years later, Pope Gregory III (731-741) consecrated a new chapel in the basilica of St. Peter to all saints (not just to the martyrs) on November 1, and he fixed the anniversary of this dedication as the date of the feast.
A century after that, Pope Gregory IV (827-844) extended the celebration of All Saints to November 1 for the entire Church.
The vigil of this important feast, All Saint's Eve, Hallowe'en, was apparently observed as early as the feast itself.
Ever since then -- for more than a millennium -- the entire Church has celebrated the feast of All Saints on November 1st, and, of course, Hallowe'en on October 31.
It is a principal feast of the Catholic Church. It is a holy day of obligation, which means that all Catholics are to attend Mass on that day.
Prayers, Scripture Readings for All Saints Collect
[That the prayers of all the saints will bring us forgiveness for our sins]Father, all-powerful and ever-living God,
today we rejoice in the holy men and women
of every time and place.
May their prayers bring us your forgiveness and love.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
or
[We rejoice and keep festival in honor of all the saints]God our Father, source of all holiness,
the work of Your hands is manifest in Your saints, the beauty of
Your truth is reflected in their faith.
May we who aspire to have part in their joy
be filled with the spirit that blessed their lives,
so that having shared their faith on earth
may we also know their peace in your kingdom.
Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.First Reading: Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14
I, John, saw another angel ascend from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, "Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads." And I heard the number of the sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand sealed, out of every tribe of the sons of Israel.
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!" And all the angels stood round the throne and round the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen."
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, clothed in white robes, and whence have they come?" I said to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to me, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.Second Reading: 1 John 3:1-3
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every one who thus hopes in Him purifies Himself as He is pure.
Gospel Reading:
When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain, and when He sat down His disciples came to Him. And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
"Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.
All Saints is a Holy Day of Obligation. The principal activity for every Catholic family today is to go to Mass -- together, if possible. (Note Liturgical Calendar) Other family activities:
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Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment
Obama: If they make a mistake, I dont want them punished with a baby.
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bttt
Could you make this a caucus PLEASE!
I’d just like to enjoy it without having to explain it.
The musical was cute, Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer made a darling couple ...
But the REAL CAPT von Trapp was a hero and a man of great courage and integrity. I invite you (all) to get to know him before "The Sound of Music" ... as he served his country To the Last Salute".
Sure, Religion Moderator, could you please add {Catholic/Orthodox Caucus] to the title?
Thanks, in advance.
Thanks for that link. I will check it out.
Thanks so much!
Fantastic article, btw
Thanks for that - I thought I had all of Maria von Trapp’s books - and books about her family, etc. - I never knew about this one - about Captain von Trapp.
I’ll check it out.
I just thought it was so neat that the kids put together a list of saints (just in case.)
He wrote it (in German); the volume I linked is translated by his granddaughter.
You won't see "TSoM", or the Trapp Family Singers in quite the same way. Georg was a man of steel.
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