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To: All
The Word Among Us

Meditation: John 6:37-40

All Souls’ Day

“This is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.” (John 6:40)

What a hope-filled promise Jesus makes here! Everyone who lives and dies in Christ will be raised up on the last day. And because this prom­ise is for everyone, it creates a special link between all of us who are bap­tized into Christ. It makes us all members of one family, binding us together in ways that go beyond sim­ple church membership. In a sense, we all depend upon one another because we are all members of the one body of Christ. And that means that our prayers for each other— both living and dead—are more than good thoughts and wishful thinking. They have power because we are all united with each other.

In his encyclical Saved in Hope, Pope Benedict XVI speaks of the ancient Christian tradition of pray­ing for the dead. He notes, of course, that it remains a source of comfort for us. But he also says that it dem­onstrates how intertwined our lives are with one another in the body of Christ:

No one lives alone. No one sins alone. No one is saved alone. The lives of others continually spill over into mine: in what I think, say, do, and achieve. And conversely, my life spills over into that of others: for bet­ter and for worse. So my prayer for another is not something extraneous to that person, something external, not even after death. In the interconnect­edness of Being, my gratitude to the other—my prayer for him—can play a small part in his purification. (48)

Love is stronger than death, and it reaches across time to bind us together. As we reflect today on all those who have gone before us, we should remember that our prayers can benefit one another. Whether we are praying for someone we know here and now or someone who has already died, God hears us. And surely it pleases our Father to see his children caring for one another!

“Father, thank you for all the people you have put in my life, especially those who now sleep in faith. Together we place our hope in your promise of resurrection.”

Wisdom 3:1-9 Psalm 23:1-6 Romans 5:5-11


43 posted on 11/02/2012 7:45:38 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: All
A Christian Pilgrim

A WHOLESOME THOUGHT 

ON this day we remember all the souls of the faithful departed. Their ideal was Christian perfection traced out for all by Christ. They were faithful to that ideal and rule of life; but because their love of God was not perfect while they were on earth, now they are suffering a most intense longing for God and sense-pains to make up for their disordered, unchristian self-love. 

This inordinate self-love, opposed to love of God, must be corrected either in this world or in the next. It is wiser and easier, much less painful to love God above everything else here on earth than to suffer torments in the temporary banishment of purgatory. 

Souls in purgatory cannot help themselves; we on earth can help them by our prayers, alms and sacrifices. Even now, souls in purgatory can help us. Let us prove our love for them who are very dear friends of God. They would well say to us: “Some day you shall be where we are now.” 

By prayer, penance and the sacraments let me escape the punishments of purgatory. 

Note: Taken from “A THOUGHT A DAY – LITTLE THOUGHTS FOR LITTLE PEOPLE TO HELP THEM BECOME GOD’S GREAT SAINTS” (Assembled by A Father of the Society of St. Paul). 


44 posted on 11/02/2012 8:40:25 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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