Halloween has taken on a whole different meaning for me now that I've gotten older and have continued to dive into my faith. It is the eve of All Saints Day in the Church, when we celebrate the souls whom we believe have made it into Heaven and behold the face of God. The saints are the members of the Church Triumphant, the ones who succeeded in overcoming the temptations of the flesh and who remained in Purgatory for little or no time because they spent most of their lives making reparation and doing penance for their sins. These saints have become our examples on how to live our lives in facing temptation, serving one another, and loving God.
Because these men and women are in Heaven, they are close to God and seek to intercede for us to help us with our spiritual battles here on earth. They are constantly praying for us, and they want us to succeed so that we can share the Beatific Vision with them. In no way were these saints "super human"; we may see them as that because they exuded so much holiness, but they were just like you and I; they became a reflection of how open they were to the grace of God and how it was working in them and through them. Like us, they suffered the same temptations and dealt with the same faults that most of us face today. We should be comforted by the fact that they are praying for us because they have been where we are, and they already know that we can overcome our humanly obstacles with the grace of God, just as they did.
After celebrating the Church Triumphant, we celebrate a special Holy Mass for the souls in Christ that are still being cleansed in Purgatory of the residual effects of sin. These souls are a part of the Church Suffering, and they are the ones who are on their way to Heaven, but need to continue to be purified of blemishes they collected in their mortal lives. We, who are still fighting for our souls, have a special job to pray for these souls and seek to "speed up" their time in Purgatory. We can offer our own penances, Holy Communions, prayers, Rosaries, and a multitude of other mortifications and graces for the holy souls in Purgatory because their time has already been spent on earth in order to do these things for themselves.
As the Church Militant, we must continue our battle against the devil and his lies and temptations, seek help from our brothers and sisters of the Church Triumphant, and aid the holy souls in the Church Suffering so they may come into the full vision of God. We should take time during these two feast days this week to meditate on the finiteness of our lives and to realize that God is always present in all that we do. I ask you, go to Mass on both of these feast days and offer up any of the graces you receive from Holy Communion for the holy souls in Purgatory, or in particular for any of your loved ones who have passed away. You will not realize until you passed from this life how exponential this grace aids them in reaching the fullness of joy in Heaven.
*****
Things are finally starting to slow down a little bit in life. It took me a week, but I finally came off the celebrity high I experienced in meeting RED. I'm down to two catechist classes now on Tuesday and Wednesday nights after the two weeks of having three per week. This past weekend, we had an extremely early Nor'easter that hit the area and caused a lot of damage, mostly by tree limbs falling on power lines because they couldn't sustain the weight of the snow. Luckily, it didn't affect my apartment. It was also homecoming for my alma mater, Millersville University, and the town of Millersville was celebrating its 250th birthday. Despite being snowy and cold, the annual parade was enjoyable and it was fun talking with some of the current students at MU. It was a great weekend!
As for the feast days this week, I'll be going to St. Mary's for All Saints Day, and then I'll be going to St. Anthony's for All Souls Day. The Mass at St. Anthony's is special because it is a Requiem Mass celebrated in the extraordinary form, or the Latin Mass, which is the form that was celebrated in the Church before Vatican II. This will be the third year I've gone to this particular Mass for All Souls Day, and it amazes me every time with the Gregorian Chant sung by the Schola, the chanted Mass parts, and the reminders of our mortality (there's a casket that sits in the center aisle of the church during the entire Mass!).
Laus Deo!
No comments:
Post a Comment