ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN NOVEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 2nd of November
ALL SOULS DAY - THE COMMEMORATION OF ALL THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED
By purgatory, no more is meant by Catholics than a middle state of souls; viz., of purgation from sin by temporary chastisements, or a punishment of some sin inflicted after death, which is not eternal.
As to the place, manner, or kind of these sufferings, nothing has been defined by the church, it is interwoven with the fundamental articles of the Christian religion. For, as eternal torments are the portion of all souls which depart this life under the guilt of mortal sin, and everlasting bliss of those who die in a state of grace, so it is an obvious consequence that among the latter, many souls may be defiled with lesser stains, and cannot enter immediately into the joy of the Lord.
Repentance may be sincere, though something be wanting to its perfection; some part of the debt which the penitent owes to the Divine Justice may remain uncancelled, as appears from several instances mentioned in the holy scriptures.
Every wound is not mortal; nor does every small offence totally destroy friendship. The scriptures frequently mention these venial sins, from which ordinarily the just are not exempt. The smallest sin excludes a soul from heaven so long as it is not blotted out.
NOTHING WHICH IS NOT PERFECTLY PURE AND SPOTLESS CAN STAND BEFORE GOD
Nothing which is not perfectly pure and spotless can stand before God. Whence it is said of heaven: There shall in no wise enter into it anything defiled.
It is the great employment of all the saints or pious persons here below by a rigorous self-examination to try their actions and thoughts, and narrowly to look into all the doublings and recesses of their hearts; continually to accuse and judge themselves, and by daily tears of compunction, works of penance, and the use of the sacraments, to correct all secret disorders, and wipe away all filth which their affections may contract. Yet who is there who keeps so constant a guard upon his heart and whole conduct as to avoid all insensible self-deceptions?
Who is there upon whose heart no inordinate attachments steal; into whose actions no sloth, remissness, or some other irregularity ever insinuates itself? Or whose compunction and penance is so humble and clear-sighted, so fervent and perfect, that no lurking disorder of his whole life escapes him, and is not perfectly washed away by the sacred blood of Christ, applied by these means or conditions to the soul? Who has perfectly subdued and regulated all his passions, and grounded his heart in perfect humility, meekness, charity, piety, and all other virtues, so as to bear the image of God in himself, or to be wholly and perfect even as he is, without spot?
And the very best Christians must always tremble at the thought of the dreadful account they have to give to God for every idle word or thought.
SOULS WITHOUT REMAINING BLEMISHES
No one can be justified before God but by his pure and free mercy. But how few even among fervent Christians bring, by his grace, the necessary conditions of cleanness and disengagement of heart and penance, in so perfect a manner as to obtain such a mercy, that no blemishes or spots remain in their souls?
Christ, exhorting us to agree with our adversary or accuser by appeasing our conscience, mentions a place of punishment out of which souls shall be delivered, though not before they shall have paid the last farthing. St Paul tells us, that he whose work shall abide the trial, shall be rewarded; but he who shall have built upon the foundation (which is Christ or his sanctifying grace) wood, hay, or stubble, or whose imperfect and defective works shall not be able to stand the fiery trial, shall be saved, yet so as by fire.
"...SHALL BE SAVED, YET SO AS BY FIRE"
The last sentence in the general judgment only mentions heaven and hell, which are the two great receptacles of all men, both the good and bad, for eternity, and after the last judgment there will be no purgatory.
It is also very true of every man at his death that on whatever side the tree falls, on that it shall always lie; the doom of the soul is then fixed for ever either to life or death: but this excludes not a temporary state of purgation before the last judgment, through which some souls enter into everlasting life.
The church of Christ is composed of three different parts: the triumphant in heaven, the militant on earth, and the patient or suffering in purgatory. Our charity embraces all the members of Christ. Our love for him engages and binds us to his whole body, and teaches us to share both the miseries and afflictions, and the comforts and blessings of all that are comprised in it.
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN PRACTICE
The communion of saints which we profess in our creed, implies a communication of certain good works and offices, and a mutual intercourse among all the members of Christ.
This we maintain with the saints in heaven by thanking and praising God for their triumphs and crowns, imploring their intercession, and receiving the succours of their charitable solicitude and prayers for us: likewise with the souls in purgatory, by soliciting the divine mercy in their favour.
"A PIOUS AND WHOLESOME CHARITY"
That to pray for the faithful departed is a pious and wholesome charity and devotion, is proved clearly from the Old Testament, and from the doctrine and practice of the Jewish synagogue.
The Protestant translators of Du Pin observe, that St Chrysostom, in his thirty-eighth homily on the Philippians, says, that to pray for the faithful departed in the tremendous mysteries was decreed by the apostles. Mr Thorndike, a Protestant theologian, says: "The practice of the church of interceding for the dead at the celebration of the eucharist, is so general and so ancient, that it cannot be thought to have come in upon imposture, but that the same aspersion will seem to take hold of the common Christianity."
PRAYER FOR THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED IS MENTIONED BY THE FATHERS ON OTHER OCCASIONS
Prayer for the faithful departed is mentioned by the fathers on other occasions. St Clement of Alexandria, who flourished in the year 200, says, that by punishment after death men must expiate every the least sin, before they can enter heaven.
How earnestly St Monica on her death-bed begged the sacrifices and prayers of the church after her departure, and how warmly St Austin recommended the souls of his parents to the prayers of others is related in their lives.
The like earnest desire we discover in all ancient Christians and saints [...] [here is given a long list of examples]
"GIVE PERFECT REST TO THY SERVANT"
St Ambrose, in his funeral oration on the great Theodosius he prays thus: "Give perfect rest to thy servant Theodosius." And again: "I loved him; therefore I follow him unto the country of the living. Neither will I forsake him till by tears and prayers I shall bring the man whither his merits call him, unto the holy mountain of the Lord." He mentions the most solemn obsequies and sacrifices on the thirtieth, sometimes fortieth day; for so long they were continued: but, on third, seventh, and thirtieth days with particular solemnity.
It appears from Ven. Bede’s history, and the account of his death, also from a great number of letters of St Boniface, St Lullus, and others, how earnest and careful our ancestors were, from their conversion to the faith, in mutually desiring and offering sacrifices and prayers for their deceased brethren, even in distant countries.
GOD LOVES THEM MOST TENDERLY
St Odilo, abbot of Cluni in 998, instituted the Commemoration of all the faithful departed in all the monasteries of his Congregation, on the 1st of November; which was soon adopted by the whole western church. The council of Oxford in 1222, declared it a holiday of the second class, on which certain necessary and important kinds of work were allowed.
The suffering souls in purgatory are the chosen heirs of heaven, the eternal possession of which kingdom is secured to them, and their names are now written there amongst its glorious princes. God most tenderly loves them. [...]
BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. By having shown this mercy to the suffering souls in purgatory, we shall be particularly entitled to be treated with mercy at our departure hence, and to share more abundantly in the general suffrages of the church, continually offered for all that have slept in Christ. The principal means by which we obtain relief for the suffering souls in purgatory are sacrifice, prayer, and almsdeeds. The unbloody sacrifice has always been offered for the faithful departed no less than for the living.
THE HOLY MASS
"It was not in vain," says St Chrysostom, "that the apostles ordained a commemoration of the deceased in the holy and tremendous mysteries. They were sensible of the benefit and advantage which accrue to them from this practice. For, when the congregation stands with open arms as well as the priests, and the tremendous sacrifice is before them, how should our prayers for them not appease God? But this is said of such as have departed in faith."
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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