MONTH OF THE HOLY SOULS

November is the month of the Poor and Holy Souls in Purgatory

There is no need to pray for the dead if they are all in heaven, since our prayers cannot improve the perfect joy of the saints in heaven.

Nor if the dead are all in hell, since our prayers cannot improve the just condemnation of the unrepentant sinners in hell.

We pray for the dead only because some of them are in neither place.  Some of them are in a temporary place of purification, and they can be helped by our prayers.

Some saints have taught that our prayers for the souls in Purgatory are the most pleasing to God because our prayers for them are the most charitable.  How so?  As we said, praying for the souls in heaven or hell is fruitless.  Besides the souls in Purgatory, the only other people we can and should pray for are those still alive on earth.  But, to some extent, some more than others, everyone on earth can in some way improve their own situation.  Not so the souls in Purgatory!  They can do nothing whatsoever to decrease their pains in Purgatory.  The time for merit is over.  They depend entirely on the judgment of God, and the prayers of the saints in heaven and the faithful on earth.  What can be more charitable than to help the most helpless, and the souls in Purgatory are certainly the most helpless.  And since God is charity, the most charitable prayers and works please Him the most.  If we want to be as charitable, good and holy as God is, we will be very active in praying and sacrificing for the souls in Purgatory.

The souls in Purgatory are both holy, because they died in the state of grace and are destined for heaven; and they are also poor, because they are suffering the just delay of heaven on account of their venial sins and incomplete reparations.

Practical Things We Can Do for the Holy Souls this Month

• Offer Holy Mass for their intention.  This is the best thing we can do for them, for in Holy Mass we offer not just our own unworthy and imperfect prayers, but the saving sacrifice of Jesus.
• Pray the Rosary and the Chaplet for the Holy Souls for them
• Offer little sacrifices, penances, mortifications for them like fasting or abstinence
• Spread devotion to them, reminding people to pray for them
• Make a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament for them
• When gaining indulgences, apply them to the Holy Souls rather than for yourself
• Visit the cemeteries (Coemeterii Visitatio).  Some saints have told us that the souls experience more consolation when we visit their graves or the sites of their death.  Say prayers at the gravesite.  If you do this on or before November 8, a plenary indulgence can be gained; for the rest of the month, a partial indulgence.

The Grandmother of the late Fr. Daniel Lord, SJ

Father Lord was a famous Jesuit; an orthodox Catholic writer and teacher who was a key person in composing a code of decency used by Hollywood at the time.  He tells the story how his grandmother would take him many Sundays to the cemetery, where, besides praying, they would bring a picnic basket of sandwiches and sweets.  Their visits to the cemetery were real visits, not just quickies.  To stay in a cemetery for an hour or so was to really spend time with one's loved ones, to give them real attention.  It reminds us that, though physically dead, our loved ones are alive in the spirit.  We are still one family - the Communion of Saints.  How neglected the souls are!  Not by this grandmother!

To eat a picnic lunch at the cemetery is a reminder that life goes on.  Death is only of the body.  The soul is immortal.  On Judgment Day, our bodies will re-unite with our souls and join it wherever the soul may be.

NEXT SUNDAY : CHRIST THE KING

The truth that Christ is King is very old; the feast of Christ the King is very new.

The truth is old.  In the Old Testament, God promises King David that he will have a descendant who will be a great king with a throne that last forever; a king who will build a house to God's name; a kingdom where God will be a father to the King.  The prophets of the Old Testament pointed to a future messiah who would rule over Israel.  The Jews believed that the messiah would indeed be a king.  The kings of Israel were anointed with oil; "messiah" means "anointed."  This was all fulfilled in Christ, who, in His human origins, is Son of David.

In the New Testament, Saint John has a vision of Christ in great splendor and power, and on Christ's garment and thigh are written : King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  (Revelations 19:15)

The Church has always regarded Christ as King.  But the feast was only put on the Church calendar in 1925.  Why?

What was happening in the world in that Jubilee Year of 1925 and the years before it?  It was a time of great social and political tension (as in every age).  Europe was getting rid of many of its kings.  It was also the aftermath of the First World War, one of the worst in history in terms of human casualties.  The Communists were in power in Russia and communist/socialist parties in other countries were becoming powerful.  Social classes were at odds; the workers versus the corporate bosses.  Fascism won in Italy and was starting in other nations.

For the Church, anti-clericalism was on the rise.  Communist Russia was a sworn enemy of all religion.  Even in traditionally Catholic countries, the Church was persecuted because it was accused of meddling in politics.

Pope Pius XI therefore proclaimed this new feast to remind the world of a couple of things.  The first is that, no matter how many kings the world topples, one king will always remain : Christ the King.  The Pope wrote that Christ is not just King over the Catholics of the world; Christ is King of the universe - period.  Christ's authority is not exercised with guns, but with the proclamation of the truth; and the Church has the right to preach that truth and work for its implementation.

Secondly, the Pope taught that only a world obedient to Christ the King can bring true peace and security to the world.  Christ is not King of the Jews; He is King of all who listen to the Truth, because He is the way, the truth and the life.  His rule is a rule of mercy and justice, and if we were all under this rule, mercy and justice would put away this world's violence and injustice.

WHY IS CHRIST - AND NOT THE FATHER - KING?

"The Father is greater than I." (John 14:28).  But Jesus is God (John 20:28), so how can one divine person (the Son) be less than another divine person (the Father)?  Are they not equal?  Yes, they are equal in divinity.  As we say in the Creed, Christ is consubstantial with the Father (one in essence).  As far as the divinity is concerned, Christ is equal to the Father.  But the Son and the Father are not the same persons; the Son is begotten of the Father.  The Son is the self-knowledge of the Father, and so He is called the Logos, the Word of God.  Christ is not begotten in time, as if there was a time when He was not, and then, in time, He became.  No; since He is God and therefore eternal, Christ is begotten in eternity (not in time); there was never a moment when the Word/Son was not.  He always was, but He is begotten of the Father.  Therefore, in this sense, the Father is greater than the Son.

Because He is the Word of God, the Father creates all things through the Word.  God says (word) : Let there be light - and there is light!  Everything created - angels - animals - humans - are created through the Word.  In this sense, Christ is the King of all creation.

This creation was in need of redempton.  Christ took on the nature of a creature (He became man), and redeemed us.  In this second sense, Christ is King of redeemed creation.  Only the angels in heaven (who do not need redemption), and the demons in hell (who are incapable of redemption) were not redeemed.  Yet Christ is still their King because they were created through the Word (Christ did not create demons; He created angels, some of whom became demons by their own freely chosen rebellion).

Because He is King of the redeemed, Christ is King of the Church, the body of redeemed, of which He is the Head.

Thus, in Christ, one can see the unity and reconciliation of all things.  God and creation were at odds since the Fall.  In Christ, creation is united to a divine person.  Through His death and resurrection, creation is redeemed and exalted.  Thus, Christ has to be King; He has to be the leader who obeyed the Father to the point of shedding His blood, who brings rebellious man under the rule of God.  He does not force man to submit; He redeems only those who are open to the Truth (see Gospel).  Truth is the weapon of this King.

God the Father makes His Son King, because the Father sees in His obedient, loyal Son, the only way all creation can come back to the Father.  "No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

CHANGE OF THE FEAST DAY

Pope Pius XI decreed that this feast be celebrated on the last Sunday of October, so that it comes before the feast of All Saints.  He saw the last Sunday of October as coming towards the end of the liturgical year, which had celebrated many of the more important events of the life and ministry of the Lord on the prior Sundays.  This Sunday, therefore, was a kind of crowning of all those events, and precedes the celebration of the saints who are the fruit of Christ's redemption.

He also ordered that Catholics renew their consecration to the Sacred Heart on this feast.

Pope Paul VI moved this feast to the last Sunday of the liturgical year, whatever Sunday that may be on the civil calendar.  It will always be the Sunday before the first Sunday of Advent.  The whole previous liturgical year, therefore, would be crowned by the Kingship of Christ.

Since the Motu Proprio, under which we observe the traditional Mass (Extraordinary Form), decrees that we follow the rules and calendar of the 1962 Missal, the Extraordinary Form celebrates this feast on the last Sunday of October.

CHRISTUS VINCIT! CHRISTUS REGNAT! CHRISTUS IMPERAT!

Christ conquers! Christ reigns! Christ rules!

OCTOBER : Month of the Holy Rosary

Our Lady of the Rosary

Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine of Siena

October is traditionally the Month of the Holy Rosary.  Why?

 

Primarily because the feast of the Holy Rosary falls in the month of October - October 7th to be specific.

 

Something else happened on October 7, back in the year 1571.  The armies and navies of half a dozen Catholic nations fought against the Muslim Turks at Lepanto.  The Turks had more ships and more men, and Catholic Europe would have been laid open to Turkish invasion if the Catholic forces had lost.  Pope Saint Pius V had Catholics storm heaven by praying the rosary and the Catholic forces not only defeated, but nearly destroyed, the Turkish fleet.  It was a decisive victory that saved Catholic Europe.

 

Pope Saint Pius V happened to be a Dominican, great promoters of the Rosary.  He made October 7 the Feast of the Holy Rosary (originally the feast of Our Lady of Victory).  He also promulgated the Roman Missal that is basically the 1962 Missal we now use.

 

The Battle of Lepanto

While the earthly battle rages below, the heavenly court of saints and angels above approaches the Blessed Mother begging her assistance.

 

SEPTEMBER : OUR LADY OF SORROWS

The month of September is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, whose feast is kept this month on the 15th, the day after the feast of the Triumph of the Cross.  Wherever our Lord is, His Blessed Mother is not far behind, even in the Church calendar.

The sorrows of Our Lady were foretold by Simeon the Prophet in the Temple of Jerusalem (Luke 2:34-35).  Devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows is a source of strength for us in our own struggles on earth.  She shows us how to unite our crosses with that of Jesus and to derive countless blessings from that union.

Some recommended devotions this month :

A short prayer (short prayers were called ejaculations or aspirations in traditional terminology) which can be prayed daily, many times; or added to our family rosary or personal prayer :

Mary most sorrowful, Mother of Christians, pray for us.

A longer prayer :

Most holy Virgin and Mother, whose soul was pierced by a sword of sorrow in the Passion of thy divine Son, and who in His glorious Resurrection wast filled with never-ending joy at His triumph; obtain for us who call upon thee, so to be partakers in the adversities of Holy Church and the sorrows of the Sovereign Pontiff, as to be found worthy to rejoice with them in the consolation for which we pray, in the charity and peace of the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

The devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows has also been called The Seven Dolors of Mary.  "Dolors" is an old word, hardly used anymore, which means "sorrows."  It comes from the Latin word for sorrow.  We get the Spanish word "Dolores" and "Dolorosa" from that, too.

The Seven Sorrows of Mary were :

1. The Prophecy of Simeon
2. The Flight into Egypt
3. The Loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple
4. Mary meets Jesus carrying the Cross
5. The Crucifixion
6. The Body of Jesus is given to Mary
7. The Body of Jesus is buried in the Tomb

A rosary of the Seven Sorrows can be prayed this way : The Sign of the Cross, three initial Hail Mary's, seven Hail Mary's for each Sorrow, after the seven Sorrows the Act of Contrition and the following final prayer :

V : Pray for us, O Most Sorrowful Virgin;
R : That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray.  Lord Jesus, we humbly implore, both now and at the hour of our death, the powerful intercession of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Thy Mother, whose immaculate and most holy soul was pierced at the moment of Thy passion with a sword of grief.  Grant us this favor, O Savior of the world, Thou who livest and reignest with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, forever and ever.  Amen.

Mt. Carmel Church, Agat

Many of our local churches have large, Spanish-style statues of Our Lady of Sorrows (Dolorosa).  Many women, and mothers especially, found comfort in a Mother who also knows the pains of life.

PORTIUNCULA INDULGENCE

The Church of Our Lady of the Angels in Assisi

or The Portiuncula

Today was a feast in the Franciscan calendar.  But attached to it is a special, plenary Indulgence.  For more information on it, see www.newadvent.org/cathen/12286a.htm.

NEW SCHOLA SINGS FIRST MASS

These six young men, ages 17 to 27, formed a schola and sang their first Mass today, the 7th Sunday after Pentecost.  They sang the Missa de Angelis and simplified propers based on psalm tones.  They sang prayerfully and they sang well.  We are blessed to have young men take this leadership in our community.  May Saint Cecilia continue to bless them.  With the Men's Choir and the younger Schola singing on different Sundays, we can have many more Sung Masses every month.

REQUIEM MASS FOR FATHER CH'E

The Reverend James Ch'e served the Church on Guam for 38 years in a humble, dedicated way.  May he rest in peace from his labors, for his good deeds go before him.

Prayer for a Deceased Priest

O God, Thou didst raise Thy servant, James, to the sacred priesthood of Jesus Christ, according to the Order of Melchisedech, giving him the sublime power to offer the Eternal Sacrifice, to bring the Body and Blood of Thy Son Jesus Christ down upon the altar, and to absolve the sins of men in Thine own Holy Name. We beseech Thee to reward his faithfulness and to forget his faults, admitting him speedily into Thy Holy Presence, there to enjoy forever the recompense of his labors. This we ask through Jesus Christ Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.