5 Ways to pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory (1)

October 28-29, 2017. 30th  Sunday in Ordinary Time.

From Rosary Crusade Australia:
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 8, 7pm
NATIONAL ROSARY CRUSADE
Australia ! It’s time to unite our voices in prayer
Join us for the ROSARY CRUSADE
In light of current events in Australia, the call to unite our voices, hearts and spirits in PRAYER has never been more important. Christians are facing persecution and threats to our religious freedom like no other time in the history of  this great nation.
We will pray the Rosary for these specific intentions:

he attack on marriage and the family.
the push for the legalisation of euthanasia; and the push for the legalisation of abortion.

 

“ Give me an army saying the Rosary and I will conquer the world.”   -   Blessed Pope Pius IX

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Praying for the souls of those who have died is an  ancient practice of the Church -- here's how to do it this November. by Philip Kosloski 

November is dedicated to the Holy Souls in Purgatory and the faithful are encouraged not only to remember the passing of relatives and friends, but most importantly to pray for the souls of the deceased. Praying for the souls of those who have died is an ancient practice of the Church, one that is based on the Catholic teaching regarding Purgatory.
   
The Catechism offers a brief explanation regarding this state in the afterlife: “The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect… As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that  certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come” (CCC 1031).
   
“[E]very sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory” (CCC 1472).
    
On account of this reality, the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy explains, “Hence derives the pious custom of suffrage for the souls of the faithful departed, which is an   urgent supplication of God to have mercy on the souls of the dead, to purify them by the fire of His charity, and to bring them to His kingdom of light and life. This suffrage is a cultic expression of faith in the communion of saints. Indeed, ‘the Church in its pilgrim members, from the very earliest days of the Christian religion, has honoured with great respect the memory of the dead; and “because it is a holy and a whole-some thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins” (2 Mac 12, 46) she offers her suffrages for them.’” 
   
It is a Spiritual Work of Mercy to pray for the souls of the faithful departed, imploring God to purify the souls of the dead “by the fire of His charity” and to bring them at last to their Heavenly Home.

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Why the Morning Offering is a good habit.

October 21-22:  29th  Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Why the Morning Offering is a good habit.
Patty Knap, Aleteia

This one prayer dedicates our entire day and our entire self to God in that day ahead
The Morning Offering is an ancient prayer. A few years ago for Lent, a friend emailed me some prayers. I read that the Morning Offering is a way of giving to God the entire day ahead — the good and the bad, the trials and sacrifices, as well as the joys and blessings. I started reading it every morning and soon I had it memorized.

 

Like many Catholics I was in the habit of throwing out   individual offerings here and there during the day: 

“Okay, God, I offer up this total hassle to you…” Whether it was waiting two hours in a doctor’s office, or my son’s abandonment of his faith, or a medical problem, I’d try to remember to put the trial to good use for any number of intentions. With the Morning Offering, the whole day is “covered” in advance.

We can’t pray constantly, yet we can turn our entire day into one continuous offering through this simple prayer, starting our day by giving it to God, through His Blessed Mother. It dedicates our entire day and our entire self to God in that day ahead. We join all our efforts for God’s purpose with the Sacrifice of the Mass for the con-version of sinners, reparation for our own sins, and the souls in Purgatory. It acknowledges that each day is a gift, and expresses gratitude for our blessings and joys … all this in under three minutes! Now I’m in the habit of saying it every morning. If I’m not reading it in my daily prayer email, I can say it from memory, or even offer my own abbreviated version.
For centuries people have prayed variations of the Morning Offering. Probably one of the best known versions today is this one, composed by Father Francois Xavier Gaulrelet in 1844 for his Apostleship of Prayer ministry, which he founded that year.
        

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, for the salvation of souls, the reparation of sins, the reunion of all Christians, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father this month. Amen.

Pope John Paul II once said that the practice of praying the Morning Offering is “of fundamental importance in the life of each and every one of the faithful.” It is a daily reminder to make our entire day, our whole life “a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Romans 12:1). 

 

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Pope Francis and the Rosary:

“I want to give you some advice: Never abandon the  rosary. Never abandon the rosary. Pray the rosary, as she asked.”

These were the words of Pope Francis in a video message to the people of Portugal for the closing of the centennial of the Marian apparitions at Fatima.  The pope warmly thanked the Portuguese for their response to his trip to Portugal last May 13, and assured them that the Christian who stays close to the Virgin Mary is “like a child near his mother,” who should never be afraid. 

 

“The nation doesn’t simply need what we have. It needs what we are.” -St. Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein)
 

“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.”  -St. Augustine

October 13, 1917 Sixth Apparition of Our Lady (4) - Dr. Jose Maria de Almeida Garrett

October 13, 1917  Sixth Apparition of Our Lady (4)
More eye-witness accounts:
Source: Paul Kengor, A Pope and a President: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Extraordinary Untold Story of the 20th Century (ISI Books, Delaware, 2017)

 

Dr. Jose Maria de Almeida Garrett

 

“One witness was Dr. Jose Maria de Almeida Garrett, a professor in the Faculty of Sciences at the prestigious University of Coimbra, the oldest institution on higher education in Portugal. Dr Garrett had gone to Fatima a skeptic, but what he witnessed changed his outlook. He recounted: ‘It must have been 1:30pm... The sky, which had been overcast all day, suddenly cleared; the rain stopped and it looked as if the sun were about to fill with light the countryside that the wintery morning had made so gloomy... The sun, a few moments before, had broken through the thick layer of clouds which hid it and now shone clearly and intensely.

  ‘Suddenly I heard the uproar of thousands of voices, and I saw a whole multitude spread out in that vast space at my feet... turn their backs to that spot where, until then, all their expectations had been focused, and look at the sun on the other side.’
With all the spectators shifting their gaze, Dr Garrett did the same. He was amazed at what he watched unfold:

‘I could see the sun, like a very clear disc, with its sharp edge, which gleamed without hurting the sight. It could not be confused with the sun seen through a fog (there was no fog at that moment), for it was neither veiled nor dim... The most astonishing thing was to be able to stare at the solar disc for a long time, brilliant with light and heat, without hurting the eyes or damaging the retina. The sun’s disc did not remain immobile, it had a giddy motion, not like the twinkling of a star in all its brilliance for it spun round upon itself in a mad whirl.

 

During the solar phenomenon which I have just de-scribed, there were also changes of colour in the atmosphere. Looking at the sun, I noticed that everything was becoming darkened. I looked first at the nearest objects and then extended my glance further afield as far as the horizon. I saw everything had assumed an amethyst col-our. Objects around me, the sky and the atmosphere, were of the same colour....

Then, suddenly, one heard a clamour, a cry of anguish breaking from all the people. The sun, whirling wildly, seemed all at once to loosen itself from the firmament and, blood red, advance threateningly upon the earth as if to crush us with its huge and fiery weight. The sensation during those moments was truly terrible.”
    

From Fr Andrew Apostoli CFR, Fatima for Today: the urgent Marian message of hope (Ignatius Press, San Francisco 2010)

October 13 1917 Sixth Apparition of Our Lady (3), Two Simultaneous Apparitions

2017: Fatima Centenary Year
October 7-8:  27th  Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Lucia described in her memoirs what happened next, when our Lady was about to leave.
“Then, opening her hands, she made them reflect on the sun, and as she  ascended, the reflection of her own light continued to be projected on the sun   itself. Here…is the reason why I cried out to the people to look at the sun, because I was not even aware of their presence. I was moved to do so under the guidance of an  interior impulse.’

Once the October apparition began, the three children were oblivious of everything around them, even the great crowd of people. They were no doubt in a kind of ecstatic state resulting from their being in the presence of the Mother of God, as they had experienced on previous occasions. Lucia’s spontaneous words to the people made the great crowd turn their attention to the sun, and they witnessed the great miracle of the sun dancing at Fatima. What the three little visionaries saw was quite a different apparition:
‘After Our Lady had disappeared into the immense distance of the firmament, we beheld Saint Joseph with the Child Jesus and Our Lady robed in white with a blue mantle, beside the sun. St Joseph and the Child Jesus appeared to bless the world, for they traced the Sign of the Cross with their hands. When a little later, this apparition disappeared, I saw Our Lord and Our Lady; it seemed to me that it was Our Lady of Dolours [Sorrows]. Our Lord appeared to  bless the world in the same manner as St Joseph had done. This apparition also vanished, and I saw Our Lady once more, this time resembling Our Lady of Mount Carmel.’

Eye-witness accounts:
Many people who saw the great miracle have shared what they experienced. One witness, Mary

Allen, gives her testimony:
 “As we approached the hillside upon which the appearances were supposed to have taken place, I saw a sea of people. (Some newspapers said there were 70,000 people there.) I didn’t count, but it was more people than I have ever seen in my life, even to this day… We had just arrived there when suddenly my attention was drawn by a sudden bright light from the heavens, lighting up the whole countryside. Suddenly the rain ceased, the clouds separated and I saw a large sun, brighter than the sun, yet I could look at it without hurting my eyes, as if it were only the moon.  This sun began to get larger and larger, brighter and brighter until the whole heavens seemed more brilliantly lighted than I have ever seen it. Then the sun started spinning and shooting streams of light, which changed it to all colours of the rainbow… At the same time, it started getting bigger and bigger in the sky as though it were headed directly for us, as though it were falling on the earth. Everyone was frightened. We all thought it was the end of the world. Everyone threw themselves on their knees praying and screaming the Act of Contrition. Suddenly the sun stopped spinning and returned to its place in the sky. Everyone started shouting: ‘Miracle! This is a miracle!’ Just then I noticed that both the ground and my clothes were bone dry. Everyone seemed to rush forward to see the children. Unfortunately I was only able to see them at a distance.”

From Fr Andrew Apostoli CFR, Fatima for Today: the urgent Marian message of hope (Ignatius Press, San Francisco 2010)