I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE! ~ CookingFood.Org

“HONEY FROM THE ROCK”

Wednesday, 2^nd November 2016,

Thirty First Week of Ordinary Time

The Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed

Is 25:6-9;

Ps 22;

Rom 5:5-11;

Luke 7:11-17

I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE!

Today the Holy Catholic Church prays for her children who, at the moment of death, though destined for the everlasting glory of heaven, were not yet prepared to enter into that joy but who were also not deserving hell. These are the souls in Purgatory – those who are being purged and purified so that they may inherit the everlasting life of heaven. But let us remember the reality that each one of us has also moved one day closer to death. It’s our common destiny.

The prayers for the dead began with the first Christians who, from the very beginning, prayed for those early martyrs. They did so in order to give thanks to Almighty God for the witness of those martyrs along with their courage, and above all their faith. They did so because they recognized the unbreakable bond that joins us all together in Christ, the living and the dead alike. Death cannot tear asunder the family of Christ; death cannot tear asunder the communion that we share in Christ with each other whether we are here on earth or have gone on into the next life.

The practice of praying for the dead is based on Sacred Scripture: “Therefore (Judas Maccabeus) made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin” (2 Mac 12:46). From the beginning, the Church has honoured the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the death (Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1032).

However brave we might be and even if we accept the reality of death positively, the actual moment of leaving this earth is always delicate and crucial, because it involves a separation. Hence the Church encourages us to prepare ourselves for the hour of our death.

Prayer: God of power and mercy, You have made death itself the gateway to eternal life. Look with love on our deceased brothers and sisters; make them one with Your Son in His suffering and death, that, sealed with the blood of Christ, they may come before You free from sin. Amen.