Latest / The Uncensored Catholic / Show 262: Purgatory, part 1

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Show 262: Purgatory, part 1 · The Uncensored Catholic

0:41
Speaker 1: The fish of All. Welcome to this week's show. I've
1:02
been a little bit absent in the past couple of weeks,
1:05
as you may have noticed if you're a regular listener.
1:07
I had to take a couple of weeks off, had
1:09
a lot going on with the reconstruction of my house
1:13
that was destroyed with a hurricane, and somehow in the
1:16
process picked up some kind of little upper respiratory virus
1:20
that had my voice knocked out last week pretty significantly. Actually,
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it was really kind of amazing. I did the show
1:32
with Steve Conningham since this Fidelium we've been every two weeks.
1:35
We discussed the book we wrote on herbal medicine, and
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my voice was good. I wasn't coughing or anything. Boy
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next morning, Wednesday morning, I mean I woke up and
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I was coughing and congested and had the tickle in
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my throat, I mean called to the point where I
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threw up, And you know, I hate when that happens,
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because after that, I'm so hoarse I can't do a
1:57
podcast for the rest of the week. So, you know,
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it was a good thing. I kind of had that
2:01
show in the can with Steve so I could use
2:04
it from our herbal podcast. But yeah, I have totally
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dropped the ball on the Catholic Podcast. So we're gonna
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pick up where we left off, and it's gonna be
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a very important show. We're gonna be talking all about purgatory. Now.
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We have discussed purgatory before in you know, follows Spirago's
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explanation to the Catechism. Today, after a few questions and
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answers with the priests from radio replies, we will be
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diving into the chapter, the first part. It's a two
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part chapter on purgatory in the end of this present
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world and the mysteries of the life to come by
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Father Armagnon. I don't even know written what one hundred
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and fifty years ago or so now, all about Catholic
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teaching on end times and the afterlife and all that.
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This is essential. Every Catholic needs to know how everything
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about purgatory for our own personal reasons. You know, obviously
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we want to go to heaven, we want to die
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in a state of grace. We also have to be
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able to defend the doctrine purgatory to I want to
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say Protestants, I wund to say non Catholics in all honesty,
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I'm really beginning to wonder how many non Catholic Christians
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are actually Protestant these days. I mean, the Episcopal Anglican
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Church is essentially gone, the Lutheran churches thirty percent of
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what it was just a generation ago. The Methodist Church
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is down by half, the Baptist Church is down by
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about thirty percent. Most of these so called Protestants now
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are not well. The Presbyterian Church is dead. I mean
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it may even be in worse shape than the Anglican Church.
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But most people that would call themselves Protestants now really
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don't have any knowledge of Protestant doctrine and are not
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members of mainline Protestant churches. They're like non denominationals, and honestly,
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they don't have a lot of set doctrine. They just
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know that they disagree with everything that's Catholic. So if
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Catholics believe in purgatory, they oppose it. So it's really
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becoming less important for us to go back and like
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read and learn the writings of Luther and Calvin and
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Knox and Zwing Gilly or whatever his name was it
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ever could pronounce his name. It's really just more and
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more important that we be able to fully explain Catholic doctrine,
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certainly citing passages from the Bible, explaining those passages using
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sound doctrine and logic, and you know honestly that it's
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fairly effective Catholic apologetics as they call it from Latin
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apologia to explain, really, when someone's not spending their time
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protesting the Catholic Church as a Protestant, which is, you
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know where the name comes from, they protest a lot
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of times, their minds are a little more open to
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sound doctrine, and every little bit of sound doctrine we
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can give them, even if they don't convert, brings them
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one step to being in closer communion with the Catholic Church.
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This really hit home with me the other day. Oh Man,
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this was a shock. Okay, this was an absolute shock.
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So again, learning that Baptists no longer teach that baptism
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is necessary for salvation. When I was at this certain
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Southern Baptist university in Virginia before I converted Catholicism, this
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absolutely shocked me because that's not what I was taught
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growing up in the Baptist from Methodist Church, or even
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the Presbyterian which we attended for a while, we were
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taught that baptism was absolutely necessary and that the Baptist
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Church was Baptist because they believe in baptism. Well not anymore.
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And you know, it's hard to kind of find where
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this started, but you know, Billy Graham said that baptism
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was unnecessary. In fact, he from what I understood, and
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I grew up with the grand kids, and I wish
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somebody who correct me if I was wrong on this.
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He actually discouraged his family members from being baptized. Now,
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as Catholics, we know that baptism is absolutely necessary to
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be joined to the body of Christ or receive the
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Holy Spirit to go to heaven. So that's a big
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deal right there. I went to Franklin Graham's website and
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he says that, no, baptism is not necessary. So yes,
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the Grahams do teach that baptism is unnecessary and that
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is absolute heresy, that is not Christian. Then something hit
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me recently. A lot of Protestants I've been debating with
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online over the past few years about Catholicism have made
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the statement that Jesus is not God, He's the son
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of God. Okay, now that again is that goes beyond heresy,
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that's apostasy. I mean, we are Christians because we believe
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Jesus is God. But for some reason, in the last
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couple of decades, the Baptist Church, because all these people
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have said that as best I can tell, are Baptist
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or Mormon, the Baptist Church has adopted the same essentially
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theology or doctrine of Mormonism. They're denying the Trinity. They're
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denying that Jesus Christ is God. They're saying he's the
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son of God. He was just born a regular human
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being and became God because God, he was particularly holy,
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and God blessed him and all that. No, no Catholicism
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believes Orthodox. He believes every Christian denomination until very very
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recently has taught the Holy Trinity. We believe one God
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in three persons, consubstantial begotten, not made before all agents.
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There was never a time in which Jesus Christ did
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not exist and exist as God. He incarnated me, and
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he came in human form. He never stopped being fully God.
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He just became fully God and fully man, and now
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he is fully God in heaven. But there has never
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been a time when Jesus was not God. This commercial
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comes on, and you know, I think the world of
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the Grams. They do such good work, you know, helping
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people charity. They've helped us out a lot in the hurricane,
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I can tell you that much. But Franklin comes on
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and he says, you know, if you pray this prayer, God,
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I'm a sinner, Please I believe that, you know. But
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what does he say? He says, I believe your died
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on the cross. Okay, so far we're good, right, And
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God rose him on the third day. No, no, God
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the Father did not raise Jesus. Jesus being fully God
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rose himself. And it hit me just as the Grahams,
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Billy Graham, the most famous and popular Baptist preacher of
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his time, and now Franklin of them seemed to have been,
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if not the ones to start, then you don't need
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to be baptized to get saved routine. It probably didn't started.
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I mean, I'm sure someone before them did, but they
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did a lot to popularize it, and so that's literally
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what's taught in Baptists Bible colleges and seminaries. Now they
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seem to be the ones that are propagating this idea
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that Jesus was not God until he was until the Resurrection,
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that Jesus was just a man who became God. He
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was the son of God and not God, and therefore
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we are all sons of God because He's fathered to
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us all, he created us all. And therefore Jesus before
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I guess they deny the baptism, So Jesus before the
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Resurrection was just a man like any of the rest
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of us. And then they say, well, then you know,
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the blessed Virgin Mary is not the mother of God
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because Jesus wasn't God, he was the son of God. Okay,
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it's really convoluted and really hard to understand, but it's
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also so heretical as to be apostasy. If you don't
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believe Jesus is God, I don't know how you can
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call yourself a Christian. We are Christians because we worship
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Jesus Christ as God. We don't worship Jesus Christ as
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a man who became God. We worship Jesus Christ as
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a person of the Trinity, which is God in three persons, Father, Son,
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and Holy Spirit. Uh. Yeah, all that aside, and you know,
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I've actually lost the threat of where I was going
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with that, Oh, I was saying, saying people who are
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non denominational. I mean, right now, I'm basically just arguing
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with Baptists over absolute heresy and apostasy because it's now
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become their doctrine and they can't even tell you when
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it developed. They think that people believe this stuff for
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hundreds of years, and I'm like, look, nobody even thought
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the Rapture existed more than one hundred years ago. Oh,
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they love the Rapture, they believe in the Rapture. Well,
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we as Catholics don't. That's actually far more difficult than
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expressing correct doctrine in a correct way, logically and founded
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in the Catechism, in the Bible and the teaching traditions
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of the Catholic Church to a non denominational who actually
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has very little doctrine whatsoever. They really don't know anything
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except what their preacher tells them. And any preacher on
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TV is as equal authority. And if you pick up
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the Bible and you say, look right here, that's what
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it says, you can get a long way into convincing
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people to come a little bit closer to Catholicism. And
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that's what it's going to take because before the end
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of time, all the prize and denominations are going to
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fall away and the Catholic Church will be the only
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Christian church left. So that's our duty, that's you know.
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Even so, Come Lord Jesus, that's what we have to
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work on. Let me sip the water here and we'll
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dive into purgatory. Still got that cough? Sorry about that,
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all right? The questioner asks. And this is, oh, another
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thing a lot of people don't know these days is
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the Salvation Army started out as a very anti Catholic
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charitable group, mostly to get people to stop drinking and
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to convert from Catholicism. That's another organization that does a
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lot of great stuff for charity, but its founding is
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absolutely heretical and purely evil. And General Booth was their
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main guy, and this person is of their persuasion. He says,
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would God DestinE so good a man as General Booth
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for purgatory just because he was not Catholic? And they
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answer the press answer, Purgatory is not a final destiny.
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Every soul that goes there is saved and is ultimately
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admitted to the very vision of God. Good Protestants as
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well as good Catholics will go there if they are
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not quite perfect at death, there is no dispensation. And
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where is the man who has not his imperfections? Person
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asks a man as or states posits, I guess you
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would say a man has every chance to repent in
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this life, and they answer, he has, and if he
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does not, he will not even go to purgatory if
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his sins be grave. Purgatory is not a place for repentance,
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but a place for purification. If two men repent on
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their death beds, one of whom broke one commandment and
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the other all, and the other all the commandments, both
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of them are saved by their repentance. But they are
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not both equal before God. They will suffer relative purifications
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in purgatory. Next person states the doctor in purgatory was
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invented by Pope Gregory in six hundred a d. And
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it was made in article faith by the Council Florence
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in fourteen thirty nine. And the prest answers, if not
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invented until six hundred a d. Why did Saint Monica
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the fourth century implore her son Saint Augustine as she
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lay on her dying bed, that he would pray for
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her soul whenever he went to the altar to offer mass.
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And how would you account for the inscriptions of the
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catacombs recording prayers for the dead offered by the Christians
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of the first centuries, Or if you would go back earlier,
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what would you do with the teachings of scripture itself?
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The Council Florence merely recalled previous definitions. Person says, what
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is your Romish reply to the challenge of article twenty
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two in the Book of Common Prayer, as would be
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an Anglican? Of course, the the priest, who was an
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Anglican convert, actually answers the article of the Church of
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England says that the Romish doctrine of purgatory is grounded
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upon no warranty of scripture, but rather pugnant to the
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Word of God. The reply is that the article is
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quite erroneous and that many Anglicans realize this fact. Thus,
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an Anglican clergyman and says that article definitely. In his
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book The Catholic Religion, a manual of instruction for members
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of the Church of England, he speaks of a place
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of mercy provided and the intermediate state, in which evil
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will be completely purged. When this purification is accomplished, such
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souls enter into perfect peace. So in page one ninety three,
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a Manual of Instruction for Members of the Church of England,
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the Catholic Religion dash a Manual of Instruction for Members
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of Church of England. In other words, how do how
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are Anglicans supposed to understand Catholicism? And he's saying this
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Angland is saying that the Catholic doctrine of purgatory is
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absolutely right. On the following page he suggests that at
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the reference men were too eager to reject much that
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was true, including the intermediate state. In no less than
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six different places, he arded his prayer for the dead,
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just as Catholics pray for the dead, and as he
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shows from scripture, both the Jews and Saint Paul prayed
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for the departed. On three seventy nine, he writes, still
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more desirable as the celebration of the Holy Eucharus for
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the repose of the souls of the departed. Thus, this
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Anglican clergyman goes back to the Romish doctrine of purgatory.
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I am not quoting from a book unacceptable to many.
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My copy is the nineteenth edition. Man, this was this
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written in nineteen forty, so they're probably many more additions
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since sim The person asked, how can Anglican clergyman who
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has sworn to accept the articles of religion teach such
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a doctrine and the presanswors. I do not see how
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he can do so. Romish theologians are simple children compared
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with the capacity from mental gymnastics, manifested by the Reverend
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Vernon Staley, the author of the book. So it's by
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Vernon Staley. But like I said, the Anglican Church, the
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Episcopal Church, is essentially dead. I mean, the churches are empty.
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The only reason they still exist is because their property
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of the English government. Nobody goes outside of Let's see,
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in the United States, you're going to find a few
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Anglicans in Washington, d C. And they're very wealthy and
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very powerful people. You'll find a few in certain centers
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like that. You could go to just about any town
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in well North Carolina in the five states surrounding US,
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well Virginia borders DC. You know you gotta find one there.
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Down in Charleston, there's still a small Anglican population. But
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you could go into any town and walk into the
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biggest Anglican church that's been there for two hundred years
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on a Sunday morning, and you'll be lucky if you
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see fifteen people in the pews and they're old. The
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Anglican Church is dead. I mean it's just gone. The
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Episcopal Church in America or the Anglican Church in England. Actually,
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what's funny is the only vibrant Anglican churches in England
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are those who call themselves Anglo Catholics, those who attend
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an Anglican church but will profess that they believe in
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practice everything the Catholic Church practices and confesses. They say
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that their priests are still in Apostolic succession and they're
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actually Catholic. Well they're not, that that succession broke down.
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They have no valid Eucharist, they have no valid confessional. Yeah,
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but you know, I mean, you go to town like
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Old Pinehurst, North Carolina. There's a small Anglican church and
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it's gonna be the wealthiest people in town that go there,
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and it's very much for influence and affluence, but it
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has essentially no Christian doctrine left. I mean they have
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lesbian priests doing gay marriage. It's not. It was never
19:00
a valid religion in the first place. I mean, how
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can you say we have a national religion. The King
19:05
of England is the head of the church. So the
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King of England is the head of the Church of Lithuania.
19:11
I don't think so. The Church of Zimbabwe, No, I
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don't think so anyway. So anyway, So Vernon Staley, the
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author of the book, and his efforts to solve his
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salve his conscience, salve comfort himself. He says in the
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effect that the doctor of purgatory is all right, but
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that Anglicans must not use the word purgatory. He admits
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the thing, but its description. He calls it a place
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or a process of cleansing, but he will not call
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it purgatory, which means the same thing. It is as
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if we Catholics had invented the word theater, then this
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expent of Anglicanism would insist upon using the word playhouse
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and swear that he did not agree with the Catholic
19:54
Church concerning the house of entertainment. In substance, he declares
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Article twenty two to be false and unscriptural, and okay,
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so if you haven't really studied Anglicanism. Essentially it is
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Lutheranism with an English face. But they have what they
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call the articles that every Anglican is supposed to agree with.
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And here's a whole book apparently written by an Anglican
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minister high up in the so called church, in which
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he says article twenty two is faulse. The articles of
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belief in the Anglican Church were never more than just
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a copy of Lutheranism written in English. And as I said,
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the Anglican Church is hanging on by a thread. The
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Presbyterian Church, which was based off of Low Church Anglicanism
20:48
for Scots, for the Scottish, never had a doctrine of
20:53
the art or theology that made any sense whatsoever. Is
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hanging on by a thread. Essentially dead. It's probably even
21:00
in worshape in the United States and the Episcopal Church,
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because the Episcopal Church do us the money. But the
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Presbyterian Church was never well in some places in the South.
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It was one of the wealthier churches, but it's where
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the Scots were allowed to go. The Lutheran Church is
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down by about seventy percent. I mean, it's hanging on
21:26
by a little more than a thread. But every generation,
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mainly thanks to divorce, people stopped taking their kids to
21:35
that church, and they can stopped sitting on the pew
21:37
with like three generations on the same pew, and they
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go off to college and never come back. So you
21:44
can absolutely thank King Henry who created the Anglican Church
21:50
to get a divorce for the eventual demise of Protestantism,
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because all the other Protestant churches eventually had to accept it.
21:57
And divorce will destroy a fani and the family is
22:01
the background of the church. And when people stop going
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to the same church their grandparents went to, or the
22:06
same church their parents went to, or they stopped being
22:09
raised in the church, going to Sunday School and Bible
22:12
studies and all that indoctrinated with Protestant hatred for the Catholicism,
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they just fall away. And that's that's what divorce and television,
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if you wanted to give it now, we can say
22:26
the Internet, divorce and easy entertainment have destroyed the Protestant
22:31
Church because it was never built on anything to start with.
22:34
But I just it blew my mind the other day
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when I finally realized what Franklin Graham was saying God
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rose him from the dead on the third Day. God
22:44
rose him from the dead. Jesus is God. Okay, Jesus
22:50
Christ is God. If you're saying God rose the man
22:55
Jesus from the dead, that means the man Jesus is
22:59
not God. And how can you even continue to call
23:04
yourself a Christian if you're one not baptized. Say that
23:09
baptism is not essential, even though Jesus Christ himself said
23:12
it is. Say that divorce is fine, even though that
23:15
Jesus Christ himself condemned divorce in all each of the gospels,
23:20
and then deny the divinity of Christ. How in what
23:25
way are you a Christian? I mean, Mormons are not
23:29
Christian because they do not believe in the divinity of
23:31
Jesus Christ. They believe he was a man who became God,
23:35
and that every Mormon can also become God, and God
23:38
will give them their own planet out in space where
23:40
all their families can live together, which makes no logical
23:44
sense whatsoever, because eventually everybody is related, they'd have to
23:47
be on the same planet. I mean, it's honestly moronic.
23:51
I mean, seriously, The LDS Church is how anybody, any
23:55
thinking person can accept the ridiculous propaganda of that cult.
24:02
I will never understand. But I'm telling you the Baptister
24:05
is getting just about his bad And I mean, I'm
24:09
not saying that good people in both of those institutions.
24:12
They're very good people, they're very devout people. But the
24:16
more your doctrine stops being Christian, the harder it is
24:22
to have Christian beliefs. I mean, look at what happened
24:29
at said Southern Baptist University that I attended in the
24:32
second generation. After the chancellor, the president of the founder
24:36
of the school, who was a friend of mine that
24:38
I thought the world passed away, his son took over.
24:41
And what happened a few years later, Well, that son
24:45
and his wife were in a major scandal. They had
24:49
been having a bunch of gay sex with the students
24:51
and using all kinds of drugs. Well, why not if
24:55
you're once saved, always saved, and nothing you do can
24:58
jeopardize your salvation as long as you one time in
25:01
your life confess Christ's Lord, why wouldn't you, Why wouldn't
25:07
you indulge in every sin imaginable? Anyway, let's get on
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to the end of this present world in life to
25:16
the world to come. All right, let's see. He starts
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with a quote from Job, Have pity on me. Have
25:24
pity on me at least you, my friends, because the
25:27
hand of the Lord hath touched me, Job nineteen twenty one.
25:32
How beautiful religion is, how admirable and consoling in its
25:35
teachings and in the glorious obscurity of its mysteries. That's
25:39
one thing. Catholics love mysteries. Protestants they have to figure
25:43
everything out. I don't get it. I was talking with
25:46
Mike Church radio host, Catholic radio host, the other day
25:50
and he said, you know something about how you know
25:54
children delight in fairy tales and you got people that
25:57
go around just say it. Ah, you know, you know
25:58
it's just old miss legends. He said, Kevin is a
26:01
good legend. Let the kids be kids, you know. And
26:05
I agree entirely, But that especially when it comes to
26:08
things that are far beyond our imagination, like the Holy Trinity,
26:12
we can't understand that, will never understand it. But we
26:15
know it's true because the Church teaches it, and God
26:18
gave the Church the authority to teach. It's the word
26:21
of God, and we don't doubt God. But anyway, Oh,
26:25
we're not Baptists. We don't doubt the word of God.
26:28
While letting us die on earth through the deprivation of
26:31
our bodies, it does not make us die in our
26:33
hearts by the rupture of friendships, which are their joy
26:36
and support. Does not the merciful Savior, who, out of
26:39
a feeling of exquisite delicacy designed or dain I'm sorry,
26:44
deign to be called the God of Abraham, who promised
26:46
his apostles to bring them to rest one day in
26:49
the bosom of Abraham. Isaac and Jacob seem to give
26:52
us to understand by this religious remembrance given to ancestors,
26:56
that death does not have the privilege of breaking the
26:59
lawful tipe of life, and that holy affections are not
27:03
extinguished by the cold hand of death. Our task today
27:06
is a difficult one. We must make you love and
27:09
fear purgatory. Purgatory deserves to be feared. It is in
27:13
all truth the workshop of infinite justice. Divine stringency and
27:18
rigor are their exercise with an intensity which to us
27:22
on earth is unknown. Weighty doctors of the Church assure
27:26
us that all the cruelties practiced on the martyrs by
27:29
their executioners, and all the let's see, all the lost
27:34
my place increded there by the mars. Here there we go,
27:37
and all the sufferings and afflictions heaped upon men since
27:41
the beginning of time cannot be compared to the lightest
27:44
penalty in that place of atonement. On the other hand,
27:47
purgatory is the masterpiece of the heart of God, the
27:50
most marvelous action of his love, so much that we
27:54
could not tell you whether the consolations enjoyed there are
27:57
not more abundant than the torments themselves. The state of
28:01
the holy souls, whose laments we wish to let you
28:04
here is incomprehensible and ineffable. Their bliss is not that
28:08
of heaven, where joys are unmixed. Their torments are not
28:11
those of hell, where suffering is unremitting. Their pains bear
28:15
no comparison with those of the present life, or happy
28:17
days alternate with days of desolation and sorrow. These souls
28:21
are happy and unhappy at the same time. The most
28:24
extreme tribulations and the greatest anguish which the soul can feel,
28:28
are indissolublely, indesolubly united to the most authentic and most
28:34
exhilarating joys imagable, accepting those of heaven. Oh, do not
28:39
accuse the Lord of cruelty toward these souls, whom he
28:42
will one day immerse in the ocean of his radiance
28:45
and make them drink the torrent of his pleasure. Thou
28:49
shalt make them drink the torrent of thy pleasure. I'm
28:52
not sure where that quotes from now. I got a footnote,
28:56
but I don't have time to look it up. Rather,
28:58
wonder how love and justice are united by a mutual disposition.
29:01
In this great work of amendment and purification, and the
29:05
light of those terrible flames, we shall realize the profound
29:07
degree of evil contained in the faults we consider slight
29:11
and unimportant. Moreover, the consolations which God's infinite clemency condescends
29:16
to these To extend to these dark places of fire
29:19
will help us to calm the fears which will grip
29:22
us at our last hour, at the moment of our death.
29:24
They will set our souls at peace and inspire us
29:27
with courage, confidence, and true resignation. So, in a few words,
29:32
purgatory is pleasing and consoling, a blessed abode worthy of
29:36
our greatest solicitude and predilection. Inasmuch as the torments there
29:40
endured are visited upon holy souls beloved of God. Purgatory
29:44
is a scene of affliction and anguish in as much
29:46
as God's justice gains compensation for the portion of sacrifice
29:51
and love which we have refused him. Here below, Holy angels,
29:55
guardians of those fiery chasm, chasms, there we go, not chasms,
29:59
as chasms. Help me to call to mind those souls
30:02
so holy and resigned from the bowels of the flames
30:05
that torment them. Make us recognize among them our fathers,
30:08
our mothers, our sisters, our brothers. Let their so tender
30:12
and heartrending cries penetrate our ears, for they would be
30:16
capable of splitting the mountains and mollifying cruelty itself. All
30:20
if our hearts had not been tortured to stone. Let
30:23
me try that again, All if our hearts had not
30:25
been turned to stone, If one drop of Christian blood
30:28
still runs in our veins, we shall understand that there
30:31
is no greater distress to be relieved, no devotion more
30:34
meritorious or more compelling to be practiced. The existence of
30:39
prerogatory is explicitly attested by holy scripture and by the
30:43
constant tradition of the Jewish and Christian Church. It is
30:46
said in the Book of Maccabee said, it is a
30:48
holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, so
30:51
they might be freed from the faults and imperfections by
30:53
which they sullied themselves in life. And that's why the
30:56
Book of Maccabee's was removed from the Protestant Bible. Martin
31:00
Luther and those that followed him made sure not to
31:04
include that book because they denied purgatory. And so that's
31:08
a very convincing argument you can have with a non
31:11
Catholic Christian to say, look in the original Bible, this
31:16
is what it said. It was changed for this reason.
31:19
And here's the quote from Martin Luther quote bragging about it. Okay,
31:23
here's here's a quote from Martin Luther bragging that he
31:26
changed the very words of Christ to fit his false doctrine.
31:29
Now that had to do with works of charity. He
31:31
hated doing anything good for anybody. I mean he literally said, don't, okay,
31:38
so he added the words alone when Jesus said you're
31:41
saved by faith and works. He took it well he took,
31:44
He took off works and added alone. Okay, but anyway, Yeah,
31:48
they also cut out whole books of the Bible, Sirac Wisdom, Maccabees,
31:53
et cetera. They just didn't like him. Luther wrote extensively
31:57
how he wanted to get rid of the Book of
32:00
Aims in the New Testament and Revelations. He did not
32:03
like people knowing that there were angels and saints praying
32:05
for them in heaven.
32:08
Speaker 2: Anyway, okay. Saint Paul, speaking of easy going and presumptuous preachers, who,
32:16
in the exercise of their ministry are led astray by
32:20
love of praise and yield to thoughts of vanity and
32:23
feelings of self satisfaction, says that they will be saved,
32:26
but after having first been tried by fire. Yet so
32:31
as by fire. Saint Gregory teaches that souls guilty of
32:35
trespass for which they have not sufficiently atoned during their
32:39
life will be baptized by fire. And I found that
32:41
footnote the first Psalm thirty five to nine. The maccabe's
32:46
quote is second McCabe's twelve forty six, and the quote
32:49
from Saint Paul's Corinthians three fifteen it will be their
32:54
second baptism, their baptism by fire. Ab ignay baptists to baptism. Yeah,
33:03
not so good with the Latin today. The first is
33:05
necessary in order to introduce us to the Church on earth,
33:08
the second to introduce us to the Church in heaven.
33:10
According to Saint Cyril and Saint Thomas, the fire purgatory
33:14
is the same kind, of that same kind as that
33:17
of hell. It has the same intensity, and differs only
33:20
in that it is temporary. Lastly, the sacred Sacred Liturgy
33:24
teaches us that purgatory is a frightful abyss, a place
33:28
in which souls are in anguish and cruel expectation, a
33:32
brasier where they burn unceasingly, subject to the effect of
33:37
subtle fire, lit by the breath of divine justice, the
33:40
strength of which is the measure of His most just
33:42
and most dreadful vengeance. In the Canon of the Mass,
33:46
the Church offers her offers her.
33:48
Speaker 1: Petitions to God in order to obtain for these souls
33:54
locum lucas, a place of light. Whence it follows that
33:57
they are in the night, enveloped in dense and imperetrable darkness,
34:03
she seeks for them locme refrigurary a place of refreshment,
34:07
where it follows that they are in intolerable burning pain. Again,
34:11
she asks for them locum pacis a place of peace.
34:15
Whence it follows that they are consumed by fear and
34:17
inexpressible anxieties. This simple description, and let's se there's a
34:24
footnote down here that Saint Bonaventure had a different take
34:31
than Saint Thomas and Saint Augustine, saying he didn't think
34:36
it was quite so severe. But you know, anyway, we'll
34:40
move on. The simple description makes our whole being shake
34:43
with horror. Let us hasten to say that the consolations
34:46
which these captive souls experience are also inexpressible. It is
34:50
true that their eyes are not yet refreshed by the
34:52
sight of the gentle light, that the angels do not
34:55
descend from heaven to transform their flames into a refreshing dew.
34:59
But they have a sweetest treasure, one which is enough
35:02
by itself to raise up man most despondent beneath the
35:05
weight of his afflictions, and bring the dawn of calmness
35:08
to the most doleful and dejective countenances. They possess the
35:13
good which on earth remains to the most wretched and
35:15
deprived of men. When He has drained the ever filling
35:19
cup of all afflictions and pains, they have hope. They
35:23
possess hope in the highest order, in that degree which
35:26
excludes all uncertainty and apprehension, which sets the heart at rest,
35:30
and the deepest and most absolute security. There is laid
35:34
up for me a crown of justice. And that's Timothy.
35:40
These souls are assured of their salvation. Saint Thomas gives
35:44
us two reasons for this unshakable certainty, which is so
35:46
consoling that it makes them, in a certain sense, forget
35:49
their pains. In the first place, these souls know that
35:53
it is of faith that the reprobate can neither love God,
35:56
nor hate their sins, nor fulfill any good work. Now
36:02
they have an inner awareness that they love God, that
36:05
they hate their faults, and can no longer do any evil. Moreover,
36:09
they know with certainty of faith that souls who die
36:12
in a state of mortal sin are cast into Hell
36:14
without delay the very moment they utter their final sigh.
36:19
They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment
36:22
they go down to hell, see if I can grab
36:24
that first? Is that job? Jube twenty one to thirteen.
36:29
Now the souls of whom I speak are not given
36:31
up to to spare, nor not given up to spear.
36:35
Do not see their faces. Let's try that again. Now,
36:38
the souls of whom I speak are not given up
36:40
to spare. Do not see the faces of the demons,
36:43
do not hear their curses and blasphemies. From this fact,
36:47
they infallibly conclude that they did not die in a
36:49
state of mortal sin, but are in a state of
36:51
grace and pleasing to God. Also, what a source of
36:55
happiness it is for them to be able to exclaim
36:58
with Saint Paul's confidence, no more relapse into sin, no
37:01
more separation between God and myself, for I am certain,
37:06
no more terrifying doubts about my predestination. Ah, it is over.
37:10
I am saved. I have heard from the very mouth
37:13
of God the irrevocable decoration of my salvation. I know
37:16
so as never again to doubt it, that one day
37:19
the gates of the heavenly City will open for my
37:21
triumphal entry, and that Heaven, Earth, and the principalities and
37:25
powers together are powerless to separate me from the charity
37:28
of God and dispossess me of my eternal crown. For
37:31
I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
37:34
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
37:38
nor knight, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature
37:41
shall be able to separate us from the Love of
37:44
God which is in Christ Jesus Our Lord Romans eight
37:47
thirty eight. All no doubt this soul will exclaim, how
37:52
sharp my pains are. Nothing can be compared with the
37:54
violence of my punishment. But this punishment and these sufferings
37:58
are powerless to take me away from God, to destroy
38:00
the fire of His love within me. Who shall then
38:03
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or
38:05
distress or famine. Oh, my weakness is now no longer
38:09
liable to reveal itself in outbursts of temper or patience
38:13
and murmuring. Resigned to God's will and pleasure, I bless
38:17
the hand that chastises me. I accept joyfully all my torments.
38:21
These torments cannot crush my soul, nor make it un uneasy, bitter,
38:25
or anxious. Skip a little bit of Latin here, since
38:28
I seemed to be mispronouncing everything. Today, I know that
38:31
they are ordained and moderated by that divine providence, which,
38:35
for the good of creatures, arranges all things with love
38:38
and equity. I will say more, I should prefer my
38:40
torments to the delights of heaven, if it could be
38:43
granted to me to enjoy them, against the desire of
38:46
that sovereign will to which I am henceforth absolutely and
38:51
irrevocably subject. My wishes and aspirations are summed up in
38:54
a single motto, All that God wishes, as he wishes it,
38:58
at the time he wishes it. Oh, God, of my heart,
39:01
my treasure, and my all, What am I that thou
39:03
danest to come down to me with thy paternal hand.
39:06
Purify an ungrateful and unfaithful soul. Oh, cut deep into
39:12
the flesh, drain the unimaginable cup of thy torments. Listen
39:16
only to Thy honor and the interests of Thy justice
39:19
until this is fully satisfied. Pay no heed either to
39:23
my groans or my complaints. Poor souls, they have but
39:26
one passion, one burning desire, one wish to break the
39:29
obstacle which prevents them from spring forward towards God who
39:33
calls them and draws them to him with all the
39:37
energy and all the violence of His beauty, mercy and
39:39
boundless love. Oh, if they could, they would willingly stir
39:43
up the flames which consume them and vie with one another,
39:46
and the accumulating torment upon torment, purgatory, upun purgatory, in
39:51
order to hasten the happy death of their deliverance. If
39:55
these souls are in, these souls are residual traces of sin,
40:01
an alloy of afflictions, blemishes, and defects, which does not
40:05
permit them to unite with the divine substance. They're in perfections.
40:09
The venial faults with which they allowed themselves to be
40:12
tarnished have darkened and maim their inner eye. If before
40:17
their complete purification, the bright, dazzling light of Heaven met
40:21
their sick and feebled eyes, it would feel an impression
40:25
a thousand times more painful and burning than those which
40:28
they feel amidst the deepest darkness of the abyss. Say
40:33
one thing for Father Amignon. He was eloquent, but not
40:37
easy to read aloud. I I mean, I can only
40:42
imagine someone sitting here listening to him actually preach this
40:47
live in French, which is even much much more flowery
40:52
than English, and yeah, you'd have to hang on every word.
40:57
God himself would like to transform them immediately into the
41:00
likeness of his glory by illuminating them with the pure
41:03
rays of his divinity. But these rays, being too brightened dazzling,
41:08
could not penetrate them. They would be intercepted by the
41:11
dross and the remains of that earthly dust and mire
41:14
which they are still with which they are still sullied.
41:18
It is essential that, having been cast into a consuming crucible,
41:22
they should lay aside the rest of human imperfections, so
41:25
that from being like base black carbon, they may emerge
41:29
in the form of a precious, transparent crystal. Their nature
41:33
must be made subtle, purge of every ad mixture of
41:38
shadow and darkness, and become capable of receiving without opposition,
41:42
the irradiations and splendors of the divine glory, which, flowing
41:46
in superabundance within them one day, will fill them like
41:50
a river without banks or bottoms. Imagine a person afflicted
41:54
with a hideous ailment which gnaws his flesh and makes
41:57
him an object of ostracism and discussed for those around him.
42:01
The doctor, seeking to cure him, applies forceps and fire unsparingly.
42:06
With terrible instruments, he probes to the very mirrow of
42:10
the bone. He will attack the source and root of
42:13
the disease in its innermost depths. So violent are the
42:16
convulsions of the patient that he nearly expires. But when
42:19
the operation is over, he feels reborn. The disease has disappeared,
42:23
and he has recovered his beauty, youth, and vigor. Ah
42:27
far from flying into a rage with complaints and reproaches,
42:30
he has no words or blessings great enough to express
42:34
his gratitude to the skilled man, who, by making him
42:36
suffer a thousand woes, gave him the most precious of things,
42:40
health and life. So it is with the soul's in purgatory.
42:44
They quiver with joy as they see their stains and
42:47
vanish through the marvelous effects of that reparatory punishment. Under
42:52
these actions, under the actions of those purifying flames, their
42:56
more or less disfigured being is refreshed and restored. The
43:00
fire itself, Saint Thomas says, loses its intensity in the
43:03
proportion as it consumes and destroys the faults and implicate
43:07
imperfections which feed him the faults and imperfections which feed
43:13
its strength. In other words, the fire burns hotter in
43:18
the beginning, and as it burns up the fuel, it
43:20
burns from less hot. We'll go with that. A barrier,
43:23
of a barrier of imperceptible size, still separates these souls
43:28
from the place of recompense. They feel indescribable transports of
43:33
joy as they see the wings growing which will enable
43:36
them soon to rush forward toward the abodes of heaven.
43:40
Already they glimpse the dawn of deliverance. But they are
43:44
not yet within reach of the promised land. But like Moses,
43:47
they draw up a mental picture of it. They have
43:49
a presentiment of its lights and pleasant shores, and breathe
43:53
in its fragrance and its sweet smelling breezes. In advance.
43:56
Each day, each moment they see the dawn of their
43:59
deliverance rising and less distant horizon, they fill the place
44:03
of their eternal repose. Come nearer and nearer. What else
44:06
shall I say? I don't need to sell any seashells
44:13
by the sea shore today, I can tell you that much.
44:15
What else shall I say? These souls have charity which
44:19
this time has taken, and complete and absolute possession of
44:23
their hearts. They love God. They love him so intensely
44:26
that they are willing to be dissolved and annihilated for
44:29
his glory. Saint John CHRISTOSM says, the man who burns
44:33
with the fire of divine love is as indifferent to
44:35
the glory, and to glory and ignominy as if he
44:38
were alone and unobserved on this earth. He is no
44:42
more troubled by pincers, gridirons, or wrecks than if these
44:46
torments were endured by flesh other than his own. What
44:50
is full of sweetness to the world has no attraction,
44:53
no relish for him. He is no more liable to
44:56
be captivated by some evil attachment than is gold seven
44:59
times tested, while to be liable to be tarnished by rust.
45:04
Such are even on this earth the effects of divine
45:07
love when it grips the soul some water. Here now,
45:14
divine love acts upon the souls of whom I am
45:18
speaking with all the greater force, and that being separated
45:22
from their bodies, deprived of all human constellations, and abandoned
45:25
to one thousand martyrdoms, they are compelled to have recourse
45:30
to God and to seek Him alone in all they seek.
45:34
In Him alone all they lack. One of the greatest
45:37
of their sufferings is the knowledge that the pains which
45:40
they endure bring no benefit to them. Night has come
45:44
to them when they can no longer labor or acquire anything.
45:47
The night cometh when no man can work. That's what
45:53
passages at John nine to four. The night cometh when
45:58
no man can work. One man is able to make satisfy,
46:02
satisfaction himself for his sins accumulate merit and increases heavenly
46:07
crown ceases with death. The moment he enters the other life,
46:11
every human being receives the pronouncement of his eternal sentence.
46:15
His fate is immutably fixed. He no longer has the
46:18
option of accomplishing good or bad works, for which he
46:21
can once more be answerable at God's tribunal. Yet, if
46:26
the soul's inmpurgatory cannot grow in holiness and amass nu
46:29
merits by their patients and resignation, they nevertheless know that
46:33
they can no longer lose merit. And for them it
46:36
is a sweet joy to suffer out of a free
46:38
altogether disinterested love without doubt. This peculiar, peculiar mixture of
46:44
happiness amidst the cruelest torments is a state which our
46:47
gross minds cannot comprehend. But as some martyrs, the Teresi's
46:52
and Lucians, the celestial lovers of the Cross, they will
46:56
tell you that most often it is in sorrow and
46:58
a mixed affliction and the most cruel spiritual desolations, that
47:02
he who seeks to live in God alone experiences a
47:05
kind of foretaste of paradise and feels the sweetest and
47:09
most exhilarating joys and delights pour into his heart. The
47:13
souls in purgatory love God. Furthermore, they are loved by
47:16
the churches of heaven and earth, who maintain continuous contact
47:20
and relations with them. The Catholic Church appeals the charity
47:24
of her children through their mediation, lavishes her petition and
47:29
upon them day and night, and aid them good. Lavishes
47:33
her petitions and aid upon them day and night. Every moment.
47:37
The charity of the good angels bestows upon them the
47:40
heavenly dew which the Good Jesus sends down from his heart.
47:43
They love one another and console each other in effable intercourse.
47:47
No unfathomable golf separates these souls and their friends on earth,
47:53
and we are free at every moment to bring them
47:55
that drop of water which the rich fool salt in
47:57
vain from the pity of Lazarus. Saint John once had
48:01
a wonderful vision. He saw a temple, and in the
48:04
sanctuary of this temple perceives an altar, and beneath the
48:07
altar the multitude of suffering souls, as is from the
48:10
Book of Revelation, or Apocalypse as it was called back then,
48:15
Book six, chapter nine. These souls are not in front
48:20
of the altar, as one commentator remarks, they are not
48:23
permitted to be there. They participate in the fruit of
48:26
the Eucharistic sacrifice only indirectly by means of intercession. They're
48:31
below the altar and away resigned, although in torment the
48:35
portion which we willingly convey to their lips. The Catholic
48:38
Church has made no definition on the location of purgatory.
48:41
Different opinions have been expressed on this point by the
48:44
doctors and fathers, and we are free to choose any
48:46
of them without offending against orthodoxy or departing from the
48:50
true faith. Saint Thomas, Saint Bonaventure, Saint Augustine teaches the
48:55
purgatory situated in the center of the earth, and it's
48:57
an intermediate abode between the hell that and Limbo. They
49:02
quote in support of their opinion the words sung by
49:05
the Church command Lord, deliver the souls of the faithful
49:08
part for the pains of hell and the deep pit.
49:11
Likewise the words of the Apocalypse. And no man was able,
49:14
neither in heaven nor earth, no under the earth, to
49:16
open the book, nor to look into it. From these
49:19
words of Saint John is certain that only just men
49:22
were invited to open them a serious book. Now, by
49:24
this reference to those who are below the earth, does
49:27
not the Apostle seem to give us to understand that
49:30
there are some just people who are attained for a
49:32
time in these dark depths elsewhere Ecclesiasticus, it is said,
49:36
I shall enter into the lower parts of the earth,
49:39
and shall visit those who sleep, and the hope of
49:42
salvation show up here in their sight. The scholars have
49:44
shown that the inspired author intended this passage to indicate Limbo,
49:49
where the patriarchs and saints of the Old Testament rested
49:52
in the Bosom of Abraham. This explanation confirms, rather than invalidates,
49:57
the view of Saint Thomas and Saint Bonaventure. In fact,
50:00
of the patriarchs and the just of the Old Testament,
50:03
what purified of all their actual sins had the lower
50:06
regions of the earth as the abode until the day
50:09
when their sin transmitted to a race by Adam, had
50:12
been completely erased by Jesus on the Cross. It seems
50:16
all the more fitting that the souls are the guilty
50:18
of actual sins for which they have not sufficiently atoned,
50:22
should be punished and detained in the depths of the earth.
50:25
And of course that can just be an allegory as well,
50:27
because in the earth could mean lying in the grave
50:30
where the body wise and the soul doesn't. But obviously
50:35
you don't, as he said, you don't have to believe
50:37
in any particular location of purgatory or limbo, or really
50:42
of Heaven. We know it's not out there in space somewhere,
50:45
as I say many times, where is Heaven? Where, well,
50:48
Heaven's where God is? Where's God? God's in your heart?
50:54
God's outside of time and space. There is no location
50:57
for God. And as the souls in heaven take on
51:00
the nature of Jesus through his divinity. There's no spatial
51:06
and time location for heaven. That's why we're able to
51:10
communicate with saints and angels, because we can do so
51:14
the same way we do with Jesus, because they're here
51:17
with us, around us great cloud of witnesses, as Saint
51:19
Paul said, or you can think of him as in
51:22
your heart, in your soul. They're right here with us
51:25
at all times. Now, whereas purgatory, where's limbo, where's you know? Hell? Okay, separate? Well,
51:32
what does separate mean? Well, souls that exist outside of
51:35
time and space don't have a set locusts or location.
51:39
That's a something we experienced temporarily in this life. It's
51:44
not by any means the reality of nature. I mean,
51:50
it's the reality of our nature physically, but in our
51:52
spiritual nature. Anyway, long discussion for another day. Okay, Oh,
52:00
let's see where did they leave off. You know, I'm
52:08
gon skip a little bit on the name on the
52:09
location of purgatory because I don't think it actually matters
52:13
at all. I mean, he's got some quotes from Saint Augustine,
52:17
Saint Gregory the Great, I mean, you know, there's a
52:19
great you can look him up yourself. Anyway, He goes on.
52:23
Sacred theology reconciles these different testimonies by establishing first that
52:27
purgatory is a fixed place with give and bounds, situated
52:32
the center of the earth, which again you don't have
52:34
to believe it's actually in the literal center of the earth. Okay,
52:37
it really doesn't matter where purgatory is. It just matters.
52:40
So it's a place of separation from Heaven. Nevertheless, even
52:44
if this were so, purgatory is not restricted to this
52:47
one single place, whether by reason of gravity or their sins,
52:51
or through a special dispensation divying wisdom. They are a
52:54
consider there are a considerable number of other souls who
52:57
are not languished in that prison, but undergo their they're
52:59
pun spend on this earth and in that place where
53:02
they had sinned. So yeah, we can suffer in this
53:06
life for our sins. Actually, and he okay, I'm not
53:10
even going to get into what he might be implying
53:12
by that statement. Some people say that ghosts, for instance,
53:18
absolutely do not exist on earth. At some points in
53:22
various times of the church, they believe that someone who
53:25
had committed a grave sin would suffer like actually in
53:29
that spot for eternity, constantly tormented by their sin. I
53:34
don't know. I'm not going to get into that that
53:36
that's out of my purview. As I say about many subjects,
53:40
if the Catholic Church puts to sets a doctrine, a formal,
53:45
an official ex catherine or a doctrine, I will learn it,
53:48
do my best to understand it, and defend it with
53:50
every ounce of my strength. When things are up for speculation,
53:55
I just leave them alone. I say, you know, I
53:57
might have an opinion of that. About that, you might
54:00
have a different opinion about that. The Church doesn't say
54:02
anything definitive. I don't even really feel the need to
54:05
tell you my opinion on that. If I had to,
54:10
I would say, yeah, I probably do believe in ghosts
54:12
because I've experienced certain things that were pretty darn disturbing
54:17
in certain historical places old you know, homesteads and battlefields
54:23
and graveyards, and there are a lot of things I
54:27
can't explain, and I just say, Okay, that's a mystery.
54:30
To me, that's a mystery. I'm not even going to
54:32
try to worry about it or think about it. Say
54:34
a prayer for a person's repose of a person's soul.
54:38
Move on, if they come to mind, say a prayer
54:41
for him. I don't have to say one way or another,
54:44
whether that was a figment of my imagination, whether that
54:48
was an inspiration by my guardian angel to pray for
54:52
a soul in purgatory, or if that was an actual
54:55
ghost really or even a demon, you know, seriously, I mean,
55:03
if you get into all the exorcism and stuff like that,
55:07
you know, demons can manifest in ways. And I don't
55:10
even want to think about it. I mean, that's where
55:12
I go with it. In my mind. I just say, Okay,
55:15
I'm not thinking about that. Say a prayer for the
55:17
repose of the soul. Move on, if it comes to
55:19
mind again, say another prayer. Move on. I'm just I'm
55:21
not going there. But anyway, what are you gonna do?
55:24
All right, So let's see, he says, disinterpretation. It's just
55:34
about essentially the ghost essentially, which has come from great theologians,
55:37
explains and confirms the multitude of operations and revelations made
55:41
to the saints, several of them having marks of truth,
55:45
which makes it impossible to dismiss them, and I don't
55:47
dismiss them. I'm just saying I'm not an expert on that.
55:50
When the Church defines something, fine, let's see, in order
55:57
to fully elucidate our doctrine, we shall select them. Among
56:00
all the revelations quoted by saying Gregory and his dialogues,
56:04
those of which the authenticities beyond all questions. In the
56:08
Annals of Siteaux, I guess it is it is related
56:12
that a pilgrim from the district of Rhodes or Rodez.
56:16
I think that's what it says, returning from Jerusalem, was
56:19
obliged by a storm to put into the island close
56:22
to Sicily. There he visited a holy hermit who inquired
56:26
about matters pertaining to religion in his country of France,
56:29
and also asked whether he knew the monastery of Clooney
56:33
and the abbot a Dillion of Dylan. I guess the
56:37
pilgrimage replied that he did, and added that he would
56:42
be grateful if he would tell him what purpose he
56:44
hadn't asking that question, the hermit answered, very near this place,
56:47
there's a cradle, there's summit of which we can see
56:50
at certain times it belches up clouds of smoke and flames.
56:54
I have seen demons carrying off the souls of sinners
56:56
and hurling them into that frightful abyss, in order to
56:59
torment them for a while. Now in certain days I
57:02
hear the evil spirits conversing among themselves and complaining that
57:05
some of these souls have escaped from them. They blame
57:08
pious persons, who, by their prayers and sacrifice, hasten the
57:11
deliverance of these souls. Odeon, I guess and his monks
57:16
are the ones who seem to terrify them the most.
57:19
That is why, when you return to your country, I
57:21
ask him, in the name of God, to exhort the
57:23
abbot and monks of Clooney to redouble their prayers in
57:26
alms for the relief of these poor souls. The pilgrima
57:29
On has returned it as he was bidden. The holy
57:32
Abbot o Delon pondered and waited everything carefully. He saw
57:37
at enlightenment from God and ordained that in all the
57:40
monasteries of his order, on the second day of November
57:42
each year should be established in commemoration all the faithful,
57:47
all the faithful departed. Such was the origin of the
57:49
feast of all souls. Yeah, yeah, this, I've read that before.
57:54
Definitely something we should strongly consider. And yes, the feast
58:00
of all souls actually comes from that vision. Saint Bernard,
58:04
in his Life of Saint Malachi the Biography, quotes this
58:08
another case, the saint relates that at one time he
58:10
saw his sister, who had been dead for some time.
58:13
She was doing her peratory in the cemetery. On account
58:16
of her vanity and the attention she had devoted to
58:20
her hair and body, she had been sentenced to live
58:22
in the very grave where she had been buried, and
58:25
to witness the dissolution to her body. The saint offered
58:28
the sacrifice a mass for her for thirty days. At
58:31
the end of this period, he saw his sister again.
58:33
This time she had been sentenced to complete her purgatory
58:37
at the gate of the church, doubtless because of her
58:39
irreverent demeanor in the holy place. Perhaps she had distracted
58:43
the faithful from their sacred mysteries in order to draw
58:46
eyes in appreciation to herself. She was exceedingly sad, wearing
58:50
a morning bill, and she was extreme anguish. The saint
58:52
offered the sacrament once more for thirty days, and she
58:55
appeared to him for the last time, and the sanctuary
58:58
with unruffled countenance, radiant and white robes. The bishop's knew
59:02
by this. The bishop knew by this sign that his
59:04
sister had gained her deliverance. I absolutely believe in prayers
59:08
for the dead. Every single day, several times a day,
59:12
I say prayers for the souls in purgatory. I think
59:15
it's very important. We'll see the prayer that Eternal Father,
59:23
I'll offer you the precious blood of your divine Son
59:25
Jesus and union with all the masses said throughout the
59:28
world this day, for all the holy souls in purgatory,
59:31
for centers in the Universal Church, those in my own
59:33
home and within my family. Okay, every time you say
59:36
that prayer, it's supposed to be like a thousand souls
59:38
release from purgatory. Say it morning, noon and night. Say
59:41
it once an hour, if you can say it every
59:43
minute of the day. If you can, I try to
59:46
say it at least two or three times a day.
59:49
And we can pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet. We can
59:51
pray the Rosary. Obviously, pray to a lady Star of
59:56
the Sea. She's the one who escorts souls from purgatory.
1:00:00
The blessed Mother very very very important, so purgatory okay.
1:00:06
The story records the universal custom which prevailed from the
1:00:10
very first age of the Church, of praying for the
1:00:12
dead of a period of thirty days. On this point,
1:00:15
Christianity had merely followed the Mosaic tradition. The patriot Jacob,
1:00:19
on his deathbed said to his sons bury me in
1:00:23
the double cave of Vergant's mombre in the land of Canaan.
1:00:27
And this grandsons of Isaac morn for their father for
1:00:30
thirty days. On the death of the high priest Aaron
1:00:33
and his brother Moses, people again observe thirty days of mourning,
1:00:37
and the pious customer of praying for the dead for
1:00:39
a whole month soon became a law of the chosen people.
1:00:41
Saint Clement stated that Saint Peter, Prince of the Apostles,
1:00:45
liked to have prayers said for the relief of the dead,
1:00:48
and Saint Dionysius describes in magnificent terms the stateliness with
1:00:54
which the faithful celebrated of the funeral. Rites from the
1:00:57
very first centuries of the Church encouraged prayers for a
1:01:00
for the deaths of the faithful in memory for thirty
1:01:02
days morning observed under the Mosaic law. Well you that
1:01:06
sorrow after creatures whom you wrongly think absent, you that
1:01:09
shed tears, because you can set eyes upon those cherished
1:01:13
faces no more, understand that the doors of their prison
1:01:16
prison are wide open to your prayers and charity. The
1:01:20
prophet used to gain solace from the deaths of his
1:01:22
friends who had died in the peace of God by
1:01:25
diligently visiting them with incomparable confidence, repeating the words, I
1:01:29
will penetrate to all the lower parts of the earth,
1:01:32
and I will behold all that sleep, and I will
1:01:34
enlighten all that hope in the Lord Ah. We almost
1:01:38
fear that our words may chill your devotion toward those souls,
1:01:42
that as you hear of the many positive consolations, your
1:01:45
compassion may diminish, and that you may not have for
1:01:48
them all the piety or I'm sorry, all the pity
1:01:50
that they deserve. Let us then recall that their happiness
1:01:53
and consolations are mingled with sorrows and torment. All right,
1:01:58
that wraps up that chapter. I think, what a perfect
1:02:01
place to leave at prayers for the dead. That is
1:02:03
a Catholic tradition that was once universal among Christians. And yes,
1:02:12
we can something we have to be able to explain
1:02:15
and defend. And yeah, go back to Saint Clement writing,
1:02:19
what was that about seventy seventy five AD? What was
1:02:24
he the fourth pope officially after Peter? I mean it's
1:02:28
said that Saint Peter ordained him pope, but there were
1:02:32
two elders before him, and for like a brief period
1:02:36
of time they almost like served as interim pope. So
1:02:39
what is it Linus Cletus. I can't remember every mass
1:02:43
they say it, you know. But anyway, Clement said that
1:02:47
Saint Peter prayed for the dead. We can prove from
1:02:51
the writings, the very first writings of the first Christians
1:02:54
that predate the Bible by almost four hundred years, that
1:02:58
Christians were praying for the dead, plus the inscriptions of
1:03:01
the catacombs. I mean, we have ample evidence that Christians
1:03:04
prayed for the dead. Protestants have absolutely no evidence to
1:03:09
support their claims. Anyway, you'll have a good one. And
1:03:13
as Hank Williams used to say, the Good Lord willing
1:03:15
and the creek don't rise i'll talk with you next week.