Purgatory: Doctrinal, Historical, and PoeticalSadlier, J., Mrs.
Religion
Purgatory: Doctrinal, Historical, and Poetical
Sadlier, J., Mrs.
Purgatory
St. Jerome thus speaks in his letter to Paula, concerning the death and
burial of her mother, Eustochium: "From henceforward there were no
wailings nor lamentations as are usual amongst men of this world, but
the swarms of those present resounded with psalms in various tongues.
And being removed by the hands of the bishops, and by those placing
their shoulders under the bier, while other pontiffs were carrying
lamps and wax tapers, and others led the choirs of psalmodists, she was
laid in the middle of the church of the cave of the Saviour.... Psalms
resounded in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Syriac tongues, not only
during the three days intervening until she was laid under the church
and near the cave of the Lord, but through the entire week."
ST. AMBROSE has many passages throughout his works, as Dr. Wiseman
remarks. Thus he quotes St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians
(iii., 5): "'If any man's works burn he shall suffer loss; but he shall
be saved, yet so as by fire.' He will be saved, the Apostle said,
because his substance shall remain, while his bad doctrine shall
perish. Therefore, he said, yet so as by fife, in order that his
salvation be not understood to be without pain. He shows that he shall
be saved indeed, but he shall undergo the pain of fire, and be thus
purified, not like the unbelieving and wicked man who shall be punished
in everlasting fire." [1]
[Footnote 1: Comment. in I Ep. ad Cor., T. ii.; in App, p. 122.]
The following is from his funeral oration on the Emperor Theodosius:
"Lately we deplored together his death, and now, while Prince Honorius
is present before our altars, we celebrate the fortieth day. Some
observe the third and the thirtieth, others the seventh and the
fortieth. Give, O Lord, rest to Thy servant Theodosius, that rest which
Thou hast prepared for Thy Saints. May his soul thither tend, whence it
came, where it cannot feel the sting of death, where it will learn that
death is the termination, not of nature, but of sin. I loved him,
therefore will I follow him to the land of the living; I will not leave
him, till, by my prayers and lamentation, he shall be admitted to the
holy mount of the Lord to which his deserts call him." [1]
[Footnote 1: De obitu. Theodosii. Ibid., pp. 1197-8; 1207-8.]
He thus concludes his letter to ST. FAUSTINUS on the death of his
sister: "Therefore I consider her not so much to be deplored as to be
followed by our prayers, nor do I think that her soul should be
saddened with tears, but rather commended to the Lord in oblations. For
our flesh cannot be perpetual or lasting; it must necessarily fall in
order that it may rise again--it must be dissolved in order that it may
rest, and that there may be some end of sin." [1]
[Footnote 1: St. Ambr., p. 39, ad Faustini, t. 2, p 944, ed. Ben.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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