Purgatory: Doctrinal, Historical, and PoeticalSadlier, J., Mrs.
Religion
Purgatory: Doctrinal, Historical, and Poetical
Sadlier, J., Mrs.
Purgatory
faces you can still see shining in your memories, and the sweetness of
whose voice is still in your ears--do you forget them because they are
no longer seen? Is it, indeed, "out of sight, out of mind"? What an
impiety of heart is this!
The Catholic Church, the true mother of souls, cherishes, with loving
memory, all her departed. Never does a day pass but she prays for them
at the altar; never does a year go by that there is not a special
commemoration of all her children departed on one solemn day, which is
neither feast nor fast, but a day of the profoundest piety and of the
deepest compassion. Surely, then, if we have the spirit of piety in our
hearts, the holy souls will be a special object of our remembrance and
our prayers. How many now are there whom we have known in life? There
are those who have been grievously afflicted, and those who have been
very sinful, but, through the Precious Blood and a death-bed
repentance, have been saved at last. Have you forgotten them? Are you
doing nothing for them? There may also be souls there for whom there is
no one to pray on earth; there may be souls who are utterly forgotten
by their own kindred, outcast from all remembrance; and yet the
Precious Blood was shed for their sakes. If no one remember, them now,
you, at least, if you have in your hearts the gift of piety, will pray
for them.--_Internal Mission of the Holy Ghost, p._ 247.
PURGATORY
CARDINAL WISEMAN.
I need hardly observe, that there is not a single liturgy existing,
whether we consider the most ancient period of the Church, or the most
distant part of the world, in which this doctrine is not laid down. In
all Oriental liturgies, we find parts appointed, in which the Priest or
Bishop is ordered to pray for the souls of the faithful departed; and
tables were anciently kept in the churches, called the _Dyptichs_,
on which the names of the deceased were enrolled, that they might be
remembered in the Sacrifice of the Mass and the prayers of the
faithful. The name of Purgatory scarcely requires a passing comment. It
has, indeed, been made a topic of abuse, on the ground that it is not
to be found in Scripture. But where is the word Trinity to be met with?
Where is the word _Incarnation_ to be read in Scripture? Where are
many other terms, held most sacred and important in the Christian
religion? The doctrines are, indeed, found there; but these names were
not given, until circumstances had rendered them necessary. We see that
the Fathers of the Church have called it a purging fire--a place of
expiation or purgation. The idea is precisely, the name almost, the
same.
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