Purgatory: Doctrinal, Historical, and PoeticalSadlier, J., Mrs.
Religion
Purgatory: Doctrinal, Historical, and Poetical
Sadlier, J., Mrs.
Purgatory
No new efficacy is superadded to the efficacy of the Passion from this
propitiatory Sacrifice, repeated for the remission of sins; but its
entire efficacy consists in the representation and application of the
first bloody Sacrifice, the fruit of which is the Divine Grace bestowed
on all those who, being present at this tremendous sacrifice, worthily
celebrate the oblation in unison with the priest. And since, in
addition to the remission of eternal punishment, and the gift of the
merits of Christ for the hope of eternal life, we further ask of God,
for ourselves and others, both living and dead, many other salutary
gifts (and amongst those, the chief is the mitigation of that paternal
chastisement which is due to every sin, even though the penitent be
restored to favor); it is therefore clearly manifest that there is
nothing in our entire worship more precious than the sacrifice of this
Divine Sacrament, in which the Body of Our Lord itself is present.
EXTRACTS FROM "A TROUBLED HEART."
How often have I been touched at the respect paid the dead in Catholic
countries; at the reverence with which the business man, hastening to
fulfil the duties of the hour, pauses and lifts his hat as the funeral
of the unknown passes him in the street! What pity streams from the
eyes of the poor woman who kneels in her humble doorway, and, crossing
herself, prays for the repose of the soul that was never known to her
in this life; but the body is borne towards the cemetery, and she joins
her prayer to the many that are freely offered along the solemn way
(pp. 151-2).
* * * * *
So passes the faithful soul to judgment; after which, if not ushered at
once into the ineffable glory of the Father, it pauses for a season in
the perpetual twilight of that border-land where the spirit is purged
of the very memory of sin. Even as Our Lord Himself descended into
Limbo; as He died for us, but rose again from the dead and ascended
into heaven, so we hope to rise and follow Him,--sustained by the
unceasing prayers of the Church, the intercession of the Saints, and
all the choirs of the just, who are called on night and day, and also
by the prayers and pleadings of those who have loved us, and who are
still in the land of the living.
The prayers that ease the pangs of Purgatory, the _Requiem_, the
_Miserere_, the _De Profundis_--these are the golden stairs
upon which the soul of the redeemed ascends into everlasting joy. Even
the Protestant laureate of England has confessed the poetical justice
and truth of this, and into the mouth of the dying Arthur--that worthy
knight--he puts these words:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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