Let the festival begin on this All Hallows Eve! Let us not forget the "hallows" whom we will celebrate tomorrow, asking them to intercede for us, and the souls, for whom we will pray the following day: All Saints and All Souls. November is the month during which we remember our blessed and beloved dead. All of this reminds us that Jesus is the reason for every season. He is the One in whom, through whom, and for whom everything exists. In 2003, Blessed Pope John Paul II said, on All Saints Day, "We celebrate today the solemnity of All Saints. This invites us to turn our gaze to the immense multitude of those who have already reached the blessed land, and points us on the path that will lead us to that destination." In 1998, for the one thousandth observance of All Souls Day, he reminded us what that day is about, "For the souls in purgatory, waiting for eternal happiness and for meeting the Beloved is a source of suffering, because of the punishment due to sin which separates them from God. But there is also the certitude that once the time of purification is over, the souls will go to meet the One it desires."
Happy Halloween!
The last quote you provide from Blessed JPII takes me right back where I started!!
ReplyDeleteTo what am I referring? I read a quote from St. Catherine of Genoa, where she writes about Purgatory...her words, well, they are Beautiful, but they worried Me! They were, at least in my easily misled interpretation, Too Good to be True!
Her words make Purgatory a Pretty Good Place to be! And that really, really worries me...
And now, after reading that quote...well, I'm basically back to where I was...
TYVM ;)
http://fromthepews.org/2011/11/02/commemoration-of-all-the-faithful-departed-and-a-new-view-of-purgatory/
In case you're wondering...