The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

PURGATORY, ETC. 261in fine, a cherished devotion of two hundred millionsof Catholics, as well as of a respectable portion ofthe Episcopal church.Would it not, my friend, be the height of rashness and presumption in you to prefer your privateopinion to this immense weight of learning, sanctity,and authority? Would it not be impiety in you tostand aside with sealed lips, while the Christianworld issending up an unceasing De profundis fordeparted brethren ? Would it not be cold and heartless in you not to pray for your deceased friends, onaccount of prejudices which have no grounds inScripture, tradition, or reason itself?If a brother leaves you to cross the broad Atlantic, religion and affection prompt you to pray forhim during his absence. And if the same brothercrosses the narrow sea of death to pass to the shoresof eteruity, why not pray for him then also When?he crosses the Atlantic, his soul, imprisoned in theflesh, is absent from you when he passes the sea;of death, his soul, released from the flesh, has gonefrom you. What difference does this make withregard to the duty of your intercession ? For, whatis death ? A mere separation of body and soul.The body, indeed, dies, but the soul "lives andmoves and has its being."It continues after death,as before, to think, to remember, to love. And donot God s dominion and mercy extend over thatsoul beyond the grave as well as this side of it ?Who shall place limits to God s empire, and say to