9781644135945

The Light of the World
Happy the man who is a member of the communion of saints and who lives according to
the spirit of the Church! If we live in the spirit of the Church, we shall bear much fruit during
our life. The fruit of the good works we have performed during our life will be offered up to
God at the hour of our death as an offering of thanksgiving. Blessed are we, then, if we devote
ourselves wholly to this life of the Church. She is our best friend during life and our most faithful
companion in the hour of death.
Prayer
Absolve, O Lord, the souls of all the faithful departed from every bond of sin, that in the glory
of the resurrection they may rise to a new and better life with Thy saints and Thy elect. Through
Christ our Lord. Amen.
All Souls’ Day (4)
Two thoughts are emphasized in the liturgy of the Mass for the Dead: the utter helplessness of
the poor souls in purgatory, and the assurance of their eventual salvation, the resurrection of
their bodies to life eternal.
“Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord” (Introit). Although the faithful departed are in the state
of grace, they suffer because they are separated from God. They love Him; they cling to Him with
their whole soul; they have lost interest in all that is not God; they know how empty and vain
life is without God. They see now how foolishly they acted while on earth by being so careless
about sin, about their imperfections, their infidelities, their disobedience, and their inordinate
attachment to men and the things of this world. They know now the folly of their indifference
toward their duties, the danger of temporizing with their evil desires and thoughts, the penalty
of neglect, the loss suffered through carelessness in their duties and through their reluctance to
bring sacrifices. All their so-called petty offenses become heavy chains which now bind them
for a time in the confines of purgatory and separate them from God. The greatest sorrow of the
poor souls is that they are separated from God by their own fault. They have no other desire
but to be with God, who is their joy, their love, their life, and their last end. Their hunger for
Him grows and consumes them ever more as they are cleansed in the flames of purgatory. Just
as a stone falling from on high gains acceleration the nearer it comes to earth, so the desire and
longing of the souls in purgatory increases every moment and is accentuated in proportion to
their nearness to God. This painful, tormenting, consuming hunger of the poor souls is in the
mind of the sacred liturgy when it prays: “Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let the
perpetual light shine upon them”; that is, fulfill their desire to be united to Thee; grant that
they may see Thee face to face.
“I came down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. Now
this is the will of the Father, who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me, I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up again in the last day; and this is the will of my Father that sent Me, that
every one who seeth the Son and believeth in Him, may have life everlasting, and I will raise
him up in the last day” (Gospel of the second Mass). In the heart of the Church there lives a
hope of the speedy entrance of the poor souls into eternal life, for she has the assurance of the
blessed resurrection of her children who depart from this life. The severity of the sufferings of
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