Monthly Archives: November 2018

The Last Things

One day God will call each of us through the gateway of death into the next life where, after a particular judgment, we will enter into heaven, either immediately or through the purification of purgatory, or we will go to eternal damnation in hell. Meditating on these realities helps us to focus our lives so that we can be found worthy of heaven when we die. In this meditation we use the Scriptures, the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the writings of saints to consider:

  • Death is not the end but the beginning of eternal life
  • In the particular judgment we will see our life as God sees us and we can prepare for it by being sincere here on earth
  • Hell is a reality and we should do everything possible to avoid going there
  • If our soul is not completely pure when we die we will be purified in the fire of God’s love in purgatory
  • We should pray very much for the souls in purgatory
  • Our goal is the supreme, definitive happiness of heaven, where we will see God face to face.

Devotion to the holy souls

Through Purgatory the soul must be completely purified before it can enter heaven.

Purgatory is purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

The Church dedicates the month of November to praying for the holy souls in Purgatory. This is important since many souls in that state have no one to pray for them. In this meditation we consider:

  • Why Purgatory exists
  • The pains experienced by the holy souls, along with the love and joy they experience
  • That Purgatory is a manifestation of God’s holiness, justice and mercy
  • Accounts of souls in Purgatory who have communicated with people on earth
  • How from the earliest days the Church has prayed for the faithful departed
  • The benefits for the holy souls and for ourselves of devotion to the souls in Purgatory

Love, sin and repentance

 

The parable of the prodigal son is mercy perosnified.

God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, and Jesus loved us so much that he suffered and died on the cross for us. Jesus invites us to love him in return but we so often show him by our sins that we love him too little. In this meditation we consider how:

  • We cannot avoid all sins – even the saints in heaven committed them – but we can try harder to avoid sinning.
  • God expects more from us than from many others.
  • We should strive especially to avoid committing mortal sins and deliberate venial sins.
  • We should identify the occasions of our sins and strive to avoid them.
  • We should foster true contrition for our sins.
  • We should do penance to make up at least in part for our sins and to strengthen our will to resist future temptations.
  • We should strive to go regularly to the sacrament of penance, knowing that there God always pours out his mercy on us.