How different all will look upon our deathbed! Then a new and true light will reveal a multitude of secrets,and show much that we never believed possible.
How different all will appear when we look back upon our earthly life from the world beyond the grave in the hour of our particular first judgement and at the moment of our entering Purgatory:then at the general Judgement of the Last Day!
Then all masks shall be taken from all faces, and we shall know as we are known and see as we are seen.
Then many who have seemed to know each other – parents,children,friends,pastors,penitents – shall know each other for the first time,and wonder at the vain show in which they lived and died.
(Cardinal Manning)
(Cardinal Manning)
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Bishop Anthony writes: None of us can put back the clock nor advance it!We cannot know the day nor the hour nor the place of our departure from this world.We should try to remember this daily as we cling stubbornly to our many personal possessions(and acquire new ones)and to the many material things we hold so dear in this life! God,in fact,does want us to be happy here,contentedly in the company of our loved ones,be they family or special friends.Yet He has prepared unspeakable happiness for us in another place if only we will serve Him,through JESUS to the end of this,our present pilgrimage.For that is what this life is – a pilgrimage towards our eternal destiny.We know,as Christians,that we remain strangers and pilgrims on earth:always seeking the Kingdom of God.
And our Mother,the Catholic Church,cherishes with love the memory of all the faithful departed.At every Mass,daily,the dead are prayed for at the altar.November 2nd,the Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed,is the special solemn day(a day of profound piety)when the Holy Souls are remembered.Yet,as I have said,every day we remember them in the Canon of the Mass.
Let us also remember the bereaved at this time and pray for their consolation.Their(our)consolation will be a final re-union,first in Purgatory and then in Heaven,with all those whom we have loved so much and miss so much.We have no abiding home in this world!
Our true destiny is eternal,joyful life in union with the Living God.Something we can scarcely imagine!
Let us pray
O GOD,the Creator and Redeemer of all the Faithful,grant to the souls of Thy servants and handmaids departed the +Remission of all their sins:that by our pious supplications they may obtain the pardon which they have always desired.Who livest and reignest one God,in Trinity and unto ages of ages and world without end. + Amen +
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And a passing thought.
Conscience and reputation are two different things! (St.Augustine of Canterbury)
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OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY, PRAY FOR OUR PEACE AND SALVATION!
+O Virgin Mary! Our Lady of Sorrows! Pray for us now and in the hour of our Death. Amen+
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