DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS FOR NOVEMBER  2008.

+A Meditation for the Month of November in which we contemplate our Departure from this world+

How different all will look upon a 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 the particular judgment, and at the moment of entering Purgatory, and at the general judgment of the last day! Then all masks shall be taken off 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. But that in us which shall never die is changing daily, is being moulded or marred according as we yield to or resist the working of God’s Word and Spirit – is taking the eternal stamp of good or ill.
(Cardinal Manning)

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Bishop Anthony writes: That in us which shall never die is of course our immortal soul, the soul which can change daily depending upon every act or thought of good or evil. As I have often repeated both in these monthly Thoughts and in many homilies, we have no abiding place in this world – our destiny is elsewhere. November is the month of the Holy Souls but as we remember at Mass and pray for all we have loved in this world and who have gone before us, let us remember our own eternal destiny when all the good and bad qualities of our souls will be revealed before our Maker! That is what Cardinal Manning means when he speaks of “knowing each other for the first time.” Let us endeavour to live in a daily state of sorrow for our many sins and an awareness of all God’s mercies. No penitent soul can perish and no soul which loves God will be lost. Inspired with this confidence let us live with a perpetual awareness that Christ is our Destiny and that only by His Precious Blood can anyone be saved. It is a pious Catholic belief that God manifests to the Faithful Departed our prayers for them and that they also pray for us. It is our duty always to pray for the Dead, and to offer every Mass we hear for a departed soul, commending that soul to God’s infinite mercy. One day we too after death will be depending upon the prayers and Masses of our friends and family who are still in this world! But let us remember that Jesus is present with us always – particularly in the Blessed Sacrament. Let us ask Him to keep us faithful, for we know that no faithful and loving soul will be separated from God.

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Let us pray: O God, Lord of forgiveness, grant to Thy servants who rest in Thee the remission of their sins, a place of refreshment and the brightness of eternal Light. Through Christ our Lord. +Amen+

And a Passing Thought

Our true worth does not consist in what human beings think of us. What we really are consists in what God knows us to be.   (Saint John Berchmans)

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MERCIFUL JESUS, WE GIVE THEE OUR HEARTS AND OUR SOULS!
JESUS AND MARY, ASSIST US IN OUR LAST AGONY!
HOLY SAVIOUR, AT OUR END MAY WE LEAVE THIS WORLD IN PEACE WITH THEE!
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O BLOOD AND WATER WHICH GUSHED FORTH FROM THE HEART OF JESUS AS A FOUNT OF MERCY FOR US, WE TRUST IN THEE!

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