DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS FOR NOVEMBER  2009

+In this month of All Holy Souls Departed, let us contemplate our eternal Destiny+

So brief a life, and then an endless life – Or endless death;
So brief a life, then endless peace or strife: Whoso considereth
How man but like a flower  Or shoot of grass
Blooms an hour, Well may sigh ‘Alas!’
So brief a life and then an endless grief   Or endless joy;
So brief a life, then ruin or relief: What solace, what annoy
Of Time needs dwelling on?
It is, it was,  It is done, While we sigh ‘Alas!’ 

Yet saints are singing in a happy hope Forecasting pleasure,
Bright eyes of faith enlarging all their scope;
Saints love beyond Time’s measure:
Where love is, there is bliss  That will not pass;
Where love is, Dies away ‘Alas!’

“All Flesh is Grass” by Christina Georgina Rossetti: circa 1892
+++
Bishop Anthony writes: This beautiful, short poem is so concise in its teaching of Heaven or Hell! Many of Christina’s poems are of a religious nature and her brother William said of her that: “It may perhaps be said that the two ideas most prevalent of all are the strenuous and onerous effort to attain to the salvation of the soul in heaven, and the ardent, absorbing devotion to the work and the very Person of the Saviour Jesus Christ.”   The first idea, if we may call our salvation an ‘idea’, is of course dependent upon the second – an ardent devotion to Jesus Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life – and without Whom there can be no Salvation. Our fervent commitment and devotion to Jesus in this earthly life, will cause us not to sigh ‘Alas!’ , as Christina puts it, in the World to Come. Life here is so brief and fleeting and we have no abiding home here; our God-made planet is itself stunningly beautiful yet deeply precarious. As we pray for our own beloved Dead during November, let us contemplate our own passing and the Home of ecstasy which the Living God has prepared for those who love Him.
+
Let us pray: God, our Creator and Redeemer, grant to the souls in purgatory the remission of all their sins; may we in this life ever pray for them as they journey towards Thee, and may their prayers also be of benefit to us and to all whom we love.    Through Jesus Christ our Lord.   +Amen+
+++
And a Passing Thought

Jesus is King because He governs souls and provides for their eternal salvation. He is King because He leads into His eternal Kingdom all who believe and hope in Him and live in His love.  [St. Augustine]

+
MERCIFUL JESUS WE GIVE THEE OUR HEARTS AND OUR SOULS!
JESUS AND MARY, ASSIST US IN OUR LAST AGONY!
JESUS AND MARY, MAY WE POUR FORTH OUR SOULS IN PEACE WITH THEE!
+++

‘The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance: he will not be afraid of any evil tidings’
(Psalm 112, verse 7)
Absolve, O Lord, the souls of all the faithful departed from every bond of sin. May they enjoy the bliss of everlasting light.

+