A Sunday Thougth About Our Catholic Family to Start the Week Off Right
In this sometimes oppressively secular world, it does us good to remember our Catholic Family, also known as the Body of Christ. Not some vague, mystical, ephemeral concept, this Body consists of all of us in the Catholic Church, both living and dead. St Paul spoke most eloquently of it many times:
St. Paul understood this most profoundly. Thank God he passed on his understanding to us. It behooves each of us to not only recall this truth, but to live it every day. Our every thought, word, and deed, as we live and breathe, should reflect this understanding.
One special way to reflect this understanding, as we come to the end of the month of November, dedicated to the Holy Souls, might be to resolve to pray for them not only this month, but all the time. Remember that when they left this earth, they were not severed from the Body of Christ, but remain an integral part of that Body, just as they were when they lived among us (assuming they died in a state of grace). As those still in need of purification before entering the glory of Heaven, they now need us to remember them. Their purification, in the form of suffering, will only cease when they are released from Purgatory. We can help to hasten the day. We do this by our prayers and sacrifices each day.
At least once a day, try to remember them. Pray for them; make little sacrifices on their behalf. One day, with our help, they will be that part of the Body of Christ that lives forever in God's Presence, ready to intercede on our behalf whenever we need their assistance. I don't know about you, but I could use their assistance regularly, many times throughout the day.
So let's keep our Catholic Family in our thoughts and prayers always, most especially this month those who have died. For those Holy Souls, we turn to this beautiful prayer in music from the genius of Mozart. The words come from the last part of the great prayer for the dead, the Dies Irae about which we wrote a couple of Sundays ago. As you listen, pay special attention to how the poignant music throughout, expressed in a minor key, culminates in the D major chord of the final Amen. It's a beautiful expression of our begging God's mercy in a spirit of Hope. We can never do so too often.
Happy Sunday!
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? (1 Corinthians 6:15)...and most appropriate for this month of the Holy Souls:
So in Christ, we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Romans 12:5)
And he is the head of the body, the Church. (Colossians 1:18)
And if one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. (1 Corinthians: 26)Let's take some time on this, the Lord's Day, to contemplate a bit about what all this means. We're not just individual souls floating about in a confused and confusing world, struggling to keep our sanity and our sanctity. Nor are we insignificant bits: billions of souls that make up some amorphous blob of "humanity." We're part of a living, breathing, most holy Body of Jesus Christ Himself, Who bound us together when He founded His Holy Catholic Church while He still walked this earth over 2,000 years ago.
St. Paul understood this most profoundly. Thank God he passed on his understanding to us. It behooves each of us to not only recall this truth, but to live it every day. Our every thought, word, and deed, as we live and breathe, should reflect this understanding.
One special way to reflect this understanding, as we come to the end of the month of November, dedicated to the Holy Souls, might be to resolve to pray for them not only this month, but all the time. Remember that when they left this earth, they were not severed from the Body of Christ, but remain an integral part of that Body, just as they were when they lived among us (assuming they died in a state of grace). As those still in need of purification before entering the glory of Heaven, they now need us to remember them. Their purification, in the form of suffering, will only cease when they are released from Purgatory. We can help to hasten the day. We do this by our prayers and sacrifices each day.
At least once a day, try to remember them. Pray for them; make little sacrifices on their behalf. One day, with our help, they will be that part of the Body of Christ that lives forever in God's Presence, ready to intercede on our behalf whenever we need their assistance. I don't know about you, but I could use their assistance regularly, many times throughout the day.
So let's keep our Catholic Family in our thoughts and prayers always, most especially this month those who have died. For those Holy Souls, we turn to this beautiful prayer in music from the genius of Mozart. The words come from the last part of the great prayer for the dead, the Dies Irae about which we wrote a couple of Sundays ago. As you listen, pay special attention to how the poignant music throughout, expressed in a minor key, culminates in the D major chord of the final Amen. It's a beautiful expression of our begging God's mercy in a spirit of Hope. We can never do so too often.
Happy Sunday!
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