A Pentecost Sunday Thought About Continuing Our Penitential Practices Even During This Easter Season

It's Pentecost, one of our greatest feasts. Let's spend a little time in recollection that our penitential practices ddn't end with Lent. They should have continued - though perhaps a lesser degree of intensity - throughout all of this past Easter Season. The same carries over now into the rest of this Liturgical Year.

There are many applications of our penances. A natural tendency would be offering them up in reparation for our sins. Of course, one must have a deep-seated sense of being a sinner in the first place. And that's something many of us have lost in our post-Vatican II world. 

You would imagine our shepherds (bishops and priests) would be assiduously working to correct this loss. But that's sadly not the case. Sin has disappeared from sermons, for the most part. But let's not digress. Back to penitential practices.

Another admirable application of our penitential acts of mortification and sacrifice might be to offer these up for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. This devotion has been called a "Heroic Act." The practice goes back a way. It's quite admirable, albeit perhaps a bit daunting.

Daunting? Well, we're basically turning over our acts of reparation for the benefit of others - the Holy Souls. That kind of leaves us out of the picture. 

Think about it. Typically, perform acts of mortification and other penitential acts in reparation of our sins. But with the Heroic Act, we're left out to dry. 

Well, not exactly. There's always our merciful God left to step into the gap. Indeed, Fr. F.X. Schouppe explains it all.

What's wonderful about his explanation is this: We may find that we can make a commitment to the Holy Souls that could result in one or more of said souls being released from their torment. And all because of a selfless decision on our part.

And selfless is good. Rare, perhaps. But when we can manage it, it's likely up there on our list of memorable acts that might attach itself to us and lend a hand when we stand before Our Lord in our Particular Judgment.

And anything that could give us a boost in said circumstances can't be all bad, right?

Anyway, on this Sunday in our glorious Easter Season, we place penitential acts back on our radar - and in a very special way.

“Venerable Denis the Carthusian relates that the virgin St. Gertrude had made a complete donation of all her works of satisfaction in favor of the faithful departed, without reserving anything wherewith to discharge the debts which she herself might have contracted in the sight of God. Being at the point of death, and, like all the saints, considering with much sorrow the great number of her sins on the one hand, and, on the other, remembering that she had employed all her works of satisfaction for the expiation of the sins of others, she was afflicted, lest, having given all to others and reserved nothing for herself, her soul, on its departure from this world, should be condemned to horrible suffering. In the midst of her fears Our Lord appeared to her and consoled her, saying: ‘Be assured, my daughter, your charity towards the departed will be no detriment to you. Know that the generous donation you have made of all our works to the holy souls has been singularly pleasing to Me; and to give you a proof thereof, I declare to you that all the pains you would have had to endure in the other life are now remitted; moreover, in recompense for your generous charity, I will so enhance the value of the merits of your works as to give you a greater increase of glory in heaven.” - Fr. F.X. Schouppe, S.J. (1823-1904)
 

 Happy Pentecost!