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A Precious Gift

While it is generally well known among Catholics that the best way to help the Holy Souls in Purgatory is to have Masses offered for them, what is little known is that we can also help relieve their sufferings through sprinkling holy water.

Holy water has been used in the Church since Apostolic times. It is mentioned in the ‘Apostolic Constitutions’. Pope Alexander who died in the year 130, in a decree confirming this tradition said, “We bless salt and water for the people, that all who may be sprinkled therewith may be cleansed and sanctified.” Holy water is mixed with exorcised and blessed salt. St Justin Martyr who died in 163 also tells us that the faithful in his time were sprinkled with holy water every Sunday.

When a priest blesses holy water and makes the sign of the Cross over it, he does so in the name of the Church, which renders it more powerful than our ordinary individual prayers. He prays that God may preserve those sprinkled with it from the snares of the devil, grant them health of body and purity of soul. Thus whoever takes holy water and confidently sprinkles it on himself or on objects, or sprinkles it in the room with the intention of bringing blessings on those who are absent, he can be assured that every time the prayer of the Church reaches Heaven, it will bring down graces and blessings on his soul and body, and on all the objects touched by the holy water. Exorcists famously use holy water to send the devil on his way because it is recognised by the Church as being powerful over him and it burns him. The devil can’t bear to stay in a place or be near a person that is frequently sprinkled with holy water.

Holy water is especially beneficial to the Holy Souls in Purgatory and they long for it. A drop of holy water can be far more beneficial to them than a long prayer. Our prayers can often be distracted and lukewarm, but the prayer of the Church attached to the holy water is always pleasing to God. Hence the souls in Purgatory long for holy water and we should assist them by sprinkling it for them.

One day Venerable Dominic of Jesus-Mary (1559-1630) who was a Carmelite, and it was customary at the time for Carmelites to have a skull on their desk, one day he sprinkled this skull with holy water, when he heard a voice imploring him, “More holy water, more holy water.” The sprinkling no doubt relieved its pains in Purgatory. Also very effective is to sprinkle the graves of our beloved dead with holy water. A deceased sister once appeared to Venerable Sister Francis of the Blessed Sacrament begging that her grave be sprinkled with holy water because it relieved her sufferings.

So where do you get holy water? There is a big stone urn full of holy water by the Altar of the Sacred Heart. Bring a bottle, fill it, and sprinkle it frequently in your homes, on yourselves, on your children and for the Holy Souls. In the not so distant past, it was common practice for Catholics to have a small holy water stoup by the front door or in the bedroom. Among the Holy Souls, please remember the deceased priests who ministered to you, who baptised you, who absolved you in Confession and administered the Sacraments to you. In gratitude sprinkle them every day with holy water to relieve their sufferings in Purgatory saying the simple prayer, “Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.” How many blessings and helps to salvation you would obtain for yourselves and your families by this simple act of charity which is basically no effort. A drop of holy water is so effective, and are we going to be so lazy as to back away from giving this priceless gift?

Fr Paul Gillham, IC

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Before or after?

Some years ago, a wise old priest was asked how many people had attended the early morning Mass on a particular day, and he replied, “There were thousands but I only saw eight of them.” So in addition to those eight who got up in time to attend the early Mass, God had allowed thousands of souls in Purgatory to attend that Mass, as He does at ever Mass, along with Our Lady, St Joseph, St Michael and myriads of angels and saints. We don’t see everything that actually happens at Mass, and if we did we would be utterly amazed and overwhelmed.

During November particularly, we celebrate Masses for the Holy Souls in Purgatory which is one of the great Spiritual Works of Mercy, but which is more profitable – to have Masses celebrated for us during life or after our death? The following points I have taken from the book ‘Charity for the Suffering Souls’ by Fr John Nageleisen.

Many Catholics leave funds in their Will to have Masses celebrated for them after their death, and this is a very praiseworthy thing to do and no one should be dissuaded from doing so. However, St Leonard of Port Maurice (1676-1751) says it is more profitable and meritorious to have these Masses celebrated for us while we are still alive as opposed to having many celebrated for us after our death. Here are some of the reasons:

1. If we have a Mass celebrated for us during our lifetime, we have been the cause of it and can assist at it, which after death is not possible.
2. If a Mass is celebrated for us during life and we are perhaps in a state of sin, by virtue of the Mass, we could well receive from God’s mercy the grace to recognise our sinful state, be moved to contrition, and then to reconcile ourselves with God by making a good, humble confession. This grace cannot be obtained after death, and if we die in a state of mortal sin, many thousands of Masses would not put us into a state of grace. We would remain cut off from God for eternity.
3. A Mass offered for us during life can obtain for us the grace of a happy death, because it will move God to assist us in triumphing over the enemy in that decisive hour.
4. If Masses are said for us before our death, we will increase in merit and therefore spend a shorter time in Purgatory, especially if we attend them with real devotion. If they are celebrated only after our death, we could be a long time in Purgatory awaiting their celebration which could be very painful. Thus it is better to accumulate these benefits in advance than to wait for them in the cleansing fires of Purgatory.
5. By asking for a Mass to be said during life, we make an offering to God, thereby depriving ourselves of some earthly gratification. After death we deprive ourselves of nothing because our earthly joys have now ended. Therefore it must be more meritorious and pleasing to God to make this offering during our lifetime.
6. When we perform a good act in a state of grace, we receive a double reward: the remission of part of the punishment due to our sins, thus meriting a higher degree of glory in Heaven. When the Mass is offered only after our death, even though it pays part of our debt of sin, our glory is not increased in Heaven. Even if thousands of Masses were celebrated for us after our death, our heavenly glory would not be increased one iota.

Therefore, as St Anselm (1033-1109) said, “To hear one Holy Mass devoutly in life is more profitable than to bequeath so much that thousands can be said after death.”

Fr Paul Gillham, IC

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Your help is still needed

The month of November is almost upon us, and after celebrating the Feast of All Saints on 1^st November, the Church immediately draws our attention to the Holy Souls in Purgatory on 2^nd November known as All Souls Day. The souls in Purgatory are those who have died in God’s grace but who at the moment of death still had imperfections to be purified before they can enter Heaven, and so for the remainder of the month, we step up our efforts to pray for their release from Purgatory, since having passed from this life they can no longer merit or help themselves.

We all have an obligation to help each other, and the greater the need a person has, the greater the obligation we have to help them. Now who could be more in need than the souls in Purgatory? Since early Christianity, it has been held that the most effective way of helping them is through the offering of Holy Mass for their release. St Monica, the mother of St Augustine, as she lay dying in 387 asked her sons “only one thing: that you remember me at the altar of the Lord, wherever you shall be.” St Thomas Aquinas (1225-74) said that the offering of Holy Mass was the most definitive way of helping the Holy Souls. In addition we can offer up Holy Communion for them, say prayers for them, especially the Rosary and the Stations of the Cross, and offer up our daily work and any acts of charity.

The Holy Souls sometimes appear asking for Masses. St Padre Pio (1887-1968) had many visits from the Holy Souls asking him to celebrate Mass for them. In 1922 he told the story of how one snowy winter’s evening, he was sitting by the fireplace in the friary praying, when an old man came and sat down next to him. Padre Pio wondered how he had got in since the doors were locked and so asked him, “Who are you and what do you want?” The man said his name was Pietro di Mauro and that he had died in the friary on 18^th September 1908 when it was a poorhouse. He had fallen asleep holding a lighted cigarette, which set the mattress on fire causing him to suffocate and die. “I’m still in Purgatory” he said “and I need one Mass to be released. God has permitted me to come and ask for your help.” Padre Pio promised to celebrate Mass for him the next morning and then walked him to the door which was both closed and locked. Padre Pio said the Mass for him, and a few days later went with another friar to the Town Hall to look at the records for 1908. There they found that a man named Pietro di Mauro had indeed died on 18^th September that year of suffocation and burns at the friary, which at that time was a poorhouse.

Maria Simma (1915-2004) was an Austrian mystic who received many visits from the souls in Purgatory. She first experienced a visit from Purgatory in 1940 when she was just twenty five years old. A man appeared to her and said, “Please have three Holy Masses said for my intentions and then I will be delivered.” He immediately disappeared and Maria said that it was then she realised he was a poor soul. Very soon more souls would come to her asking for help, and over the years it turned into a great number. Maria said that the greatest complaint of the Holy Souls is that family and loved ones almost completely forget them and give them almost no spiritual help. Very few Masses and prayers are said for them and yet that is what they need the most. No longer possessing physical bodies, the Holy Souls cannot do penance or make sacrifices themselves, so they rely totally on our help.

Don’t forget the Mass on the First Friday of each month is offered for our deceased relatives and friends whose names are recorded in the Book of Remembrance. If you wish to add names, please fill in one of the sheets at the back of the church. If we remember the dead now, they will one day be in a position to do the same for us. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7).

Fr Paul Gillham, IC

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Do you think with the mind of Christ?

The Catholic Church has always claimed to teach the same doctrines taught by Our Lord JESUS Christ and His Apostles. How do we know this is the case? People often accuse the Catholic Church of having invented many of her doctrines and teachings centuries after Christ. One of the ways we know the Church teaches the same as Christ is through the Fathers of the Church. These are men who helped shape the teaching of the Church in the early years and from whom we have written testimony. Among these Fathers are men who were taught by the Apostles themselves. They are St Clement of Rome, St Polycarp of Smyrna, and St Ignatius of Antioch who was a disciple of St John the Evangelist, and whose feast we celebrated last Tuesday. In their writings they describe what Catholic teaching was from the very beginning, and we can see that what the Church teaches today is the same as it was then. It’s more developed today, but substantially it’s the same.

St Ignatius was born around 30 AD and became the third Bishop of Antioch and was appointed to this See by St Peter. He was martyred in the Colosseum, but left us seven important letters which show what the Church was teaching in those times. In these letters we have the themes that the Catholic Church is a divinely established visible society, whose end is the salvation of souls, and that those who separate themselves from it cut themselves off from God. He taught that the Catholic Church is infallible and cannot err, and that the hierarchy of the Church was instituted by Christ Himself, and that the Holy Eucharist is really and truly the Flesh and Blood of Christ. And why did Ignatius teach this? Because the Apostles taught it. When the Council of Trent made all its decrees in the sixteenth century, it was drawing upon previous councils like Nicaea (325), and Chalcedon (451), and all these councils were going back to the early Fathers, like St Ignatius of Antioch. This is how Church doctrine developed. They didn’t just make it all up. They referred back to what the Church had always taught through St Peter and St Paul, St Clement, St Polycarp, St Ignatius and many others who relayed what Christ said.

Today, there are many corrupt people in the Church who wish to change the teaching we have received from Christ and the Apostles, and there is much talk of this now in the Synod taking place in Rome, particularly in the area of morals and sexuality. In some cases, when people see this happening, they start rejoicing, saying the Church will finally be brought up to date and now we’ll be the same as everyone else, thus making it so much easier to be a Catholic! And this acceptance of the secular agenda is causing much confusion. This should disturb us, because it’s a watering down of the truth we have received from Christ and could potentially cut people off from salvation. Can people thinking like this really believe that JESUS is God, because they’re saying they don’t believe everything He taught? It’s effectively saying He’s just like us, a fallible human being. But we know that the truth doesn’t change and the truth cannot change. So what do we do?

Pray is the first thing. And we are all being called to a deeper conversion. We need to be able to recognise what the teachings of Christ are, and to be able to reject those things which are not of Christ. So we must keep our focus on Him, and be very careful not to go along with the corruption. The so-called novel ideas of today might appear to make the faith easier, or you might even agree with some of them. But the fact is, if we’re thinking something different to what JESUS thinks, we’re off track, and we need to change our thinking and pray for enlightenment.

This is a time of testing, and we need to be an example to other people – to our families, our friends, the people we work with. And as Our Lord said, “let your light shine” (Matthew 5:16) and give glory to God by it. Most people just want to get along and be like everyone else. But in our present situation, if we just try and fit in with everyone else, we’re going to be accepting the corruption and be led astray. We need to reject it, embrace the truth and live it, but always with charity and humility. It’s not a case of “I’ve got the truth and you haven’t”. Many people just don’t know any better these days, and so it’s not just the truth we need to speak. It’s also the example of charity in the way we act, and in the way we treat others. In the words of St Ignatius, “I wish not merely to be called Christian, but also to be Christian”.

Fr Paul Gillham, IC

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A Statement on Marriage from Bishop Patrick

1. It is important that a couple go to see their priest in good time before their wedding. Normally, at least six months’ notice should be given.
2. Marriage preparation is carried out by the priest, often assisted by a group from the parish. Courses arranged on a Deanery basis are recommended.
3.  Catholics are reminded of their obligation to preserve their faith and to do all they can within the unity of their partnership to have all their children baptised and brought up in the faith and practice of the Catholic Church.
4. Non-Catholic partners will be informed of this promise, but they are not asked to make this or any similar promise.
5. Dispensation for a marriage between a Catholic and a non-Catholic to take place in a non-Catholic church can only be granted for a serious reason. Couples who wish to marry in a non-Catholic church should discuss the matter with their priest in good time before their wedding day to see whether a dispensation could be granted.

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