Search Page

Our Blessed Mother looks with gratitude and joy upon all the faithful priests who are living as her Son lived, doing His work - many of them celibate like Christ, and so most surely repeat His pattern of self-giving, in order to save souls and to give glory to the Father.

The Church is a Divine Institution composed of sinful human beings on earth as well as Saints in Heaven and Holy Souls in Purgatory. To refuse to believe in the Church or the Papacy because some Popes were very sinful is as strange as to refuse to believe that public transport should be abolished because some conductors are immoral or that all schools should be shut because a few head-teachers prove unfit to be in charge of children.

The prayers we offer in the name of Christ can be pictured as ascending to Heaven along the same channel in which faithful souls move, as they die and ascend to Heaven. We can have confidence in prayer, therefore, unlike those who do not believe in Christ and whose prayers are like cries uttered into a night sky, perhaps with little hope.

Some people fall away if their comforts and consolations are removed. Those whose faith is real will not allow anything, or any circumstances, to damage it, whether opposition, temptation, or ejection from their churches, homes, land or families; they will keep the light of Christ burning in their souls and lives, and show out His love and light in all they say and do, until they reach Heaven.

We celebrate all the souls of holy lives, on All Saints Day. Holy Patriarchs and Prophets have already reached Heaven. It's as if they are held in a Fire of Love, in ecstasy, in blazing light, as a mighty Breath sweeps their robes around them. They did what the Father asked of them rather than their own will. They had responded to the Spirit's promptings, out of love for the Father Who created them and calls sinners to repentance.

If we look at the long line of Popes, from the present day, back to Pope Saint Pius X and then back through Popes of many earlier centuries, as far as St. Peter, we see that the true doctrine of the Church has been handed on by the Popes, even if individuals here and there have been very sinful. Christ wants wavering souls to know that, in doctrinal matters, we are 'safe with Peter'.

Helped by our prayers, offered in the name of Christ, the Holy Souls make their way towards Heaven. All those who are about to be welcomed into Heaven are by now carefree, purified, and no longer remorseful or saddened by their sins. They see Heaven as an undeserved free gift, so their hearts and minds are full of thanks and praise - just like the Saints whose company they are about to enjoy.

Christ wants us to know that He speaks to us about sin and Hell because of His great love for us. Just as a householder acts with kindness if he warns a new neighbour that there is an old well in that person's garden, where anyone could be lost, so Christ acts with kindness when He explains in various ways that certain types of behaviour can destroy the life of grace within our souls, extinguishing the light of the Holy Spirit within us - unless we repent and change.

A priest has been ordained in order to preach the Gospel and to offer sacrifice, in order to rescue souls from their sins and lead them towards Heaven. So a priest who leads a soul towards Hell by suggesting his mortal sins are not serious, and that, in fact, someone can continue in his sins without any pangs of conscience, is a monster, in God's sight, because he is doing Satan's work.

Christ wants us to think carefully about 'environmentalism'. We are right to be concerned for people all over the world - to ensure clean water supplies, and reduced pollution, for example. It is a mistake, if we become concerned with the care of the planet almost to the point of excluding from our minds any interest in the state of our souls. The heart of the Gospel message concerns liberation from sin, and preparation for Eternal Life.

People endanger their souls by their involvement in the occult, in any of its forms, which include spiritualism, with its attempts to speak with or to 'call up' the spirits of the dead. To take part is to risk evil spirits entering the souls of the curious. Yet anyone who grows fearful should know that Christ's power is greater that the power of any creature - whether demonic or human.

We learned that God's presence was experienced long ago amidst thunder and fire, on Sinai. People today who live in serious sin and are afraid of God, feel as though He is a God of terror and fire. All who have been purified in Baptism - or, later, in Reconciliation - can realise that God is love: a tender love, in which He enfolds those who trust in Him and strive to do His Will. Their souls are at peace.

Some souls lead lives of such resolute self-will that, instead of being full of Divine warmth and glory they are like snowy waste-lands, where the snow is frozen on the trees, or even like those places in Siberia where the permafrost never melts. These souls will need a lengthy purification in Purgatory - if they die in a state of grace; not mortal sin. Their love for God has grown very cold.

A joyful soul, in a state of grace, is like a brightly-lit, warm cottage in the middle of a frozen landscape. It is attractive to those who long for joy and warmth in their own lives, but not to cynics with little or no faith, who are suspicious about the source of such joy, and call such souls 'naive' or 'foolish'.

Except in special circumstances, we can find that, if we open our hearts to God, even in difficulties which seem insufferable, we allow God to act in our lives and our souls, whether by unexpected changes, or simply by pouring upon us His comforting graces. As Jesus said: 'Come to Me if you are burdened, ...and I will give you rest'.

We should not forget our departed friends and relations. The Holy Souls in Purgatory are safe in God's care, as their purification prepares them for the glory of Heaven; yet they yearn to benefit from our intercessary prayers. They are helped to move closer to Heaven, by our prayers for their souls, as we pray in the name of Christ, Who wants everyone to act, to help them.

We are present at Mass to the one Sacrifice of Christ by which mankind was redeemed. This does not mean that everyone is saved. Christ died for all. Everyone is offered opportunities in life, by God, by which to benefit from the graces poured out for souls through Christ's self-giving love; but He sees how tragic it is, that so few of us believe in Him, and follow Him.

All of those Catholics who cannot be bothered to go to Mass once a week are like people marching across an icy landscape towards the Abyss. The snow represents the deadness of the souls of all who, by refusing to attend Mass, are as if saying to Christ: 'I don't need your prayers, at the Holy Sacrifice' - 'I'm not bothered about my salvation'; 'I'm not going to confess my sins, to be reconciled with You'.

Our prayers 'in Christ' are very powerful! When we turn to a Blessed or a Saint in Heaven, asking for their intercessions, to help ourselves or other people, we can be sure that the Father hears their prayers whether we pray for a Bishop, a priest, a lay-person, or for departed souls. Grace is poured out upon souls, because of God's goodness, the merits of Christ, and our Faith.

God wants us all to help one another, yet there are souls in the depths of Purgatory who have never been prayed for by their Protestant relations who do not believe either in Purgatory or in prayer for the deceased. But when we pray for the dead it's as if we let down a rope, to help people to rise up towards Heaven. We need to share reminders about the importance of such prayer.