The question is old and new at
the time: why we should pray for the dead? The answer comes from the Holy
Father Benedict XVI: «After celebrating the Solemnity of All Saints, the Church invites us to
commemorate all the faithful departed, to turn our gaze to so many faces that
have gone before us and that have completed their earthly journey. During these
days we visit the cemetery to pray for our dear departed ones; we go to visit
them, as it were, in order to express our affection for them once more, to feel
them still close to us; and in so doing, we also remember an article of the
Creed: In the communion of saints there is a close bond between us who still
journey on this earth and so many brothers and sisters who have already reached
eternity. Man has always been concerned for his loved ones who have died, and
he has sought to give them a kind of second life through his attention, care
and affection. In a certain way, we want to hold on to their experience of
life; and paradoxically, we discover how they lived, what they loved, what they
feared, what they hoped in and what they hated precisely at their graves, which
we crowd with mementos. They are, as it were, a mirror of their world. Why is
this? Because -- although death is often treated as an almost prohibited
subject of discussion in our society, and there is a continual attempt to
remove the mere thought of death from our minds -- it regards us all, it
regards men of every time and in every place. And before this mystery we all,
even unconsciously, seek something that invites us to hope, a sign that brings
us consolation, that opens a horizon before us, that offers us a future. The
road of death, in reality, is a way of hope -- and to visit our cemeteries, and
to read the inscriptions on graves, is to make a journey marked by hope in
eternity. But we ask ourselves: Why do we experience fear in the face of death?
Why has humanity, to a large extent, never resigned itself to believing that
beyond death there is only nothingness? I would say that there are a variety of
reasons: We fear death because we fear emptiness; we fear departing for
something unfamiliar to us, for something unknown to us. And then, there is in
us a sense of refusal, for we cannot accept that all the beauty and greatness
realized during a lifetime is suddenly blotted out, that it is cast into the
abyss of nothingness. Above all, we feel that love requires and asks for
eternity -- and it is impossible to accept that love is destroyed by death in a
single moment»[1]. I invite
you to reflect on these words of Pope Benedict XVI ■ Fr. Agustín, Pastor.viernes, 4 de noviembre de 2011
November and the Poor Souls in Purgatory
The question is old and new at
the time: why we should pray for the dead? The answer comes from the Holy
Father Benedict XVI: «After celebrating the Solemnity of All Saints, the Church invites us to
commemorate all the faithful departed, to turn our gaze to so many faces that
have gone before us and that have completed their earthly journey. During these
days we visit the cemetery to pray for our dear departed ones; we go to visit
them, as it were, in order to express our affection for them once more, to feel
them still close to us; and in so doing, we also remember an article of the
Creed: In the communion of saints there is a close bond between us who still
journey on this earth and so many brothers and sisters who have already reached
eternity. Man has always been concerned for his loved ones who have died, and
he has sought to give them a kind of second life through his attention, care
and affection. In a certain way, we want to hold on to their experience of
life; and paradoxically, we discover how they lived, what they loved, what they
feared, what they hoped in and what they hated precisely at their graves, which
we crowd with mementos. They are, as it were, a mirror of their world. Why is
this? Because -- although death is often treated as an almost prohibited
subject of discussion in our society, and there is a continual attempt to
remove the mere thought of death from our minds -- it regards us all, it
regards men of every time and in every place. And before this mystery we all,
even unconsciously, seek something that invites us to hope, a sign that brings
us consolation, that opens a horizon before us, that offers us a future. The
road of death, in reality, is a way of hope -- and to visit our cemeteries, and
to read the inscriptions on graves, is to make a journey marked by hope in
eternity. But we ask ourselves: Why do we experience fear in the face of death?
Why has humanity, to a large extent, never resigned itself to believing that
beyond death there is only nothingness? I would say that there are a variety of
reasons: We fear death because we fear emptiness; we fear departing for
something unfamiliar to us, for something unknown to us. And then, there is in
us a sense of refusal, for we cannot accept that all the beauty and greatness
realized during a lifetime is suddenly blotted out, that it is cast into the
abyss of nothingness. Above all, we feel that love requires and asks for
eternity -- and it is impossible to accept that love is destroyed by death in a
single moment»[1]. I invite
you to reflect on these words of Pope Benedict XVI ■ Fr. Agustín, Pastor.
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