{"id":4952,"date":"2012-11-05T23:14:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-05T23:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/2012\/11\/05\/november-month-of-the-holy-souls\/"},"modified":"2023-05-10T02:35:54","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T02:35:54","slug":"november-month-of-the-holy-souls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/2012\/11\/05\/november-month-of-the-holy-souls\/","title":{"rendered":"November: Month of the Holy Souls"},"content":{"rendered":"

O, what a debt of gratitude we owe God for the merciful
\ninstitution of Purgatory. He will not cast us away from Him when we arrive
\ntravel-worn and sin-stained at the gates of our heavenly Fatherland.  <\/span>If only we bear within our souls the image of
\nGod in Sanctifying Grace, we shall be received with kindness and shall be given
\nthe opportunity to purify ourselves completely before entering our happy Home.  <\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn every Mass that is offered the Church orders a special
\nprayer for the dead.  <\/span>In all her offices
\nand prayers she remembers them in those beautiful and familiar words \u201cMay the
\nsouls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.\u201d  <\/span>Not only that but she has appointed a special
\nday each year on which the Holy Sacrifice is solemnly offered for them and has
\nconsecrated the whole month of November, during which period she urges all her children
\nto be particularly mindful of \u201cthose who have gone before us and sleep in the
\nsleep of peace.\u201d  <\/span>They
\nare confirmed in grace, they are \u201cthe holy souls\u201d and most dear to God; but they
\nmust be cleansed by the purifying fire from every slightest stain of defilement
\nbefore they can enter into His all-holy presence.  <\/span> <\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
\nThey can do nothing for themselves.  <\/span>The time of meriting has passed for
\nthem.  <\/span>The night has fallen upon them,
\nwherein, as our divine Saviour said, \u201cno man can work.\u201d (John, ix, 4) They are
\nutterly helpless in their intense suffering, and entirely dependent upon the mercy
\nof God, the intercession of the angels and saints in heaven, and the prayers, alms
\ndeeds, mortifications, indulgences and Masses above all, offered for them upon
\nthis earth. <\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nIf an angel of God went down into purgatory and asked them
\nwhy they had not long ago been delivered, they might well answer like the poor
\nman at the pool of Bethsaida answered our Divine Master that he had no friend
\nto help him. (John, v)  <\/span> <\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n

\nLet us remember those holy souls who cannot help
\nthemselves in that prison of purgatory by gaining all the indulgences we can in
\ntheir favour.  <\/span>Let us not disappoint
\nthem, let us begin today to redouble our charity and loving kindness towards
\nthe holy souls. <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

O, what a debt of gratitude we owe God for the merciful institution of Purgatory. He will not cast us away from Him when we arrive travel-worn and sin-stained at the gates of our heavenly Fatherland.  If only we bear within our souls the image of God in Sanctifying Grace, we shall be received with … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-convent-life","infinite-scroll-item","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5236,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4952\/revisions\/5236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}