The Feast of the Commemoration of the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

"They [the dead] seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace." (Wisdom 3: 2 - 3).

Monday 2nd November 2020, 31st Week in Ordinary Time is the Commemoration of all the holy souls in Purgatory.

The Church teaches from the very beginning that:
"All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven." (CCC 1030).

Where do people go to await the cleansing or purification after they take their last breath and close their eyes in death? "The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned." (CCC 1031).

The unbelievers think that the dead are lost and would decay in the ground like organic matters. They do not believe that man has a soul. Many protestant and evangelical sects believe that the dead bodies are decayed and stayed in the ground till the Resurrection. They are not sure what happens to the soul. This belief is born of churches fthat depend on Scripture alone for the full revelation of God's mysteries.

We celebrate the feast of All Souls because the Church teaches that the souls in Purgatory can benefit from our prayers. Because of this, the Church drawing from its authoritative Magisterium instituted a system of Indulgence. This is how the Church explains her teaching on Indulgence:

What is an indulgence?

"An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints." (CCC 1471).

The Book of Wisdom, our first Reading gives us the end game of Divine Providence on the Souls in Purgatory:

"Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself.
As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself." (Wisdom 3: 5 - 6).

Remember the Poor Souls in Purgatory in your prayers.

Daily Bible Verse @ SeekFirstcommunity.com