“THE history of Christianity in every age shows how alien to Christ is the heresy of indifferentism [the belief that all religions are paths to God], which was first popularized by the English Deists and the French Rationalists of the seventeenth century. In the first three centuries the Christian martyrs died by the thousands, rather than save their lives by a profession of indifferentism. Frequently they were asked by friends and kinsfolk to sacrifice to the gods of pagan Rome, or at least to allow their names to be written down as having sacrificed. “What difference does it make?” asked their pagan friends. (more…)
“HOW foolish therefore be they that seek God with their outward eyes, since it is in the heart that he is seen. Thus it is written elsewhere: In simplicity of heart seek him. For a pure heart is one that hath the simplicity of single-mindedness. And just as light can be seen only insofar as the bodily eyes have clear vision, so God can be seen only insofar as the heart is clear by reason of its single-mindedness of purpose.”
“AND so there is no night there, no darkness, no gathering of clouds, no asperity of heat or cold. But such is the nature of things there as no eye hath seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, except of those only who have been found worthy to enjoy it, whose names are written in the book of life; and who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, and are before the throne of God, serving him day and night. There is no old age anywhere there, nor misery of old age, for all are come to perfect manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
“But far above all these things is the fellowship there. That is, to enjoy the companionship of the heavenly citizens: to look upon the choirs of Angels and Archangels, of Thrones and Dominions, Principalities, Powers, and all the heavenly Virtues on high: and to behold the army of the Saints shining more gloriously than the stars; of the Patriarchs glowing with faith; of the Prophets rejoicing in hope; of the Apostles judging the world reformed into twelve tribes of the new Israel; of the Martyrs resplendent in their ruddy crowns of victory; and of the Virgins wearing garlands of the purest white.”
— Sermons of St. Venerable Bede, the Priest, Ex Sermone 18. de Sanctis
Norham Castle, Sunrise c.1845 Joseph Mallord William Turner
“NO ONE … can be said to be without peace, who is perfectly content with his lot and extremely thankful for it, but the holy sufferers in Purgatory know that their present condition is the very one condition which suits them best, and is most for their good. They know that God has used towards them infinite mercy in not exacting from them a far greater amount of suffering, that they have deserved far more, and even Hell itself, and on this account they are overflowing with gratitude that their case is not harder than it is.
“Besides these elements of peace in the Holy Souls there are others which consist in or result from their condition in itself. We all know what are the dangers to peace in this life dangers so many and so great that it seems almost impossible to be at perfect peace as long as we are what we are. What a blessing we should account it to be free from all external temptation, from all molestation of the evil one, from all provocations to sin from objects external to ourselves, whether they attack us on the side of the irascible part of our nature, or whether their seductions are addressed to our concupiscence! But in the case of the Holy Souls there are no disturbances to their peace from the things which cause us pain or pleasure, which appeal to ambition, or pride, or anger, or envy, or jealousy. All the beauty in the world cannot be a danger to them, all the riches or honours of the world cannot even seem to them desirable, much less be the occasion of serious temptation. (more…)
Only in sleep I see their faces,
Children I played with when I was a child,
Louise comes back with her brown hair braided,
Annie with ringlets warm and wild.
Only in sleep Time is forgotten –
What may have come to them, who can know?
Yet we played last night as long ago,
And the doll-house stood at the turn of the stair.
The years had not sharpened their smooth round faces,
I met their eyes and found them mild –
Do they, too, dream of me, I wonder,
And for them am I too a child?
“THE thought of death and what follows death can be not only salutary, but even sweet and attractive, by linking it with the thought of our deceased ones — parents, relations, neighbours, friends. When a person is advanced in years, he can count more friends beyond the grave than this side of it. It is sweet to live in memory with them, to pray for and to them. When our conversation is with them, as St. Paul might put it, we learn to see the things of this life in their proper perspective. The soul turns from things of earth, and unites itself with God, and longs for the day when they shall receive it into everlasting dwellings, where it will be united to its friends. The invisible and beneficient presence of our departed friends is about it. Whether they are in Heaven or in Purgatory, they pray for us. When the soul has tasted the sweetness of this company, it cannot be separated from it, because the world holds no charm for it and a heavenly nostalgia fills it to the overflow.
It is the day set apart by the Catholic Church for the special devout commemoration of those of its members, who have departed this life in the grace and friendship of God, for whom we pray, that they may soon be released by God from the prison of purgatory.
What is purgatory?
Purgatory is that place in which the souls of the deceased faithful, who though dying in the grace of God, are yet burdened with some small sins not yet atoned for, suffer temporal punishment, and become purified from all sin. (more…)
“The saints are friends of God. They are like the angels in heaven. We honor them, not as we honor God, but on account of the relation they bear to God. They are creatures of God, the work of His hands. When we honor them, we honor God; as when we praise a beautiful painting, we praise the artist.
“We do not believe that the saints can help us of themselves, but we ask them to ‘pray for us.’ We believe that everything comes to us ‘through Our Lord Jesus Christ.’ With these words all our prayers end. It is useful, salutary, and reasonable to pray to the saints and ask them to pray for us. No doubt all will admit the reasonableness of this practice if the saints can hear and help us.” Source
Today is the Feast of All Saints. “Earth is so near to heaven today that the one thought that fills all hearts is happiness,” wrote Dom Prosper Guéranger on this ancient feast, which dates to 609 AD, when Pope Boniface IV opened the crypts of the martyrs at the Pantheon in Rome, their holy bones then dedicated to the prayers and veneration of the faithful.
Pray for us, all you saints, beloved heroes of God. Pray too for all those whose lives are impoverished by the absence of your example and powerful intercession, those who lack your friendship, those who don’t know you, those who live in a world not of saints but of vapid celebrities, political idols, egotistic influencers, pseudo-intellectuals and religious frauds and hucksters. Even though we ourselves are so far from sainthood, we are inspired and awed by your nobility, by the charity and humility that dwell in your mountainous souls. We honor you precisely because of your superiority to us. If God had not revealed that we could, and should, pray for your petitions on our behalf, that it is good and right to pray for them, such presumption would never have occurred to us, beloved heroes of God. The thought of joining you in heaven fills us with a sense of our miserable inadequacy — and yet joy. Only the over-generous and over-abundant mercy of God — what a paradox! — could overcome the chasm between we and you. And yet, by the standards of the world, you were so often considered losers, ridiculous paupers, theological fanatics, nothings, pointless non-conformists, fools, traitors, reactionaries, and anti-celebrities. Then there are those who have called you idols of superstition, who have defamed you centuries after your deaths. Unlucky world that has overlooked you! Unlucky world that was never worthy of you! Unlucky world that has now replaced you with impostor saints and counterfeit, celebrity “popes,” double-tongued revolutionaries, Marxist peaceniks, wolves of sentimental, sham holiness and false peace!
They have dishonored your very name. They have dishonored the title of “saint” — a crime apocalyptic in nature, of inconceivable proportions.
From the Offertory of today’s Mass: “The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of malice shall not touch them; in the sight of the unwise, they seemed to die, but they are in peace, alleluia.”
Indeed, the saints were tormented in this life by human hatred for or indifference to God. This was torture, moral in nature, far worse than the prisons, racks, guillotines, swords, guns, and fires by which the martyrs among them were killed.
The torment of malice shall not touch them — such is the blessed land of the saints where only love of God reigns supreme, where the malice of revolutionaries is not, where the souls of the true saints constitute a magnificent vista of such grandeur and beauty that we could not even glimpse it if not supported by the immense and over-generous mercy of our loving Father.
O almighty, everlasting God, who has granted us to venerate in one solemnity the merits of all your saints, we beseech you, that as our intercessors are multiplied, you would bestow upon us the abundance of your mercy. Through Christ our Lord, Amen. (Collect, Feast of All Saints)
Feast on the glory of the saints today and never forget how much they desire, in their sacred tenderness and compassion, to accompany you on your journey through this vale of tears.
“THOSE whom the world calls heroes, are they who, when transfixed with a sword of pain, voluntarily accepted the pain with its sword. Those whom the Church calls saints, are they who accepted all pains, those of the spirit as well as those of the flesh. The saints are those who, when besieged by avarice, laid aside all the treasures of the world; who, when solicited by gluttony, remained sober; who, when burned by lust, holily accepted the combat, and were chaste; who, when entering on the battle, were assailed by filthy thoughts, and remained pure; who rose so high by humility that they conquered pride; who, when saddened by another’s prosperity, made such an effort, as to convert their base sadness into holy joy; who flung to earth the ambition which raised them to the stars; who changed their idleness into diligence; who, when weighed down by sadness, gave a bill of divorce to their sadness, and rose by a generous effort to spiritual joy; who, when enamoured of themselves, renounced their self-love for love of others, and with heroic abnegation offered their life for them in perfect holocaust.”
And then think of what it is to be with those noble, generous and wise human beings, the Saints, and to enjoy their exalted companionship forever, the beauty of their souls and countenances penetrating our hearts and filling us with a love so sweet and enduring it would overcome us if we were to experience it in this life. There would be no embarrassment then that we too love God. Our inadequacies would be overshadowed by their heroic heights, in the way immense mountains cradle, and form one exquisite panorama with, the flecks of flowers and grasses far below.
Here is a love worth any price. Here is a love the ancient martyrs saw so vividly. It overcame them with joy when they were fed to wild dogs in the amphitheater or set alight in the imperial gardens. Joan of Arc, betrayed as few have ever been betrayed, called out in a resounding voice, Jesu, Jesu! as the flames encompassed her and the hatred of the world consumed her earthly existence. She saw love and nothing else. Her heart was already on fire.
Oftentimes, people talk of Heaven as if it were a state of mindless euphoria, almost a state of drunkenness. But it is nothing like that. In mindless bliss, in depersonalized nirvana, little of our selves would survive. Little of our selves would love or be loved. The heartlessness of this world, its scorn for the holy and marvelous intimacies of heaven, can only prepare us to know true charity if and when we see it. If we must sacrifice attachments in this life for the love of God, we are not without friends. They await us, and they want nothing more than that we love what they love.
I have walked a great while over the snow, And I am not tall nor strong. My clothes are wet, and my teeth are set, And the way was hard and long. I have wandered over the fruitful earth, But I never came here before. Oh, lift me over the threshold, and let me in at the door!
The cutting wind is a cruel foe. I dare not stand in the blast. My hands are stone, and my voice a groan, And the worst of death is past. I am but a little maiden still, My little white feet are sore. Oh, lift me over the threshold, and let me in at the door!
Snap-Apple Night, or All-Hallow Eve, Daniel Maclise; 1833
One hears too often from the secular world that “Hallowe’en is a pagan holiday” — an impossibility because “Hallowe’en,” as said, means “All Hallows’ Evening” which is as Catholic as it gets. Some say that the holiday actually stems from Samhain, a pagan Celtic celebration, or is Satanic, but this isn’t true, either, any more than Christmas “stems from” the Druids’ Yule, though popular customs that predated the Church — such as the use of holly to decorate — may be involved in our celebrations (it is rather amusing that October 31 is also “Reformation Day” in Protestant circles — the day to recall Luther’s having nailed his 95 Theses to Wittenberg’s cathedral door — but Protestants who reject Hallowe’en because pagans do things on October 31 don’t object to commemorating that event on this day).
31 October and 1 and 2 November are called, colloquially (not officially), “Hallowtide” or the “Days of the Dead” because on these days we pray for or remember those who’ve left this world.
The days of the dead center around All Saints’ Day (also known as All Hallows’) on November 1, when we celebrate all the Saints in Heaven. On the day after All Hallows’, called “All Souls’ Day,” we remember the saved souls who are in Purgatory, being cleansed of the temporal effects of their sins before they can enter Heaven. The day that comes before All Hallows’, though, is one on which we unofficially remember the damned and the reality of Hell. The schema, then, for the Days of the Dead looks like this:
31 October: Hallowe’en: unofficially, per folk custom, recalls the souls of the damned. Practices center around recognizing and remembering the reality of Hell and how to avoid it.
1 November: All Saints’: set aside to officially honor the Church Triumphant (the souls in Heaven). Practices center around recalling our great Saints, including those whose names are unknown to us and, so, are not canonized (more…)
“Prayer, considered in its nature or quality, is a familiar conversation and union with God; considered in its efficacy, it is the preservation of the world, the reconciliation with God, the mother of tears, the companion on journeys, the propitiation for sins; a bridge over the high waters of temptation; a bulwark against all assaults or afflictions: the suppression and extinction of wars; the office of the Angels; the nourishment of all souls; the anticipation of future joy; a perpetual occupation, the source of all virtues, the channel of all graces.
“Prayer is the lever of the spiritual life; the medicine of the soul; the light of the understanding; the expeller of despair; the ground-pillar of Christian hope; the solution of melancholy and sadness; the riches of monks; the treasure of hermits; the cessation ot anger; a mirror to show the progress in the spiritual life; the thermometer of the soul; a declaration of the dispositions of the heart; a moral certainty of heavenly glory.”
“AH, my dear brethren, let prayer never leave your hearts, and the grace and mercy of God will never leave your souls. Rest assured that the Lord will never withdraw from you, nor cease to enlighten, guide and protect you as long as you pray to Him. You complain of the difficulty of saving your souls in the midst of a corrupt world, in which you are exposed to so many dangers. Do you wish to escape them all and to fear none? Arm yourselves with prayer. Prayer was the daily food and strength of the prophet; it was his whole delight; he understood but too well all its advantages.”
