The Church begins the month of November with the Solemnity of All Saints. The following day, 2 November, it observes the Commemoration of All Souls, to which the month of November is dedicated. We’re reminded then while our goal, or rather, the purpose of life is to live in charity and justice with the hope that with the grace of God we can go to heaven. We have the saints to intercede for us and to follow as an example. And, we’re also asked to pray and make some sort of suffrage for those who have been called by God from this world who are in need of further prayer. Hence, the Church continues to emphasize its teaching of Purgatory.
Purgatory literally means purify or make clean. It is a place or better yet a condition of temporal punishment for those who have either died unrepentant for smaller faults for which there was no true conversion and for those who have not fully atoned for whatever temporal punishment they had to pay in this world. Thus, we as members of the Church are asked to pray and intercede for the souls of the faithful departed that God may bring them to their eternal rewards. We see this in Sacred Scripture, for example, 2 Macabees 12: 43 – 46, the Jews praying and making reparation for those who have died for they were convinced on the efficacy of prayer for those who have died, “Because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness had great grace laid up for them. It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed form sins.”
Let us always remember that one day we too will pass from this world and meet our Creator. On that day we will have to answer for our actions and thus hope that with his mercy, Almighty God may bring us into his fold. This is something we can’t presume for judgment is left to God and God alone. However, we can make reparation through prayer and atonement with the hope that we, along with our fallen brethren, may become part of that communion of saints in heaven.
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