#suffrages

In 1529, Simon Fish wrote a tract entitled Supplication for Beggars in which, among other things, he contests the doctrine of Purgatory, and so calls into question the until-then universal Christian piety of praying for the dead which can be traced to the beginnings of the Church. As St Augustine said: “The whole Church observes the custom handed down by our fathers: that those who died within the fellowship of Christ’s body and blood should be prayed for when they are commemorated in their own place at the holy sacrifice”.

Within months of Fish’s publication, then, we find our Saint, Thomas More responding to the novelty and impiety of the Supplication for Beggars with two lengthy books, entitled The Supplication of Souls. Imaginatively written by the Holy Souls in Purgatory, St Thomas More defends the very thing which we gather to do today, and indeed, which Holy Mother Church especially commends to us throughout the month of November. For, in More’s words: “we [i.e., the souls in Purgatory] have been recommended unto God and eased, helped, and relieved both by the private prayers of good virtuous people, and especially by the daily Masses and other ghostly suffrages of priests, religious, and folk of holy church”.

The basis for the belief in praying for the dead is stated somewhat tersely by Saint Thomas Aquinas, who basically argues from the infallible teaching of revelation. He says: “In 2 Maccabees 12:46 we read: ‘It is . . . a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from sins'… But this would not be profitable”, says St Thomas, “unless it were a help to them. Therefore the suffrages of the living profit the dead”. St Thomas does not explain at great length how our prayers help the souls in Purgatory, but he just says that they do help. By way of an explanation he appeals to the bond of charity that unites us in the Church, such that our suffrages, which are our prayers, lovingly offered for the dead in Purgatory, can console and offer relief to the faithful departed. St Thomas More’s purgatorial soul thus says that “in surety of salvation we be fellows with angels; [but] in need of relief we be yet fellows with you”. Hence the Holy Souls, like us, are somehow comforted and soothed by being loved. And this we can understand.

As proof of this, St Thomas More then advances a kind of empirical evidence. He says: “How many have by God's most gracious favour appeared unto their friends after the death and showed themselves helped and delivered hence by pilgrimage, almsdeed, and prayer, and especially by the sacred oblation of that Holy Sacrament offered for them in the Mass.”

I have a preliminary version of the Petition section (Section C) of the Suffrages in Times of Adversity or Injustice. Please comment–are there too many verses? Are there some that are repetitive and can be cut? Here goes:

123:4-5 C 4 Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy, *

for we have had more than enough of contempt,

5 Too much of the scorn of the indolent rich, *

and of the derision of the…

Progress on Adversity and Justice

I’ve collected the verses related to A, B and C (invocation, character of God and petition) for Adversity and Justice. I’ve culled out the verses that do not read aloud well, and a couple more whose spirit is a bit too condemnatory. The aim is for the soul to contemplate God’s goodness and redemption, as well as his providence,  and for the image of God’s justice not to be at variance with God’s…

Each suffrage will be formed in an arc–from invocation to benediction–in such a way that the Lord’s name and character are first invoked, then the petition addressed, then remembrance of God’s past answers, turning toward hope, praise and thanksgiving at the end.

So within the broad categories, I will group the verses according to the stages:

A. Invocation

B. God’s Character

C. Petition

D.…

i moved to mn from california and i thought it was so weird but read this it's so funny http://www.buzzfeed.com/katieheaney/youve-been-playing-duck-duck-goose-wrong-your-whole-life#.vbj9lj0r2

oh my goddddddd that's hilarious

HOMILY for All Souls’ of the Order of Preachers

In the 1250s, the General Chapter of the Dominican friars, who were only established about 30 years earlier, asked the Master of the Order, Blessed Humbert of Romans, to collect stories from all over the Order about the first generation of Dominicans before they were forgotten. The result is a collection known as the Vitas Fratrum, the Lives of the Brethren.

One story is told about a friar Bertrand, who had been St Dominic’s companion or socius for some time. As such, he was one of the first Dominicans, and he was also the first Prior Provincial of Provence. Friar Bertrand used to say a Mass for the conversion of sinners every day but another brother from the priory in Montpellier, friar Benedict asked him why he said this Mass for sinners rather than a Mass for the dead. Bertrand said that the souls in Purgatory were already assured of salvation – since Purgatory is the ante-chamber of heaven – whereas poor sinners on earth were not yet safe. However, Benedict replied: “Supposing there were two beggars in equal distress, one of whom was sound in all his limbs, while the other was a cripple. Which of the two would you help first?” Bertrand replied that he would “undoubtedly help the one who could not help himself”. So, Benedict said to him: “Such precisely is the state of the dead, for they have no mouths with which to make confession, no ears with which to hear sound preaching and calls to repentance, no eyes to shed tears of sorrow for sin, nor feet with which to walk to receive the sacraments. They can but cry to us to relieve them, and this is all they expect of us; while sinners on the other hand, because they are still alive on earth can always help themselves in the ways that I have named, as well as benefit from our prayers”. Prior Bertrand eventually relented, and devoutly offered Mass for the souls in Purgatory.

For our Catholic faith believes that our prayers for the faithful departed, and especially the supreme prayer of the Mass, can benefit the holy souls in Purgatory. St Thomas explains: In 2 Maccabees 12:46 we read: “It is … a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from sins.” “But this would not be profitable”, says St Thomas, “unless it were a help to them. Therefore the suffrages of the living profit the dead”. By suffrages, we mean that we, who are all united with the holy souls through the communion of saints, can comfort the dead in Purgatory with our love and our good intentions, with our prayers, and through doing acts of charity on their behalf.

As this story of friars Bertrand and Benedict relates, the Order of Preachers has, from its beginning, had a devotion to the souls of our deceased brothers and sisters in Purgatory. The offering of suffrages for our dead is one of the hallmarks of our Order, so much so that it is said that the good life consists in three things: “To live like a Jesuit, to dine like a Franciscan, and to die like a Dominican”!