Last Friday after picking up Aubrey from Shiner I decided to stop in St. Mary’s for a visit with her. This is something I used to like to do when I babysat Aubrey regularly. We’d take a “field trip” and go visit Jesus in the church. I would let her crawl around and she would point out Jesus and Mary. Then we would go around and I would show her the Saints in the windows as I prayed a rosary.
Taking her in Friday was neat because she is a little older. She can now
walk around so I let her go. She pointed out Jesus and Mary. She imitated me
when I genuflected before the Tabernacle. Then I decided to film her a bit as
she was going around being cute looking at everything. That’s when she started
greeting….who? Here’s the video you can see for yourself.
I have been pretty well convinced even before this that Aubrey, any baby, is able to see
angels and saints and perhaps maybe even souls from purgatory. Maybe they are family members? They can’t quite
articulate it, but sometimes you catch them smiling or intently staring at seemingly nothing. Here it
would seem that she’s clearly saying hello to someone in the pew as she came
back to continue to cheerfully say hi.
This little episode made me wonder who is there in the churches with us
that we cannot see? Who is there praying for us or hoping that we will pray for
them? We’re never truly alone and this isn’t something to be spooked by. Rather
there is an invitation here for prayer.
Today is All Souls Day and we remember all the souls of the faithful who
have not yet made it to Heaven, they wait in Purgatory. I recently read a book
that was a collection of accounts about souls in Purgatory who visited living
people asking for prayers and masses to be said for them to help them get to
Heaven. I’ll add a link to the book at the end. It was a very eye opening read.
God does on some occasions allow souls in purgatory to contact the living.
There are accounts of saints, like Padre Pio for one, who have had these
visits. One thing that stood out to me in reading about theses encounters and
what the souls said or did according to the people they visited, is how
entirely merciful God is, but also how He is perfectly just. Purgatory is a great mercy of God. These souls are on
their way to Heaven, but still have some attachment to sin they must be rid of
before entering. Since the souls in Purgatory cannot work this out for
themselves, they rely on our prayers for them, masses said for them, communion
received for them etc. The souls are suffering. They are so close to their
destination, to be in full communion with Jesus, it is what they have yearned for their whole life, and Who they desire most.
They are not quite there yet, so close but still so far and that causes them
great suffering. The time it takes them to get there is unknown. For some it may be quick and others perhaps as long as till the 2nd coming of Christ.
The Church does canonize people and will declare someone to be known to be
in Heaven, that's how we have our Saints, but we do not make a judgement of whether a soul could be in Hell.
So for all the unknown, we must pray. This may sound weird, but I even have prayed
for the mummies in the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It was a few years ago when I visited that
it occurred to me that wow that is the body of a real person there, created by
God, loved by God, and people just walk on by him every day. I wondered about
the state of his soul. Of course he gave his life to worshiping false gods, but
did he know any better? Did he have the opportunity to know any better? Only
God knows the true state of his soul. So I decided then I would pray a Hail
Mary for this guy and the others who lie there in the museum too. Because who
really knows, they could be “long forgotten by us souls” needing a tremendous
amount of prayers and all to get them moving out.
This is why we should never take for granted that our loved ones have already “made it.” When someone we love dies, a common thing we hear with the intention of bringing comfort is, “he or she is with Jesus now, they are in Heaven, they are in paradise, at peace etc.” We don’t really know that for sure though. We can and must have great hope for that, but at the same time cannot take for granted that our loved one likely needs and is relying on our prayers for them. It is never too late to be praying for their soul. Thankfully there are many out there blanket praying for all the holy souls in purgatory as we do daily in the Mass. Of course God never forgets theses souls and they will eventually reach Him in Heaven. As I read the book though I wondered how frustrating it would be if no one was praying for you, if people assumed you were in Heaven (or perhaps did not even believe in Purgatory) and so had no worries. What if the offerings and prayers of the family of that person could help speed up their time there? I am determined to have on my headstone one day, “please pray for me,” just to remind anyone who sees it to pray for me and help me along if I am still needing it.
The Jesuit Spirituality Center there in Grand Coteau as well houses a facility that takes care of elderly retired Jesuit priests and brothers. While on my 30 day silent retreat, two of the priests died, Fr. Rodney Kissinger SJ and Fr. Rolland Lesseps SJ. I want to share a little story about the day Fr. Kissinger passed away. He died at the age of 104 during my first week. They let us know he was near that point so I had been praying for him until he passed. The night of the day he died I went to pray one of my exercises in the St. Ignatius chapel. It was the story of the rich young man who left Jesus sad because of his many possessions. I was trying to understand what Jesus was asking me to give in order to follow Him and it ended with me barely scratching the surface. Literally I thought maybe I needed to drop my suitcase full of clothes at a shelter someplace on my way home and that’s as far as I got. I was tired and decided to just head up to bed. I passed the downstairs sitting room and saw a lamp left on and went to turn it off. A binder on the table caught my eye and was surprised to see Fr. Kissinger’s name on it. It turned out to be a collection of his writings. I thought it was really neat to come upon that knowing he just died that day so I sat down with the intention to skim and winded up down there an hour and a half longer reading everything, except not his retreat book, I didn’t want to spoil anything for me. Many things he said were very profound. These two quotes caught me in particular: “It costs to be a lover, the language of love is sacrifice.” “If you want to know how much you love someone just ask yourself how much you are willing to sacrifice, not of your possessions, but of yourself for that person.” Reading this was an epiphany moment and took my prayer from earlier in the chapel, below the surface, as I realized Jesus is asking me simply for me, all of me in love, to share my whole self and life with Him in everything. This was profound for me and opened my heart to even more on through the rest of my retreat. It helped me to get out of the box and see the bigger picture Jesus was painting for me there. Then Fr. Rodney’s words “fix your eyes on Jesus” as well became a mantra for me to keep me focused on what is important. I know it was no random coincidence that Fr. Rodney “helped” me in my prayer that very day. After his burial, visiting Fr. Rodney’s grave was a daily stop and I’d ask him briefly for his special intercession and thank him for his prayers the day before and leave a flower. I asked all the deceased Jesuits there in that cemetery to pray for me. I knew they were “masters” of the exercises having experienced and likely directed many themselves. Some days as I set out to pray I was challenged wondering what could God possibly have to say for me in this or that scripture passage? What grace will He speak to me from this? Or even some days knew I needed extra help staying focused and disciplined to the hours. So I especially prayed asking for intercession on those days. I firmly believe they came through with their prayers as the graces I received daily were overwhelming and entirely beautiful!
Having these experiences with these deceased Jesuits just further accentuated to me the reality of the mystical body of Christ, the vast assembly of grace filled intercessors we have in Heaven loving us daily in communion with Jesus. It emphasized and reminded me of Jesus’ undying love and as well made me feel even more connected into the Jesuit family there in that time as I know I was being prayed for. We truly are never alone. There is a vast unseen spiritual reality surrounding us daily. We are constantly being prayed for by the saints and angels. Let us never forget to love our entire family in Jesus, especially those still in purgatory who desperately need our prayers so that they may come to full communion with Jesus, Who they were created for and Who they most long for. We can love them greatly beyond their death with our prayers. We hope one day if we must spend time in Purgatory before Heaven that someone will be remembering to pray for us to help us reach Heaven as soon as possible! Go visit and pray at a cemetery today! Like Aubrey, make a point to cheerfully say "hello" to the unseen saints and angles and pray for the souls of Purgatory next time you go to pray in a church.
Link to the book on Purgatory.
https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Souls-Supernatural-Messages-Purgatory/dp/0895558998
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