BIG C CATHOLICS

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. Director, La Salette Shrine Enfield, NH ( Click here for today’s readings )  There’s an old joke about a little boy who noticed that his great-grandmother read the Bible constantly. One day he asked her why. She answered, “I’m cramming for finals!” There is plenty to make us anxious in today’s readings. Malachi prophesies doom for evildoers. Jesus says his followers will be. And why? “Because of my name.” Even family and friends will hand you over, everyone will hate you. And why? Again, “Because of my name.” But then Jesus says two strange things. 1. In a time of persecution, don’t prepare your defense. Now any self-respecting “Law & Order” addict can tell you that you never go into a courtroom unprepared. Witnesses have to be prepped. 2. Don’t worry. Jesus doesn’t say this in so many words, but he assures us that not a hair of our head will be destroyed. How can he make such a claim? If we look back at the reading from Malachi, we re

Ye souls of the faithful! who sleep in the Lord; But as yet are shut out, from your final reward! Oh! would I could lend you, assistance to fly; From your prison below, to your palace on high. O Father of mercies! Thine anger withhold; These works of Thy hand in Thy mercy behold; Too oft from Thy path, they have wandered aside: But Thee, their Creator, they never denied. O tender Redeemer! Their misery see; Deliver those souls that were ransomed by Thee; Behold how they love Thee, despite of their pain: Restore them, restore them to favour again. O Spirit of grace! O Consoler divine! See how for Thy presence they longingly pine; Ah, then, to enliven their sadness, descend; And fill them with peace, and with joy in the end. O Mother of mercy! Dear soother in grief! Lend thou to their torments a balmy relief; And temper the rigour of justice severe; And soften their flames with a pitying tear. All ye who would honour the Saints and their Head, Remember, remembe

By Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori The practice of recommending to God the souls in Purgatory, that He might mitigate the great pains which they suffer, and that He may soon bring them to His glory, is most pleasing to the Lord and most profitable to us. For these blessed souls are His eternal spouses, and most grateful are they to those who obtain their deliverance from prison, or even a mitigation of their torments. When, therefore, they arrive in Heaven, they will be sure to remember all who have prayed for them. It is a pious belief that God manifests to them our prayers in their behalf, that they may also pray for us. It is true that these blessed souls are not in a state to pray for themselves, because they are atoning for their faults. However, because they are very dear to God, they can pray for us, and obtain for us the divine graces. Saint Catherine of Bologna, when she wished to obtain any grace, had recourse to the souls in Purgatory, and her prayers were heard imm

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There are several plenary indulgences available for the first week in November. They are the following: For the faithful departed § 1. A plenary indulgence, applied exclusively to the souls in Purgatory, is granted to the Christian faithful who: 1° on each single day, from the first to the eighth day in November, devoutly visit a cemetery and, even if only mentally, pray for the faithful departed; [Note: one plenary indulgence for each day, if the usual conditions are met] 2° on the day of Commemoration of All Faithful Departed [November 2] (or, according to the Ordinary, on the preceding or subsequent Sunday, or on the day of the solemnity of All Saints) piously visit a church or oratory and there recite the  Pater  and the  Credo .