Pray for the Dead

Kevin Gingras
November 15, 2020 - 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111520.cfm

An ancient Arab proverb states: "A clever woman is never without wool".  On contemplating this first reading I realized my wife Allison doesn’t obtain much wool, maybe only in her socks and a sweater or two.  I also asked her and apparently she doesn’t know how to ply the spindle and she doesn’t even know what a distaff is!  We had to Google it. 

With that said, the first reading also states: 

When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls.

Now, this I can hang my hat on!  I agree with this statement wholeheartedly!  Why? Because my happiness at home depends on it!  We all know the quote “A happy wife is a happy life”!

One thing for sure, at our house we try not to waste our God-given talents even if one of those gifts isn't plying the spindle.  Now in today’s Gospel parable, Matthew is talking about talents that are a weight-based currency and its value depended on if it was made of copper, gold, or silver.  The parable has multiple lessons.  First, we are all given different gifts from God.  He gave one man five talents, another two, and another received one.  Second, when we do our work well for God then more will be expected of us, kind of like a promotion from God!  Third, if we do not use our God-given gifts properly, instead we bury them and don’t use them to multiply the kingdom - well we hear it in today’s parable in the final verse:

And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

That sounds a bit dark.  This is where the second reading comes in - we are not meant for darkness and grinding of teeth however and St. Paul makes sure the Thessalonians know this as he writes to them:

For all of you are children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness.  Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober.

We have heard a lot lately about staying alert and sober and preparing for the end - that thing none of us want to talk about -  DEATH.  But it’s something we all must face eventually.  The other night, I was watching the movie the Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King. Towards the end, there is a scene where two main characters are in a castle in a kingdom called Gondor.  The enemy is about to burst in and things aren’t looking good for two of the characters, Pippin, a hobbit creature, and Gandalf the wizard.

  Their dialogue goes something like this (click here for video):

 "I didn't think it would end this way" says Pippin

Gandalf replies: "End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it."

Pippen asks: "What? Gandalf? See what?"

Gandalf explains: "White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise."

"Well, that isn't so bad" replies Pippen.

"No. No, it isn't", ends Gandalf.

November is a time that the Catholic Church uses to focus on those who have gone to the “White Shores” before us.  Those who have died.  We have All Saints day to begin and then All Souls day.  This matches with how creation works does it not?  The plants and leaves are dying as well, and the earth is going to sleep for a bit until the resurrection of Spring.

This is where Allison comes back into the homily.  Years ago she began dragging me along to cemeteries as her chauffeur while she would pray for the dead.  She learned this tradition from Susan Tassone - aka The Purgatory Lady.  Susan even calls Allison the Purgatory Lady Jr now.  

I also have become more than just a driver.  I also pray.

Why? Because we should never assume our loved ones who have died are saints in heaven.  The best thing we can do is pray for them to help them attain heaven.  If they are already in heaven those prayers will be used to help another soul in purgatory get to heaven.  We have prayed in cemeteries all around, we try to find new ones each year we have never prayed in yet.

We pray at the graves of people we knew and also never met.  We pray for those who died in 2020, 1900, or even the 1800s.  One of the talents, or gifts that we all have is that of prayer.  To some that is a great gift where the Holy Spirit really moves them and they are gifted with wonderful prayers that they can make up on the spot.  For those of us who can’t do that we all know the prayers that the Catholic Church has taught us all through our life.  Offer up fasting and sacrifices for the Holy Souls, there are also novenas you can look up and do for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.  Find those novenas.  Do them.  Pray for the Holy Souls.  

Imagine the welcome you will get from the souls you helped attain heaven when you finally reach the destination God meant for you!

Venerable Fulton Sheen has said:

As we enter Heaven, we will see them, so many of them, coming towards us and thanking us.  We will ask who they are, and they will say ‘a poor soul you prayed for in purgatory'.

Our Hope is You

It's been a while since I posted anything! God give's me ideas but the problem is without something way to write them down I forget them.  God forgot to grace me with memory!


Anyway, recently we were at a funeral service for a long time elderly friend of ours when I began to contemplate our life on God's great earth.  What's it all about?  Job isn't very reassuring and this is kind of how my thoughts were moving...


Job 14:1-10 

Man born of woman is short-lived and full of trouble, Like a flower that springs up and fades, swift as a shadow that does not abide. Upon such a one will you set your eyes, bringing me into judgment before you? Can anyone make the unclean clean? No one can. Since his days are determined you know the number of his months; you have fixed the limit which he cannot pass Look away from him and let him be, while, like a hireling, he completes his day. For a tree there is hope; if it is cut down, it will sprout again, its tender shoots will not cease. Even though its root grow old in the earth and its stump die in the dust, Yet at the first whiff of water it sprouts and puts forth branches like a young plant. But when a man dies, all vigor leaves him; when a mortal expires, where then is he?

Wasn't very inspirational and this is kind of how my mind was wandering.  Then I looked up and as I was asking God what it is all about I watched a small cloud going quickly across the bright blue sky.  It was a windy day so it was moving fairly quickly.  The cloud soon started to dissipate and within a few minutes it was gone.  I began to think that it really isn't gone, it has just changed.  It's water vapor still exists but the cloud has run it's course, just like we eventually will.  The question is now, what will become of us?  Job doesn't give is much hope in that reading (you have to read the rest of Job's story) but Jesus does give us hope.  Abundant hope.


1 Peter 1:3-5

We do have hope for yes, this world is short lived for us but our hope is in Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time.

Now why wouldn't that give us hope?  Our hope needs to be in Jesus Christ, without him we are just clouds passing on into something far worst than nothingness.  With him we can pass from our current form into an eternal perfection!


John 10 27-29 

 My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.

 Praise God for that!