Pray for the souls in Purgatory

 Deacon Kevin Gingras

Oct 26th, 2025

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111625.cfm

Malachi 3:19-20a  Psalm 98:5-6, 7-8, 9

2 Thessalonians 3:7-12    Luke 21:5-19

Today, I wanted to walk up and down the sidewalk outside the church, carrying a sandwich board that read: “Repent for the end is near!” but I thought better of that.  Today’s homily does have that fire and brimstone feel to it:

See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he,' and 'The time has come.' Do not follow them! When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified, for such things must happen first… Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place… they will seize and persecute you,

Scary stuff, right?  This teaching is what probably got the Thessalonians to think Jesus was coming back and really soon.  So soon, some of them had just stopped working to wait.  St. Paul had to set them straight in his letter.  We don’t know the time or the hour; we just know some day the time will come, and we will get to our particular judgment.  This occurs at the moment of death, where each individual is judged based on the life they led according to God’s rules.  Our death is merely an end to our life here on Earth.

Gandalf the wizard from Tolkien’s book The Return of the King said about death:

End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take.

Jesus, in today’s Gospel, gives us hope when he tells us:

Not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance, you will secure your lives.

And that is certainly good news, isn’t it! I recently started setting up for a baptism by placing the Easter candle front and center before the altar, and then the baptismal font just in front of that.  This is how our life in the church begins, by our baptism.  When our journey on earth has ended, the candle is in the same spot, and it is our casket that is in front.  The casket is sprinkled with holy water to remind us of our beginning.

Ok, back to our particular judgment that happens right at our death.  Three destinations await - Heaven for those who die fully in God’s grace, Purgatory for those who die in God’s love, but we still need some purification before we can be with God for eternity, and third is Hell for those who have died with mortal sin still on their souls and have rejected God’s love.

CCC 1030:

“All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.”

Why bring all this up now?  Because November is the month to remember all the souls in Purgatory.  We begin with All Saints’ Day (those who have died and are now in Heaven) and then have All Souls’ Day (those who have died and are in Purgatory).  The Church encourages us to pray for the dead, visit cemeteries, and attend Masses to pray for the dead.

A while back, there was a woman I knew very well who knew she was dying.  I asked her how she was doing, and she replied that she was fine.  I told her not to lie, I asked how she is really doing, and what I can do to help her.  Her response surprised me.  She said that when she dies, she wants me to make sure that people don’t saintify her - in other words, correct people who say she is in Heaven now.  She made me promise that I would tell those people to instead pray for her soul and not make that assumption.  Our prayers can help those who have gone before us attain Heaven.  In Purgatory, souls cannot pray for themselves.  When you lose a family member or somebody close to you, you now have a job to do!  That job is to pray for them, to help their souls get to Heaven from Purgatory!  Especially in November, but also in all other months.  Your prayer for a loved one today could be exactly what they need to attain entry into Heaven!

St. Gertrude’s had a great prayer for this:

Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.

This week I’ll end with two saint quotes, it’s that important!

Saint Padre Pio says

"We must empty Purgatory with our prayers."

And Saint John Paul II

“Praying for the souls in purgatory is the highest act of supernatural charity”

Stay humbly focused on the goal: Eternity in Heaven

Deacon Kevin Gingras

Oct 26th, 2025

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102625.cfm

Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18 Psalm 34:2-3, 17-18, 19, 23

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 Luke 18:9-14

When I pray, I always thank God for making me the most humble person that I know. The top dog, number one when it comes to being humble, more humble than everyone else!

Now, of course, we know that kind of prayer contradicts itself; if you think you are the most humble, then you are very far from humility and are more prideful than humble. Pride is one of the seven deadly sins, and humility is one of the 7 virtues. Yes, there are sins that are deadly and sins that are not so, mortal and venial sins. This is in scripture and can be found in 1 John 5:16-17

If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not deadly, he should pray to God and he will give him life. This is only for those whose sin is not deadly. … All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly.

A deadly sin, or mortal sin, requires the sacrament of confession to get back to the graces of God. The reason for this is explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1855:

Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God's law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him. Venial sin allows charity to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it.

Further on in Paragraph 1861, the Catechism tells us:

It results in the loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying grace, that is, of the state of grace. If it is not redeemed by repentance and God's forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ's kingdom and the eternal death of hell, for our freedom has the power to make choices forever, with no turning back.

That took a dark turn, didn’t it, but I try to preach what the Holy Spirit tells me to, and the Holy Spirit is reminding us that we must remain aware that we have lost some sense of sin of late in modern society, and we need to get it back. Influences such as secularism, the decline of religious influence, and our wrongdoing are sometimes shrugged off as I’m not hurting anybody or the harm is to others and there is not much thought of offending God. We need to be aware of how we offend other humans, but we also need to be aware that our sins offend God. We need to remember that our sins are our sins, and they don’t become less severe because we aren’t murderers or adulterers. I may have done this, but at least I didn’t do what THAT person did! We are inclined to judge ourselves based on people we think are less than we are, but who are those who are above us and judging us in the same manner? Are we the Pharisee or the tax collector? Our disposition must be one of humility, like the tax collector. Our prayer must be made in humility! The Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 2559:

When we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or "out of the depths" of a humble and contrite heart? He who humbles himself will be exalted; humility is the foundation of prayer. Only when we humbly acknowledge that "we do not know how to pray as we ought," are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. "Man is a beggar before God."

Well… terribly uplifting homily, isn’t it? There is hope, there is the rest of the story! Jesus died for us to open the gates of Heaven when we enter our eternity, and within his church and through the priesthood, Jesus gave us the sacrament of Confession. Confession cleans the slate, gives us a fresh start, and opens up the graces of God to be received by us again. St. Paul knew his journey into eternity was coming up when he wrote:

I am already being poured out like a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on, the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have longed for his appearance.

Do we long for the Lord’s appearance? Do we realize we are fighting a battle against evil, against Satan? It is indeed a competition, not against our fellow humans but against all evil, especially pride. We must race to win. We must race humbly! If we have strayed off the course and are in danger of losing, then head to confession to get back on track - it’s a sacrament that we must take advantage of as often as necessary, especially when we fear we are in the state of mortal sin! We must stay focused on the goal: eternity in Heaven. Saint Vincent de Paul tells us:

The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility. For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, neither does he know how to defend himself from it.

Our citizenship is in Heaven

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras

March 16, 2025

Second Sunday of Lent

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031625.cfm

Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18    Psalm 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14

Philippians 3:17—4:1    Luke 9:28b-36

St. Paul, in his first letter to those Roman folks living in northeastern Greece in the city of Philippi, says exactly what I want to get across today:

Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it, we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body.

Paul is emphasizing the second and final return of Christ that we today still wait patiently and prayerfully for when we will be joined to our glorified bodies that Christ portrays in today’s Gospel:

While Jesus was praying, his face changed in appearance, and his clothing became dazzling white.

So not only will our bodies be glorified but our clothes will be quite clean to boot!  Today’s Gospel really juxtaposes Jesus's physical and spiritual nature quite nicely.  Last week, we heard of Jesus out in the desert for forty days without food.  He then was tempted by Satan.  Jesus, in his humanity, was hungry, but he won that battle with Satan. As a sidenote, yes, you can live without food for forty days. I Google it:

In extreme cases, some people have survived for over 60 days without food

Now, on to us, how do we fare during temptations from Satan or hardships that our physical nature must endure? Which one calls us harder, the physical or spiritual?  It is truly an ongoing battle with Satan!  We must win!

The Transfiguration illustrates to us what we were designed to be; we are designed for glorified bodies in Heaven.  Unfortunately, for a brief span of time, we are stuck here on earth, and we are not designed to be of this earth. Earthly bodies have negative emotions and pain, both physical and mental.  Earthly bodies require maintenance, exercise, water, food, and diet.  When it comes to trying to diet or fast, a piece of pie always draws me in! I almost always respond more to the physical. 

When it comes to pain, I respond to its physical earthly nature very quickly.  Fr. David’s homily struck me last week when he talked about banging your head.  That very Saturday morning, I was working on the bottom of my garage door, so I had it mostly up but not all the way.   Three times, I turned quickly and banged my head against the door.  On the third time, I actually told God to send the garage door to the abode of Satan!  I quickly realized the garage door did nothing to me.  I’m the one who put it at that height; I’m the one who turned quickly to get something and hit my head against it.  I laughed a bit and said a quick Hail Mary, asking for more patience and forgiveness for my sin!  

We see the physical, we feel the physical, just ask my head!  Unfortunately, humans rarely see or feel the spiritual.  I came across an article that said that the boundaries of human vision are not exact and may vary between individuals.  The visible light range is a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, making up only about 0.0035% of it.  We only see 0.0035% of what’s out there!  Imagine if we could see more of it, even 2% of it!  Abram experienced the spiritual, which is visually represented in the first reading.  Cutting up animals and walking between them was a way to ratify contracts in those days and was common.  What God did with Abram was ratify a covenant.  God was the smoking fire pot and flaming torch that passed between the animal halves ratifying his covenant with Abram.

Now imagine what we would see if we could when Heaven and Earth meet during the Eucharistic Prayer and consecration!  Imagine how strong our spiritual life would become then!  It might even beat the physical life!

Most of us have probably experienced some physical hunger on Ash Wednesday a few weeks ago. What about spiritual hunger?  That should be stronger. Imagine if you couldn't get to church to receive the Eucharist for a period of time. It was almost five years ago that we had just such an experience during the COVID lockdown. Please, God, may we never experience that again!  During that time, did you feel a spiritual hunger?  Did you hunger for Mass and the Eucharist? 

As this Lent progresses on, ask the Holy Spirit to give you a hunger for Mass, a hunger for the Eucharist, a hunger for the sacrament of Confession, and a hunger to spend time with our Lord and Savior in Adoration.  Ask the Holy Spirit to give you that desire so that your soul may be nourished as we approach Holy Week.  Pray to Saint Michael, asking him to defend us in battle.  Remember that our bodies are only here on earth for a short span of time and that “our citizenship is in Heaven” and that time is eternity!

Saint Augustine reminds us to:

Take care of your body as if you were going to live forever; and take care of your soul as if you were going to die tomorrow.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life

Deacon Kevin Gingras

August 18, 2024

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081824.cfm

Prv 9:1-6     Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7

Eph 5:15-20    Jn 6:51-58

I came across a photo of me from long ago.  It was very long ago.  At that time I was in great shape, I had, what you would call, six-pack abs.  I worked out every day and ran three to four miles daily and it showed.  Now, not so much.  Now I fish.  I try to convince myself that fishing is a sport but I don’t look like what I used to so it’s difficult to convince people I’m still an athlete!  

Like any sport or endeavor, if you want to advance, you have to practice. You have to keep up with the work, which, clearly, I did not!  This is also true for our faith and that brings us to today’s readings.

Jesus was trying to advance their faith, to get them to level up in their understanding of who He is and what it is He is about to do.  This was going to be a difficult workout for them, for some of them it would be too hard.

Jesus begins by telling them that He is the bread from Heaven and that:

whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.

Well, that’s kind of shocking, I can understand why the Jews began to quarrel among themselves.  Eat his flesh?  But Jesus doubles down:

Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,

Now you have to go back to the original Greek that this was written in to fully understand what Jesus was saying.  The first word Jesus used to describe eating his flesh was “phago” which simply means to eat like a human normally would.  After the Jews quarreled among themselves the word Jesus used was “trogo” which means to munch or to gnaw, as an animal would do!  This statement would be much more graphic!  It was indeed a hard saying.  It was meant to grow their faith in Jesus Christ himself and prepare them for the Eucharist He would establish at the last supper that lasts even until today.

Some were ready for that workout as the early church truly believed in the real presence. Back in 112 AD Pliny the Younger, the governor of a Roman province went to look into what these Christians were doing, thinking, perhaps, that they were cannibals! He wrote a letter back to the Emperor Trajan and in the letter, Pliny describes the practices of these alleged “criminals”:

“They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food–but food of an ordinary and innocent kind.”

What stands out is that the letter states that they partake of food of an ordinary and innocent kind.   Pliny stressed that it was ordinary food because back then Christians were thought to be cannibals since they ate the flesh and drank the blood of Jesus Christ!  Yes, the early Catholics, just like we do today, eat the true flesh of Christ at the Eucharistic feast.

I think Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel challenge us to the same spiritual workout.  They call us to level up our faith in the Eucharist.  As St Paul told the Ephesians:

be filled with the Spirit … giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father

And we can thank Him personally, here today at Mass, present in the Eucharist.  We need to level up our faith in Jesus ever present in the Eucharist.  Our gym is the Church and the Adoration Chapel.  Spend time in adoration, face-to-face with Jesus Himself. Our workout should include praying to the Holy Spirit to strengthen our belief.  One of our tougher gym workouts is Confession, but don’t skip Confession Day!  Try to go often, at least monthly.  That will strengthen you more than you can imagine!

All of this is to give us the spiritual muscle to fight the demons Satan will send our way during our time on Earth.  All this is to help keep us strong when the temptations of life come our way.  This way when we have finished the Earthly race we can spend eternity.  St. Ambrose gives us a great workout plan:

 “Let your door stand open to receive Him, unlock your soul to Him, offer Him a welcome in your mind and then you will see the riches of simplicity, the treasures of peace, the joy of grace. Throw wide the gate of your heart, stand before the sun of the everlasting light.”

The Bible Is Our Instruction Manual

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras

June 18, 2023

11th Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061823.cfm

Ex 19:2-6a  Ps 100:1-2, 3, 5

Romans 5:6-11    Matthew 9:36—10:8

When I was growing up I wasn’t a fan of rules or instructions from my parents.  I was a figure-it-out-for-myself type of kid.  Well, here’s a story that illustrates how that often didn’t work out so well for me.  Many many ages ago, when I was around twelve years old I went with my mom to the bank and sat in the car while she went in.  Back then you actually had to go cash or deposit checks inside the bank as online didn’t exist yet.  I was sitting alone in the car and there was this push-button cigarette lighter that cars had back then.  Most young folks wouldn’t know what I’m talking about.  Basically, you push the lighter in, it gets screaming hot, pops out, and you can light your cigarette with it.  Yes, back then people also smoked a lot and smoked everywhere.  I told you, it was many ages ago!  I remember my mother once warned me not to play with it, it’s dangerous. I had to figure that out for myself.  I pushed it in and quickly, maybe within 2 seconds pulled it out, and then, as you can guess I had to see if it was hot. I looked and it wasn’t blazing red hot so I put my finger on it quickly and yes indeed it was hot.  As hot as a small sun! The nicely circular rings of the heated element quickly burned my finger and I had lovely reddish-black perfectly concentric circular ring marks on my finger.  I put the lighter back and then noticed something.  The car smelled like cooked finger!  I had to get that smell out before mom came back so I rolled down all the windows, yeah, manually rolled them down.  That’s not easy to do with a smoldering finger but I managed.  Fortunately, by the time she got back, the smell was gone but my pained finger remained.  Lesson learned, well, at least THAT lesson was learned.  

Why did my mother have all these warnings and rules for me?  Because she was some awful tyrant?  No, it’s because my mother loved me and she had the wisdom to keep me safe.  This was the same wisdom I clearly did not possess yet.

Therefore, if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people, though all the earth is mine. You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.

God also has His covenant rules, the ten commandments, and if we follow them it might not keep us from burnt fingers but it can instead bring us to eternal life.  How can we not want that?  God gives us these rules because He loves us more than we can imagine and wants us to be with him for eternity!  God created us and He knows us better than we know ourselves!  He knows what we need to do to remain happy.

How did the Israelites do with these rules?  Well, if we jump ahead in the story we can see - not well.  Moses took too long to come down so they built the golden calf and worshiped that instead.  I won’t get into the details here but let's just say that wasn’t a good idea! - and the result for them was far worst than a burnt finger!  

They were promised to be God’s chosen people, God’s priests, prophets, and kings.  Time after time the Israelites fell to sin but God is indeed a forgiving and patient God and would give them chance after chance.

The final thing God did for them was to offer His own son as the perfect redemptive sacrifice! 

But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him

The Israelites had one final chance as Jesus told his Apostles to announce the Kingdom of God to the Jewish people first:

Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’

They didn’t listen again and we know the rest of that story! 

What about us? By our Baptism, we have that same promise the Israelites had, that of being a nation of priests, prophets, and kings - a holy nation!  We do this through the Catholic Church.  The Church is like a giant toolbox of things we need to take advantage of to get us into Heaven.  I won’t name them all, just a few.

The Bible - It’s our instruction manual that God Himself gave to us.  All things we buy these days have an instruction manual.  I’m sure my mom’s old car had a manual telling you to be careful with that lighter, it gets hot!  Who reads instruction manuals?  Well, when it comes to our salvation the Bible is one instruction manual we DO want to read and study!

Confession - yes, like the Isrealites we will fall into sin from time to time and thanks be to God, we can ask for forgiveness when we offend Him! In Confession, we receive that forgiveness that only God and the sacrament can guarantee!

The Eucharist - this is the Source and Summit of our faith.  It is our food for the spiritual journey.  Far superior than the manna from the desert for sure!

Prayer - if we want to really know God on a personal level then we must talk to Him.  We do that in prayer.  It can be a rote prayer or a made-up prayer.  Something as simple as “God, help the smell of burnt finger be gone from the car when my mom gets back”.

Humility - always be humble with others as well as when addressing God.  God loves a humble heart!

Saint Augustine tells us:

It is not that we keep His commandments first and that then He loves but that He loves us and then we keep His commandments. This is that grace which is revealed to the humble but hidden from the proud.

The Greatest is Love

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras

May 15, 2022

5th Sunday of Easter

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051522.cfm

Faith, Hope, and Love are the three Theological Virtues.  We read in 1 Corinthians:

So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

The greatest is love - why?  God is love and love is eternal.  When we die at our own particular judgment we can go to Heaven for eternity, Purgatory until we are ready to be in the presence of the perfect love of God, or to Damnation for eternity.  Let’s pray hard it’s not the latter!  

If and when we get to Heaven faith isn’t needed anymore since we will be in the presence of God and there is nothing left to hope for because we just attained it all, there is nothing better than Heaven, all we can hope for has been fullfilled!  Love is what remains, we will bask in the perfect Love of our Heavenly father.   

If we deserve eternal Damnation when we have our particular judgment, faith is gone as it will grant us nothing, hope is gone because it is hopeless, but we will suffer the knowledge of the Love of God that we have lost for eternity.  Love is eternal, God is eternal, God is love and love always remains, it is the greatest of the three Theological Virtues.

God gains nothing by us loving him.  God is omniscient, omnipotent, and doesn’t need our love at all but what is really cool about that downer of a statement is that while it is true God doesn’t need our love - God still WANTS our love anyway!

I’m not sure if this is still a thing but I can remember my kids making a macaroni necklace for my wife to give to her on Mother’s day.  They would paint the giant, uncooked macaroni different colors and then thread yarn through it and tie it off to make the necklace. They then presented it to her on Mother’s Day with a great big smile as if the gift was really a diamond necklace. To be bluntly honest the last thing my wife needs is a poorly painted necklace made of pasta but she accepted it and loved the kids all the more!  She didn’t need it but she wanted it because it was a gift from one of her children.  Now I’m not saying we all should make macaroni necklaces for God, no, instead what I am saying is exactly what the Gospel of Mark tells us in chapter 12, verse 30:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

We are God’s children and love is the gift that God wants from us.  So what are some tangible ways we can love God this way?

Love God not because it helps God, because it doesn’t, love God instead because it helps us.  We are created by God to love God so going against that is going against the very fiber of our being!  We love God by adoring him in adoration, going to Mass, and then giving God our FULL attention at Mass, evangelizing, tell others about God’s love, especially about His son Jesus Christ.  Receive the sacraments, follow God’s commandments, and try to stay in a state of grace. We know this isn’t always easy.  We see that in the reading from Acts today:

They strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”

So persevere in the faith, that is how we show God we love Him.

Love yourself too!  Sounds funny to say that but we all are God’s creation, ourselves included and sometimes we forget ourselves in that.  Don’t love yourself to the point of becoming a narcissist standing in front of a mirror flexing and telling yourself how great you are.  Love yourself enough to forgive yourself.  Get to confession, tell the priest your sins, and realize you are absolved of your sins, do not beat yourself up over them thinking you are a horrible person.

Our Gospel gives us another way to show we love God:

I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

We must see God in all other humans because we are all creations of God, not just those folks we like, but those we dislike, yeah, they are also part of God’s creation too!

Cardinal Sarah talking about charity, also known as love states:

It urges us to evangelize; to put it simply, the Church reveals the Love of God.  Often the absence of God is the deepest root of human suffering. Consequently, a Christian cannot perform acts of charity only for his brethren in Christ but must do so for all men without any distinction.

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'.

Dual Citizenship

 

Kevin Gingras

October 18th, 2020 - 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101820.cfm

When we adopted our daughter Faith from Wuhan China, yes, Wuhan, good things can come from Wuhan!  Anyway, nothing really became official until we finished up our trip to Guangzhou and were sworn in as her parents.  At the agency in Wuhan, they even told us it’s a trial run at first, kind of like test driving a used car!  God already had told us that she was our daughter but things needed to be made official.

She became an official citizen of the United States the second our plane touched down in California.  Later, in New Bedford, we filled out an American version of paperwork to officially adopt her in the United States.  It wasn’t necessary but it would make life easier for her to have an American Birth certificate.  These were very important dates for her citizenship but they don’t compare to February 21, 2010.  That was the date of her baptism.  This was the most important part of her adoption process, citizenship into the family of God.  Something she would have never received in Communist China.

You see, we all have dual citizenship, by our birth we became a citizen of an earthly nation but by our baptism we became citizens of a heavenly Kingdom.

Earthly kingdoms will have an end.  Our heavenly citizenship will last forever, eternity.  My wife says being married to me for so long is like an eternity, she has no idea!  Eternity is so much longer than that!

Dual citizenship is what struck me in today’s Gospel: 

He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?" They replied, "Caesar's." At that he said to them, "Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God."

Caesar's image is on the coin so pay the tax, give to Caesar what has his image on it, it belongs to him.  We also should give to God what belongs to God. God’s image is on us.  We belong to him, give to God what belongs to God! 

As it is written in Genesis 1:27:

God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Our reading from Isaiah carries this even further:

I have called you by your name, giving you a title, though you knew me not. I am the LORD and there is no other, there is no God besides me.

God created us and in doing so also placed His divine image within us.  Our dual citizenship into the family of God was made official at our baptism.

CCC 1213 states:

Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit, and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission

We need to reflect on how we are doing in giving to God what belongs to him.  God doesn’t just want your presence here in the pews or watching Mass online on Sundays.  God wants your presence at church of course, but also at work, at home, at the game, in other words, all the time.  

St. Paul reminds the Thessalonians that they are called out specifically by God and even strengthened yet still even though Christ had already left the earth as he writes:

before our God and Father, knowing, brothers and sisters loved by God, how you were chosen. For our gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.

This week we all should pray to the Holy Spirit to ask for that conviction to help us repay to God what belongs to God.  It isn’t easy and that is why we need the Holy Spirit’s help to take God with us when we leave here today and bring him with us everywhere by our actions, what we say and do and also by what we DON’T say and DON’T do.  Know that God is there with us, we just have to always remember His presence.  Focus on our divine vocation while carrying out our earthly jobs and tasks to make our life on this planet so much more fulfilling.

Pope Saint John Paul the II says it well:

"Jesus has a specific task in life for each and every one of us. Each one of us is hand-picked, called by name by Jesus! There is no one among us who does not have a divine vocation!"