Encouragement

Your Prayers Have Reached Me

by Maria Franco
11/27/17
Free to Share

  Message Writer
  Hire Writer

Tweet

Come November and we remember All the Souls to whom this month is attributed to.
Though we are nearing the end of this month, we continue to offer our prayers for the departed members known and unknown to us not just during this time but throughout the year.

As we all know that we comprise of Body, Soul and Spirit. When we die, our spirit dies with us and the body too becomes perishable. What remains is only the soul that transcends into the Heavens above.
We are all judged instantly when our soul reaches heaven. Though the carrying out of this verdict will take place at the Second Coming of Christ on Judgement day when He will separate the righteous from the unrighteous. Until then, we all shall be sleeping souls in Christ Jesus or awaiting purification in Purgatory.
For until we become pure in the sight of God, we can never enter Heaven because nothing impure resides over there.
As long as we have believed that Jesus is the Son of God who died for us and rose on the third day, our Saviour who has saved us by His Precious Body and Blood, we can be sure of going to Heaven provided we are free from the stain of sin. For God loves the sinner but hates the sin.

We hear so much talk around us on how some restless souls still roam the earth to find any being or family member in whom it can dwell. It possesses them until their deliverance is done by an Exorcist who actually speaks to these spirits and asks them what it would take to set the possessed person free. Most of the times they answer that all they need is Masses to be offered and prayers to be said for their souls.

The dead depend on our prayers. Some may languish for years in Purgatory waiting for prayers from their loved ones to bridge the distance and enter into the glorious paradise of Heaven. They maybe just one step away and in dire need of only one prayer to make it through.

Looking at the state of the world today where everyone is so engrossed in the social media, how many really take the time out to offer prayers for the deceased members of their families or ancestors or even for the unborn children?
It would be wiser for each one of us to ensure that we live a life in imitation of Christ to the fullest so that when our times comes, we can enter into the Heavenly Kingdom on our own merits than wait for years for prayers from the earth to reach us.

The more number of Masses that we attend by ourselves in this life will stand our souls in good stead rather than wait patiently and anxiously in Purgatory for Masses in our  names to be said from the world below.
All venial sins are washed away in the Eucharist. But we need to avoid mortal sins or make sure we confess them on this earth, then we can save our own souls because to die in mortal sin is to be lost forever. We should strive to live and die in a state of grace.

We all go through the pain of parting from our family members and dear ones when we say the final goodbye at their graves. How we wish we could have just one day more to spend with them and tell them how much we have loved them all along, appreciated them and thankful for all that they have done for us.
Am reminded of a beautiful story and of course Fiction on how a man goes through immense grief when his lover dies a premature death in an accident. The spirit of the lady keeps appearing to him whenever he is surrounded by couples who are in love. He feels the touch of her hand in his, the touch of her head on his shoulder and a gentle kiss on his lips.
It then dawns on him that since their love remained incomplete, her spirit finds fulfillment in the love stories of other couples whose love has joined them together.
A thought provoking story!

Perhaps our loved ones too who have gone away on the other side, long for that one day more to come back and tell us how much they love us and will guard, watch and pray over us from above.
It has been known before of souls who come for a final meeting to their loved ones in a different form before they leave this world forever.

May we all draw strength from the Words of St. Paul in such situations where He has said
in 1 Corinthians 15;20-23; "Christ has been raised from the dead, as the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep. As it was by one man that death came, so through one man has come the Resurrection of the dead. Just as all die in Adam. so in Christ all will be brought to life; but all of them in their proper order; Christ the first-fruits, and next, at his coming, those who belong to him."

Just as our prayers reach the Heavens yonder for our loved ones, their prayers too reach us below here heavily scented with Heaven's grace and blessings until the day God will give them back to us at the Resurrection.

Maria Franco