Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00 Communion a course under the new code, you can go to communion twice per day. The second time has to be in the context of hearing mass. A person. If a person came in that in fact on a daily mass, you can come in and as long as you're disposed, you could come in before communion and go to community. Don't have to hear the whole daily mass, and if there was another one after that, then you could go to communion again. Sometimes it's funny because people will actually a bragged mirror or chastised me for D for suggesting people should go to communion more than once, I think. Well, I mean, when you're laying there on your death bed, you're not gonna regret more communions that you're going to be proud. Like I've gone to communion less than most people. I mean, this is just crazy. The Christ, our Lord comes to us the most blessed sacrament of the altar.
Speaker 0 00:47 If we're not saints after our first Holy communion, it's because of our disposition. So we want our disposition to keep changing. One of the ways to change or just position is by receiving him anyway. He's the source of holiness. So that's my remark on that offering. Ray Prisma and the name of the father and the son and the Holy spirit. Amen. The Pope who led the church into the 13th century, the most Catholic of all centuries, was perhaps the greatest Pope of the middle ages, and certainly one of the greater pulps of all time innocent. The third, he sat on st Peter's chair from 1198 until 1216 during his pontificate, among other things, he proclaimed the fourth crusade. Uh, he approved st Francis request to found a band begging brothers and he convened the great fourth Lateran council in 1215 to quote, deliberate on improvement of morals, the extinction of heresy and the strengthening of the faith.
Speaker 0 01:43 Closed quote on July 16th, 1216 at the relatively young age of 56, he died near Rome within three days of Cardinals elected as successor Pope on Norris. The third <inaudible> took innocent the third as his model for the papacy regarding innocent as an inspired leader of Christendom. And as is saying far away the Netherlands. And the very day that Pope innocent died. Saint Luke guard Brabant was surprised to suddenly see a man completely enveloped in flames. Appear before right there in the convent. Who are you and what do you want? She demanded of him. I am Pope innocent. He replied, is it possible that you are Holy father should be in such a state? She asked, yes, I'm excavating three faults, which he then had told her, but as your biographer noted quote, I admit them here through respect for soul, greater pulp. Close quote, I'm ex expiating three faults which might've caused my eternal perdition. Thanks to the blessed Virgin Mary. I have obtained pardon for them, but I have to make a Tallman. It is terrible and it will last for centuries. If you do not come to my assistance and the name of Mary who is obtained for me the favor of appealing to you, help me. Then he disappeared.
Speaker 1 02:59 Great.
Speaker 0 03:01 He disappeared after saying this purgatory time was terrible and would last for centuries. Saint Luke, guard and ops, the death of the Pope to her sisters, and they began prayers and works of penance to deliver him from purgatory. Some weeks later, news from Rome, the fact that the Papa died finally arrived at their convent, a great Paul, widely regarded as Saint Lee, and yet his purgatory time would have lasted for centuries at say, look, God and his sisters not come to his aid centuries for three falls.
Speaker 1 03:33 Oh,
Speaker 0 03:34 st Francis of Rome says on the average, it takes seven years in purgatory to make expiation for each forgiven mortal sin. That great doctor, the church, Saint Robert Bellarmine says, there's no doubt that the pains of purgatory are not limited to 10 and 20 years and they may last in some cases entire centuries. The last great to mystic theologian, father Reginald Maria Gehrig, Oola grunge taught quote theological opinion in general favors long duration of purgatorial purification. Private revelations mentioned three or four centuries or even more, especially for those who have had high office and great responsibility. Close quote. Actually, we could easily spend the whole sermon going through similar cases. We'll just mention one more. We're all familiar with the story of Fatima. Remember when the children of Fatima asked our lady what had happened to a teenage girl that recently died? Our lady said she'd be in purgatory until the end of the world. Of course, all souls had to be out of purgatory at the end of the world. Since purgatory ends on judgment day,
Speaker 0 04:41 it seems rough and if we just stopped there, we could easily fall into despair. But hang on, we'll look at a few truths about purgatory and then we can put it into a clearer perspective. Truths about purgatory. One, purgatory is the place where the members of the church suffering live. They're commonly called the poor souls of the Holy souls. The souls in purgatory have died in the state of grace, so they're all saved. But the souls cannot yet enter heaven because they still have to make amends. So purgatory is a place where souls make amends. It's like summer school for heaven. You didn't flunk, but you didn't quite pass either. To this point, it has two truths which we have to simultaneously keep together. Purgatory is a place of joy and peace. And at the same time a place of suffering. So it's a place of joy and peace and a place of suffering.
Speaker 0 05:35 Saint Catherine of Genoa who dictated her tradies on purgatory while she was an ecstasy, commented on these very truths, saying that the poor souls enjoying the inexpressible peace, which has compounded of joy and pain. No piece can be compared with the piece in purgatory except for the peace in heaven. God increases in the poor soul's desire to see him. Their desire is so strong to have that beatific vision that it becomes absolutely unbearable. Three, there are two pains in purgatory. The delay of the beatific vision and the pain of sense. The delay of the beatific vision is the chief pain and purgatory. The souls truly love God above all things. On the one hand, they're full of joy in the hope there is soon going to be delivered from this state. On the other hand, they're in agony in the suffering they're experiencing from not seeing God face to face yet.
Speaker 0 06:25 And this is real suffering. According to the great doctors of the church, st Augustan, San Isidore, Saint Bonaventure and st Robert Bellarmine lace painted purgatory is greater than the greatest pains on earth. Saint Catherine of Genoa who experienced the pains of purgatory while she was here on earth said that souls in purgatory, United great joy with great suffering, one does not diminish the other. On the other hand, the souls in purgatory endorse, endure, torments which note Khan can describe and no intelligence comprehend without special revelation. The pain is sense according to the teaching of those great doctors, the church, st Gregory, the great Santa Gustin, Saint Cyprian, Saint Bazell, and Saint Robert Bellarmine. And according to experience that many saints have visited, purgatory is caused by the purgatorial fire, which cleanses the souls of their imperfections. So the two pains are from the delay of the beatific vision and the purgatorial fire for there are three reasons souls are detained in purgatory.
Speaker 0 07:23 First they're making amends for sins, either mortal venial that were already forgiven. What? Which they hadn't made complete satisfaction for yet in this life. What does that mean? Actually, it's a fairly basic concept. The virtue of justice considers in rendering onto someone else what's his do? So justice means you pay what you owe. So if we steal our neighbor's lawn more later on, we repent and he forgives us. We still have to give him the lawnmower back. We have to make restitution in order to restore the balance of justice. Now, if someone violates the virtue of justice, he has to make reparation. When we sin, we haven't read on to God what we owe him, which is absolute obedience. We've tipped those scales of justice when we've sin. So we have to do two things to get the scales back. We have to repent and make reparation.
Speaker 0 08:14 And if we don't repent before we die and we're guilty, mortal sin, then real trouble. We'll be down. But suppose we do repent before we die, but we haven't made restitution for all our sins. Well, that's purgatory. So we have to keep in mind that even after sins been forgiven, the balance still has to be even. That's why we do pennants. That's why we give on do good works to even out the balance so we can reduce time and purgatory. Now before we go on, let's consider something we've already heard in the light of this fat. Remember, st Francis of Rome sit on the average would take seven years in purgatory to make expiation for each forgiven mortal sin. Well then you can, once we understand that, we can understand why Catholics, the old days wanted to do such heavy duty penances so they could do all the pennants while they were here on earth.
Speaker 0 09:02 You understand why a priest might tell you could ask for more penance in the confessional because other things being equal, the same exact pen, it's done privately or done as a Sacramento pen. It's doesn't have the same result because it confessional pen, it's gets you out a way more purgatory time. St Thomas of Villanova urge confessors to give optional penances to their penitents says, reduces their purgatory time without being a dangerous burden to them. Okay. So the first reason that souls are in purgatory is they're making amends for their sins, either mortar or venial that were already forgiven for which they hadn't made complete satisfaction for. And yet in this lie, second souls are awesome purgatory because they died unforgiven venial sins for which they must render an account. An venial sins don't merit damnation, but they have to be paid for before soul can enter heaven. Third souls are also detained in purgatory because even though their sins had been forgiven, the soul still have what are called the rain remains of sin when they die.
Speaker 0 09:56 Now, what are the remains as sin? Saint Thomas points out, there's two problems with any sin. One problem is a sinner turns away from God. The other problem is a sinner turns towards a creature. For example, in the case of someone who's smoking dope, the sinner turns away from God when he decides to sin and he turns towards this creature, marijuana. Let's assume the man receives the grace to repent. Now, since that's a mortal sin, the crime of turning away from God has forgiven him when he makes a good confession. But in this is super important for us to realize there may very well be a remaining attraction inclination towards this creature towards marijuana. This attraction, which remains in the man's soul after confession, continues to cause him problems. It continues to solicit him, but tempt him to commit that sin again, and this continuing lack of virtue in the man's soul is call the remains of sin. Repetition makes a habit. Bad habits or advice, this is the reason when I preach about healing, it's so important for us to work on this. When you work on healing, you're also working on growing in holiness and getting out of purgatory time, and you can do it here. Nobody here has to go to purgatory.
Speaker 0 11:09 It's also important to realize we can have <inaudible> central vicious habits like impatience and speech and so forth. Those have to be burnt up before we leave purgatory, but they can be healed here. So again, the three reasons for souls being in purgatory are they're making amends for sins, either mortar, O venial that were forgiven, but they hadn't made satisfaction for yet in this life too. They died with unforgiven venial sins for which they must render a cow or three. They still had the remains of sin
Speaker 1 11:39 when they die.
Speaker 0 11:42 Next, our Lord met exactly what he said in the parable when he said we wouldn't get out til we paid the last penny. Not even the slightest. Anyone with the slightest Peck of imperfection can enter heaven. Six souls in purgatory can't merit the time for merit is in this life at death all meriting ends. Period. We can grow in grace now, but not before we die. That's why we want to make as fervent a community as we can cause we grow in grace and the monit grace. You die with his amount of grace. You have
Speaker 0 12:13 seven we can offer up or God sends us exactly the amount of suffering in this life. We need to avoid purgatory and to go straight to heaven when we die. That's what's so important to work on virtue. It's so important to work on healing because then we don't buck against the cross. When God sends it to us and all those little crosses and even the big cross he said are designed for one thing so that we're purify in this life and when we're purified in this life, we're meriting at the same time, so we're going to die in a more Holy way. It's so important. Meditate on the cross. Last, we can offer up our prayers and good works for poor souls. That's critical. So many people have forgotten this because it's so many funerals. The poor guy is poor. Gal is canonized and people forget.
Speaker 0 13:01 We need to pray for them. We need to pray from our our whole entire life. We need to pray for our loved ones and pray for the forgotten ones and so forth. It's so important and every time when you go to Holy mass, not just a Requiem, but there's the memento of the dead, you should remember all the souls, all the souls that you're most bond or pray for the ones that are here, the ones that nobody else prays for, and you can bet in the course of your life, you're going to get plenty of people out of purgatory if you're doing that sort of thing, and where are they going to be? They're going to be in heaven. There are no integrates in heaven. They're going to be looking out for you because you are looking out for them and they're going to help you get out of it.
Speaker 0 13:40 If you end up in purgatory because they're going to obtain for you that you've been getting indulgence, you've been praying, then those prayers will be applied to you. They'll talk to the Lord about that, but you should set the goal to miss purgatory. Sometimes people say, Fahd, I'm just shooting for purgatory. That's crazy. You might miss shoot for heaven. Then if you miss it's purgatory, that's not such a bad deal. You'll be a Holy soul then, but shoot to be a Saint. That's why you're baptized. That's why you're here. So if we've been serious about trying to get the souls out on a regular basis, what do you think? What's going to happen if we land in purgatory? God is infinitely just, he's going to give us first dibs on those prayers. Go into the soul, not just indulgences. We can offer up our masses, our communions.
Speaker 0 14:24 On occasion, our sifts or sufferings are aches and pains. We can give arms. There's all kinds of beautiful things we can do to get the souls out of purgatory and there are no integrates in heaven. They're going to remember you. Okay. Let's put one more point perspective. Why do you suppose Pope innocent the third appear to scent? Look guard. He darn sure wasn't sneaking out a purgatory. God allows an apparition like that for at least three reasons. First, remind us that he means what he says. He says, if he said, we have to answer for every idle word, he means it. God's God. He isn't going to have a better idea. He didn't forget anything. He knows it all. Okay. If he says something, that's just how it is. Second, to remind us that we need to pray and sacrifice together our brothers and sisters out of purgatory.
Speaker 0 15:10 And if we're doing that, not only are we helping those who can't help themselves, but we're also crushing our own self love and we're growing in holiness at the same time. And third, it was an act of mercy. An apparition like that is an act of mercy. God's infinitely just please. We forget that at our own peril, but he's also in Philly merciful and even though innocent, the third was sentenced to centuries and purgatory. Why did God let him to appear to a Saint and a whole convent of nuns to make sure he wouldn't have to do all that time so they'd help him out. Why? Because by their purse and sacrifice, he'd be speedily delivered and then people knew he was there and remind people, Hey, we need to pray for our Holy dead. Okay, who wants to spend decades or centuries in purgatory? Everybody here just needs to get serious about their religion. It's pay now or pay later. The name of the father and the son, the Holy ghost. Amen.
