Fr. Maassen's Message - 10/29/2023

Dear Missionary Disciples of Christ,
 
In November we are called in a special way to pray for the deceased, although hopefully, the practice is year-round. I thought it would be good to encourage that and look at the definition of purgatory from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Purgatory is “a state of final purification after death and before entrance into heaven for those who died in God’s friendship, but were only imperfectly purified: a final cleansing of human imperfection before one is able to enter the joy of heaven.”
 
On Catholic Answers, I was reading a transcript from Fr. Hugh Barbour, O.P. about what we can do for the deceased. “But the Mass, first of all, then works of charity, then prayers and then penances… we offer them and give them for their suffering.”
 
As a reminder, the greatest work of charity ever performed was the passion and death, the dying on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is presented at every Mass. So it is a wonderful thing to have a Mass said for the deceased.
 
In Christ,
 
Fr. Maassen