Thursday, November 2, 2017

Parable and Conscience Meditation November 2


Liturgy  November 

Christian piety entails the duty of praying for our deceased brothers, relatives, and benefactors and of keeping their memory in honor (Const. 19.11).

In the hope of resurrection, 2 Maccabees encourages praying for the dead, “it was a holy and pious thought” (2 M 12:45).  In the same spirit, Christians pray for those who are still in the trial of purification after death, that is, in “purgatory.”  The Eucharistic Prayer, as well as Vespers, never lack intercession for the dead.  On November 2, the whole Church passes a day of commemoration and prayer for the dead.  The Constitutions of the Order ask each confrere and all communities to pray for the deceased confreres, their parents and the benefactors of the Order.  They require also a commemoration of a confrere soon after his death, either at the Eucharist or another prayer service.  The annual Ordo that regulates the prayer of the Order fixes the first Monday of February as the day of prayer for the deceased family members of confreres.  A day in October is designated for prayer for deceased benefactors.  On November 3, the Order commemorates all deceased confreres.  The Ordo each year lists, on the day of their deaths, the confreres who have died since the mid—1800s, “a holy and pious thought.”

There are no medicines for death, only to have a good son.  (Benin)

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