Novena for the Holy Souls - Day 5

The Power of the Mass

As St. Augustine stood beside his dying mother, St. Monica, she said to him "Bury my body wherever you please. Take no thought about that. Only one thing I beg of you. That at the Lord's altar, wherever you may be, remember me." St. Augustine does this, and goes one step further in his famous treastise Confession he asks the reader to also pray for his dear mother. And of course, Monica was herself raised to the altar and declared a member of heaven by Holy Mother Church.

If only we thought more of the value of the sacrifice of the Mass said for our dearly departed. The Mass is the most efficacious means to supply help and to pay the debts of the holy souls in purgatory. The Church has from the beginning remembered the dead in the Mass and has encouraged her members to offer prayers and sacrifices for them. Remember, the poor souls cannot pray for themselves, they ask us for our prayers. They cannot attend Mass, they ask us to receive the Blessed Sacrament for them. They cannot make the way of the cross, they beg us to walk and pray it for them. Gain merit for yourself, do a simple yet great act of charity and have masses said for the dead. Often our own parishes have few or no masses available to offer, I strongly encourage each of you to go here and have masses said by the Capuchins at the Seraphic Mass Association. You can have as many or as few as one Mass said and it is so easy to do!

Prayer

O Lord God almighty, I pray Thee, by the precious body and blood of Thy divine Son Jesus,

which He gave with His own hands upon the eve of His passion to His beloved apostles to be their meat and drink, and which He left to His whole Church to be a perpetual sacrifice and a

life giving food of His own faithful people, deliver the souls in purgatory and especially that one which was most devoted to this mystery of infinite love, that it may with the same Thy divine Son and with Thy Holy Spirit, ever praise Thee for Thy love therein in eternal glory. Amen+

Our Father, Hail Mary...

Eternal rest grant unto them, may perpetual light shine upon them,

may they rest in peace. Amen+

Reflection on the End of Man

What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world,

and suffer the loss of his soul?

Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

(Mark 7: 36)