12 Ways to Avoid Purgatory

1. In every prayer you say, every Mass you hear, every Communion you receive, every good work you perform have the express intention of imploring God to grant you a holy and happy death and no Purgatory. Surely God will hear a prayer said with such confidence and perseverance.

2. Always wish to do God’s will. It is in every sense the best for you. When you do or seek anything that is not God’s will, you are sure to suffer. Say, therefore, fervently each time you recite the Our Father: Thy will be done.

3. Accept all the sufferings, sorrows, pains and disappointments of life, be they great or small, ill health, loss of goods, the death of your dear ones, heat or cold, rain or sunshine as coming from God. Bear them calmly and patiently for love of Him and in penance for your sins. Of course, one may use all his efforts to ward off trouble and pain, but when one cannot avoid it let him bear it patiently. Impatience and revolt make sufferings vastly greater and more difficult to bear.

4. The greatest act in Christ’s life was His Passion. As He had a Passion so each one of us has a Passion. Our Passion consists in the sufferings and labors of every day. Therefore, let us do our work, accept its disappointments and hardships and bear our pains in union with the Passion of Christ. We gain more merit by a little pain than by years of pleasure.

5. Forgive all injuries and offences for in proportion, as we forgive others, God forgives us. Go to confession. This sacrament does more than “just” rid us of our sins; it gives us a tremendous increase in sanctifying grace. It wins for us a higher place in Heaven, with increased union with God. Each time we go to confession, we are preserved from many dangers and misfortunes which might otherwise have befallen us. A devout confession helps us to hear the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, and to hear and follow the advice of our guardian angels.

You can read the entire list of Father Paul O'Sullivan's list here

H/T to Lana

Closing Session in the Archdiocesan Phase of the Cause for Sainthood of Father Patrick Peyton

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I know I am late in sharing this news. Source

Announcement from the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien, Archbishop of Baltimore, presided over the closing session in the Archdiocesan Phase of the Cause for Sainthood of Father Patrick Peyton, CSC during the 12:10 p.m. Mass at the Baltimore Basilica on Tuesday, July 20. Father Peyton is best known as the “Rosary Priest,” who encouraged families through his radio and television programs in the 1940s and 50s to pray together daily, especially the rosary.

The investigation into the Cause for Sainthood of Father Peyton opened in June of 2001. It was moved by the Holy See from the Diocese of Fall River, MA to the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 2008. The Archbishop thanked members of the ecclesiastical tribunal for their work in assisting with the investigation into the life and ministry of Father Peyton, and formally ordered the Archdiocesan investigation into the cause closed. Copies of the documents, which were presented during the Mass, were then sent to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome, where a determination will be made as to whether the Holy See will initiate its own investigation, the next step in Father Peyton’s path toward sainthood.

The Catholic Church’s process leading to canonization involves three major steps. First is the declaration of a person’s heroic virtues, after which the church gives him/her the title Venerable. Second is beatification, after which he or she is called Blessed. The third step is canonization, or declaration of sainthood.

At various steps in the canonization process, evidence of alleged miracles is presented to Church authorities. In general, two miracles need to be accepted by the church as having occurred through the intercession of the prospective saint.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has previously been involved in the Causes of Canonization of the Servants of God, Sr. Faustina Kowalska, Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, and Father Francis Xavier Seelos.

Strange "Catholic" Dream

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The other night I had a very vivid dream.

I dreamed Mass was being celebrated at the Cathedral and the faithful were moving up the aisle to receive Holy Communion. There was a visiting priest celebrating the Mass and an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion present there also. Yet, the Ciborium containing the consecrated Hosts, was placed in the middle of the altar so that the people could reach in and get their own Communion. It was a sort of self-serve Holy Communion.

I was aghast especially when I realized there was a priest and an EMHC there who could give Communion to everyone. Then it dawned on me...I was also an EMHC! I then took the Ciborium and gave out Holy Communion to the rest of the faithful.

Then I went to the tabernacle to place the Ciborium in it. I found that there was now a combination lock on it and I did not know the combination. Frantically, I searched for the pastor, who in reality is the pastor of a neighboring church. I was encourage to see that he was upset by what had just occurred in the church.

Then I woke up.

Interestingly, I recently resigned from serving as an EMHC at our parish church. One reason for my doing so is that I feel that we have sufficient EMHCs (or maybe too many) at the Mass that my family and I attend.

Yesterday, I was asked to substitute for one of the EMHCs who did not make it to that Mass.

Strange how that that happened after that particular dream and after I had asked not to be assigned as EMHC in the future. Is God trying to tell me something?

Spiritual Combat: Learning to Recover Your Soul's Calmness

Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament
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The following is the last spiritual guidance Dom Scupoli gave in Spiritual Combat.

"Take this rule, whenever you fall into a fault, be it great or small, even though you may have committed the same four thousand times in a day, and always voluntarily and with advertency:

- never allow yourself to fall into a state of morose bitterness

- do not be disquieted

- do not waste your time scrutinizing yourself

But at once acknowledge what you have done, and humbly regarding your own weakness, turn lovingly to your God and and say to Him with your lips or with your mind only,

"Lord, I have done this, being what I am, and nothing else could be expected from me, save only these and similar faults, and I would not have stopped where I did, had not Thy goodness lifted me up and continued with me. I give Thee thanks for that from which Thou hast preserved me, and I grieve over that which I have done through not corresponding with Thy grace. Pardon me, and give me grace that I may never offend Thee anymore and may nothing ever separate me from Thee, whom I desire ever to serve and to obey."

Having done this do not waste time in anxious thoughts, imagining that the Lord has not forgiven you. But, in a spirit of faith and repose, continue your exercises, as if you had not fallen at all.

And this you must do, not only once, but a hundred times, if it is needed, and at every moment and with the same confidence and repose the last time as the first...

Thus nothing will come to disturb your progress, and your perseverance, and your onward course, nor will you let time pass away vainly and fruitlessly..."

Spiritual Combat, available at Sophia Press.

Feast of Saint Augustine

Picture Source: Idle Speculations

"Christ held Himself in His hands when He gave His Body to His disciples saying: 'This is My Body.' No one partakes of this Flesh before he has adored it."

- St. Augustine

Quote source.

Holy Land Contemplatives: E-mail Us Your Petitions

From Zenit comes the following:
And, please keep the people in the Holy Land in your daily prayers.

Several contemplative communities in the Holy Land are now accepting e-mailed prayer requests.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem announced that it set up this service whereby people worldwide can request prayers from the religious communities that reside in the Holy Land.

In a communiqué, the patriarchate acknowledged that these prayer intentions "may be very important to you and this is the reason why you want to entrust them to the people who have devoted their life to God and who live and pray in the Holy Land."

The communiqué also quoted from the instrumentum laboris (working document) of the upcoming synod of bishops for the Middle East, which states that "the first mission of the monks and moniales is the prayer and intercession for society."

The patriarchate invited the faithful to send their prayer requests to one or several of the religious communities.

It noted: "You can entrust them your prayers, specifying the details you want to communicate. All this will stay private and only be known by you and the community!"

The e-mail addresses given by the patriarchate are as follows:

-- Poor Clares, Nazareth: clairemarie1884@bezeqint.net

-- Carmelites, Mount Carmel, Haifa: zanotiel@netvision.net.il

-- Nuns of the Emmanuel, Bethlehem: community@emmanuelmonastery.org
-- Bridgettine Sisters, Bethlehem: brigida@p-ol.com

-- Silent Workers of the Cross, Mater Misericordiae, Jerusalem: betaniasilenziosi@yahoo.com

-- Benedictines, Mount of Olives, Jerusalem: benetur@netvision.net.il

-- Poor Clares, Jerusalem: mi.yesh@gmail.com

-- Carmelites of the Pater, Jerusalem: edcarmelpn@live.com

-- Nuns of Bethlehem, Bet Gemal, Bet Shemesh: midbar@gmail.com

-- Little Family of the Resurrection, Jerusalem: pfrjer@alqudsnet.com

The Tears of St. Monica

Does God really answer our prayers? If He is eternal and unchanging, as the orthodox Christian tradition has always confessed, what’s the point in praying if we can’t actually change His mind?

Medieval theology would develop sophisticated accounts of the way in which human freedom genuinely participates in the execution of God’s sovereign, inviolable will. We do well to pray as we need, for God has ordained that we be given certain blessings, only having prayed for them.

Centuries earlier, St. Augustine had laid the foundations for such insight: “In prayer, there occurs a turning of the heart to Him who is always ready to give if we will but take what He gives.”

Furthermore, in his mother, the Doctor of Grace had a living icon of the way in which our petitions cooperate with the providence of the Creator. While tears are a natural outflow of sorrow for sin, in St. Monica, we see the meritorious power of weeping. Through St. Augustine’s narration in The Confessions, we receive a basic catechesis about what to keep in mind when praying for others who seem beyond all hope.

Read the rest here.

Thanks to Sue Cifelli for sharing.

EWTN Family Prayer- For Ourselves

EWTN Family Prayer - For Peace in the World

Galileo died as a man of faith, says priest

Galileo Galilei "was a believer" who "did not spend one minute behind bars", nor was he excommunicated, said a physics expert and priest.

The Catholic News Agency quotes Fr. Manuel Carreira saying in an interview with Peruvian daily El Comercio that the scientist and artist "died professing the faith under the care of a religious sister and with a papal blessing".

Read the rest here.