The Holy Souls at Christmas

The priest at mass last night (the Feast of the Holy Family) was quoting a wonderful old Catholic prayer that I had not heard in many , many years though my mother used to often say it,


'Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I give You my heart and my soul. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, assist me in my last agony. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, may I breathe out my soul in peace with You. '


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I think that not only at the death bed itself but often in the period proceeding it the devil(s) do their very best to win over the dying soul. Of course we know this from our Catholic Tradition of , 'The Last Agony'.

However the Serpent is subtle and smart. If he sees a soul that is, say suffering from say a heart condition or hidden cancer (even if the person herself does not know this) the devil will bend himself with great strength to win this soul over in the period before death. So if the soul is loosing the battle against the evil one we can often sense a darkening down in them a kind of descending into hell before hell itself . These poor lost souls are,as it where deciding to opt for hell before they actually go there.

Well that's my theory anyway. I haven;t read a lot of this stuff elsewhere its just conclusions I have reached from my own observation , so take it or leave it.

 

Ill take it thanks Padraig,
I pray about 60 hail marys a day,
60 x 'pray for us sinners now and in the hour of our death' maybe times 70 years if Im lucky,so hopefully Ive prayed to our lady about 1.5million times to help me at the hour of death?,that all important hour.

 

How wonderful to think Our Lady would be standing at the end of the bed to take us up to heaven when we die.

How awful to think it might be the dmeons there to drag us away.

They used to say that the first duty of the Chrisitan is to save his/her own soul. That sounds selfish, I know, but if don't save our own soul we aren't going to save anyone else's.

 

Mac;
When I meet a hospice patient who is a child of Mary, I remind them of all the Hail Mary's they have stored up for the last hour. What a comfort! The thought of it always brings tears to my eyes..

 

I had 2 clients of mine die on Christmas Eve this week. How awful and yet how wonderful at the same time. One was very elderly and in Hospice care. The other went in for a minor surgery and died of complications. I am saying some extra prayers today for them and their families.

 

Sent a private reply hope you got it.

 

Sorry I sent it to padraig I"reply tonighttonight

 

Thank you padraig for that awesome response--- also I will retread it later

 

It's a quarterly newsletter that come from Wisconsin. Called Star of the Stormy Sea and that seem associated with our lady of Good Success. They are advertising a book by Father Luigi Villa against Medjugorge I am not against Medjugorge b

Mac Iguess they may be traditionalists-- an apostolate of Our Lady of Good Success and so it's probably just their apostolate called Star of the Stormy Sea
From Wisconsin

 

I am looking for an article that proves that Mother Teresa from Calcutta also believed in the existence of Purgatory. Can anyone help me ? I am involved in a discussion....

 

http://www.documentchamber.com/uploads/file/mm/2011 11 maronite memo.pdf

Go into link and scroll down.

 

Thanks a lot Padraig !

 

Is this a discussion with Catholics? If so, what a sad state of affairs to have to prove such a thing. OF COURSE she believed in the FULL deposit of faith. There's never been a Blessed or Saint of the Church who did not!!!

 

I suspect many modern Catholics would much prefer to see Mother Teresa as kind of super Social Worker.

 

It's a discussion with a Catholic who gives conferences with protestants worldwide to unite Christians but who does not believe in Purgatory. Linked to these conferences is the protestant Ian McCormack: http://www.aglimpseofeternity.org/ who will come again to Belgium and our bishop will also come. Ian had a profound after death experience and became "new-born" as they say that. But now he is telling me that God told him that Purgatory does not exist.... So you will understand that for the moment I AM EXHAUSTED in "proving" the contrary.
His experience: