Every time we are faced with the death of a loved one or of someone whom we knew well, the question arises within us: “What will become of his life, his work, his service in the Church?”
The Book of Wisdom tells us: They are in the hands of God! The hand is a sign of welcome and protection, it is a sign of a personal relationship of respect and faithfulness: to give a hand, to shake someone’s hand. …
Even their sins, our sins, are in the hands of God; those merciful hands, those hands “wounded” by love. It was not by chance that Jesus willed to preserve the wounds in his hands to enable us to know and feel his mercy. And this is our strength, our hope.
This reality, full of hope, is the prospect of the final resurrection, of eternal life to which the “just,” those who receive the Word of God and are docile to his Spirit, are destined. …
In prayer let us entrust them to the Lord’s mercy, through the intercession of Our Lady and St Joseph, that he may receive them into his Kingdom of light and peace, there where the just and those who were faithful witnesses of the Gospel live eternally. And let us also pray for ourselves, that the Lord may prepare us for this encounter. We do not know the date, but we do know that the encounter will come.
~Pope Francis, November 4, 2013.
Prayer:
O Most Blessed Virgin Mary, my Mother, I turn to you in supplication and by that sword which pierced your sorrowful heart at beholding your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, suffer on the cross, I pray and ask thee to help the holy souls in Purgatory.
O Eternal Father through the most Precious Blood of Jesus and through the Sorrows of Mary have pity upon the holy souls in purgatory. Amen.
And today we celebrate...