Thirty Second Week of Ordinary Time
April 2, 2025 Column Father De Celles
PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP. I write this after staying up late into Tuesday night (Wednesday early morning) watching the election returns, and it seems we have a new President, Donald John Trump. For the first time in 132 years a once-defeated President has been re-elected to the Presidency (Grover Cleveland being the only other to do this, elected in 1884, defeated in 1888 and re-elected in 1892). But Cleveland’s re-election was nothing like Trump’s—love him or hate him, this has got to be the biggest political comeback in American History.
Let us pray for our incoming President. May the Lord grant him wisdom, courage, true charity and protection—love for God and neighbor.
And let us pray for all who are disappointed with this result, especially those tempted to respond with violence. In Christian Charity, remember: “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5: 44).
NOVEMBER: PRAYING FOR THE DEAD. November is a month in which Catholics are called to particularly pray for all the souls in Purgatory.
Many Catholics nowadays wrongly think Purgatory is an outdated remnant from the Middle Ages, even though Christian belief in Purgatory is rooted in Jewish doctrine (2 Maccabees 12), and was well established in the early Church. Many other Catholics, in their grief, prefer to think of their departed loved ones as already being in Heaven, and can’t bear the thought that they might be in Purgatory.
But the doctrine of Purgatory is not something to fear, because it is a doctrine of God’s mercy, and reflects the reality that none of us is perfect. All of us sin or cling to things of this world—however small or seemingly insignificant. But Scripture tells us “nothing imperfect shall enter” into Heaven (Rev. 21:27)—and rightly so, since Heaven is about perfect happiness, perfect love, etc… Given this, and confident in Our Lord’s desire for all to be with Him in Heaven, Christians have always believed that between death and Heaven there is a purification, or purgation, where we’re cleansed from all imperfections, i.e., made perfect. This state, or “place,” we call Purgatory.
Now, we must remember that Purgatory is NOT anything like Hell, and all the Souls in Purgatory are good and “worthy” of eternal joy in Heaven—we call them the “Holy Souls.” So thinking of them as in Purgatory is not an insult but praise. Moreover, these Souls are certain they are going to Heaven, so they are filled with joy beyond anything experienced on earth.
But we must also remember that there is suffering in Purgatory. The simplest way for many of us to understand this is to think of the suffering related to change. All change is difficult. Consider the person who is trying to lose weight, or exercising for an athletic competition. The effort involved in change is painful, but as you see progress you are also invigorated and happy, seeing your goal approach.
Even so, since 1) Purgatory involves pain, and 2) we want our beloved dead to swiftly enter the joys of Heaven, we should never neglect praying for them. And if they are already in Heaven, no prayer is wasted, since every prayer is an act of love, and they hear each prayer as telling how much we love them.
So in love, let us pray for our beloved dead this month, and for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, especially the “most abandoned,” the souls who no one else remembers to pray for.
“Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls, and all the souls of the faithful departed, rest in peace.”
Offering Masses: “Mass Intentions.” The greatest prayer Christians can offer is the Sacrifice of the Mass. We remember that at each Mass the one and only Sacrifice of the Cross on Calvary is made present. This Sacrifice of Jesus was and is the greatest prayer ever offered: God the Son’s great offering to the Father for the expiation of sins and salvation of the world. Because of this, the graces that flow from the Mass are infinite and that grace produces various “fruits,” or benefits: impetratory fruits (spiritual and temporal benefits), propitiatory fruits (forgiveness of sins), and satisfactory fruits (remission of temporal punishment).
The Tradition teaches that these fruits flow to: 1) the whole Church (“general fruits”), 2) those participating in the particular Mass (“special fruits”), to the priest himself (“personal fruits”), and to those for whom the priest is offering the Mass (“ministerial fruits”).
This last type of fruit, ministerial, is what we usually mean when we speak the priest “offering a Mass” for a particular intention, or when the Mass Intention” is announced in the bulletin or at Mass. (Note: contrary to what some seem to think, when this “Mass Intention” is for a person(s), this is not meant to publicly honor that person, nor is the congregation required to pray for the person. The Mass honors God; it bears fruit in us, including the person it is offered for.)
These ministerial fruits have infinite power—they flow from the infinite perfect Sacrifice of the Cross. But they are limited by the disposition of the person who receives them. So, for example, when you receive the Sacrament of Penance, you receive all the grace you need to never sin again, but you benefit from that grace only to the extent to cooperate with it, or are “open to it.” Grace isn’t magic, that immediately turns a sinner into a saint. Grace is a gift, that if you chose to use will help you become a saint.
So, when a priest offers the Mass for John, John receives infinite graces, but they are only beneficial to him if he is disposed to let them benefit him. So, if John has his heart set on sinning, but has a small opening in his heart to God, then he will benefit from the infinite fruits of the Mass only a small amount.
The same is true for the Souls in Purgatory. So, when a Mass is offered for a Jane in Purgatory, the Mass will benefit her only to the extent she is purified and is open to that fruit. Because we understand Purgation as sort of a process of purifying and that some souls need more purification than others, the Soul in Purgatory benefits from ministerial fruits of the Mass in a powerful but limited way: they are not yet perfectly open to them, but they are more and more perfectly open to them. So that when multiple Masses are offered for a Soul, he/she will benefit more and more as he/she becomes more and more perfectly disposed to the fruits.
So, “offering Masses” for the dead is absolutely the best way we can help them in their purification/perfection.
Oremus pro invicem, patria, defunctorumque. Fr. De Celles