Remembrance Project Day 4: Paying it forward

It is not bad to have a look at the way how Roman Catholic teachings can make the lives of its believers oh so difficult and complicated.

They learn that there are 7 sacraments that RC kids can celebrate as they progress through their lives: Baptism, Confession, Communion, Confirmation, Marriage OR Holy Orders, and finally, the Anointing of the Sick, altogether with the goal to have a clean conscience when they die.

In lots of those Catholic Churches they do not take much time to study the Holy Scriptures, but lots of time is given in preparation of the first and second communion and offering their members all sorts of teachings which find their roots in human philosophy and writings from so-called theologists.

Very early in life, those Catholics are frightened with a waystation between our mortal body coil (purgatory)and a so called heaven, many not wondering why they always pray in our Lord’s prayer that God His Kingdom would come on earth as in heaven. Who would then be allowed to live on earth when everybody would go to heaven?

No wonder, many Catholics have difficulty coping with life and death. The writer is made to believe by her priests, that the way you get passage to the pearly gates is by the prayers of the friends and family, chipping away at any stain remaining on their soul, them believing that soul would be a second ‘me’ in themselves, another being that shall leave their body when they die. The writer also thinks that’s what All Souls’ is all about. Perhaps it is that what the Catholic Church wants them to believe. But All Souls, like All Saints, Halloween and the Day of the dead (Dia de los Muertos) are all heathen festivals the God of the Bible does not want to know about.

All lovers of God have to know that when we die our life comes to an end, and then is it finished, too late to do or say anything. Everything we have to do has to happen in this life, in the now and then before we fall asleep in the sleep of the dead.

“4 For him that is joined to all the living there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5 For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Also their love and their hatred and their envy is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun. 7 Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works. 8 Let thy garments be always white, and let thy head lack no ointment. 9 Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which He hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity; for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labor which thou hast done under the sun. 10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest.” (Ec 9:4-10 KJ21)

That the writer doesn’t understand how their prayers are a good restitution for harm done she believes that if you die without having a final confession, you end up in Purgatory, which would mean that God would give those people another punishment after they received their first punishment for their sins, namely death. It also makes their god a very cruel one, loving his children once more being tortured, and this time even by an eternal burning fire.

And why should they pray for the souls in Purgatory as a whole, when it would just be a place of transition and not a permanent state or residence?

The writer questions:

“They can’t repent for their misguided ways anymore, so what if they don’t have anyone to intercede on their behalf?”

This makes us to questions if they do not believe Jesus is the best mediator for them, and why he did not judge them alright for entering the Kingdom straight ahead, when they paid already with their death for their sins, and Jesus also had paid for their sins, at the wooden stake?

 

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Find also to read

1. Are we taken up into heaven straight after we die?
2. Where do we go when we die?
3. Biblical Ambiguity on Death?
4. Realities concerning Human Life and Death
5. The Dead — Where Are They? 24 Stories, first death and heavens
6. What happens when we die?
7. Autumn, Life and death, grace, regeneration and sanctification
8. Halloween custom of the nations
9. Allhallowtide with Halloween, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day
10. Dia de Los Muertos – Day of the dead
11. Is God behind all suffering here on earth
12. In Coronatime thinking about death
13. All Souls’ Day
14. Thought for today November 4th Going to graveyards and people going to dust
15. Today’s thought “Not stopping doing what is right” (November 5)

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Related

1. November – a time to remember and a time for confidence rather than presumption
2. Make the Most of November: 7 Tips
3. Happy and Blessed All Saints’ Day
4. Holy Souls
5. All souls suffrage
6. From Depths Of Hades, My Relatives Cried To Me
7. Thought for the Day – 2 November – “Purgatory”
8. What does the word “purgatory” mean?
9. Quotes on Purgatory
10. Uncle Steve Explains Purgatory
11. Novena for the Holy Souls: Day 9
12. Devotion to the Souls in Purgatory
13. Devotion for the Month of November – The Holy Souls in Purgatory
14. All Souls Vigil Service with Novena and Chaplet for the Dead – Free Options
15. Thought for the Day – 3 November – The Pain of Purgatory
16. Prayer for the Faithful Departed
17. Prayers for the Holy Souls in Purgatory — Lumen Fidei Ministries
18. The shrine where you can send a card to the deceased
19. Two Purgatory Anecdotes by Saint John Vianney 
20. Why do we pray for the dead
21. Catholic prayer for the most forgotten soul in purgatory
22. Vatican again extends November indulgences
23. The truth concerning the holy souls in purgatory

Sweary Parent Chronicles

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I have to say, every year during Hallowtide, I have to look up the difference between All Saints and All Souls.

So what is the actual difference between All Saints and All Souls? All Saints celebrates those who we believe are in heaven. All Souls is for those who haven’t gotten there yet. I’m not sure why my brain steadfastly refuses to store that information. I have far more useless information that bumps on up against the brain pan, and is stuck there for life. I tend to lump all three – Hallowe’en, All Saints’ And All Souls’ days – into the conveniently packaged Hallowtide, but if I’m going to find something pithy for us to chew on, I kinda need to know.

So here’s the thing. There are 7 sacraments that RC kids can celebrate as they progress through their lives: Baptism, Confession, Communion…

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