The Call of Nature

 

Once my Dad was in his sixties, he had to get up in the night to answer the call of nature. This inconvenient awakening bore fruit though as he often entered into prayer before returning to sleep. 

He prayed the Divine Mercy chaplet for anyone who was dying at that hour or for the holy souls in purgatory. This nocturnal pilgrimage continued until it was his turn to pass from this life to the next. I wonder how many souls his prayers assisted on their journey to God and how much prayer there was for him at that moment as a consequence. 

It seems that the baton has now been passed to me. I am not normally a (3‘0 Clock in the) morning person and so am in a semi-coma as I stagger into the gloom, stubbing a toe on everything (mercifully there are no lego land mines along the route). Lately though I have paused to pray and accompany my fellow travellers, those dying or suffering the fires of purgatory. It is a noble undertaking and at a time when the heart and house are quiet.

Behind the veil, it will be well received as these words given to St Gertrude from Jesus illustrate "… If a beneficent king leaves his guilty friend in prison for justice's sake, he awaits with longing for one of his nobles to plead for the prisoner and to offer something for his release. Then the king joyfully sets him free. By the prayers of thy loving soul, I am induced to free a prisoner from purgatory as often as thou dost move thy tongue to utter a word of prayer."

Who would think that a full bladder can be a means of such grace; but it can.

No one goes to Heaven impure

"When a person dies, they do not go straight to heaven, unless they are Saints on Earth. You are doing a great evil to your love ones, if you don't pray for them. Do not say, my relative is in heaven now! No they are not. If they are Catholic and died with confession they went to Purgatory. It is your obligation to make sure that person receives the last Sacraments, and your obligation if you truly love them, to pray so they may get out of the fires of Purgatory soon.

A Holy Mass once a year, its cruel! Once a Month is not any better. Think of your time, how will you like people to pray for you? Remember one second in Purgatory feels like years.  Pray and say many Masses for your love ones. No One goes to heaven not pure. I come to tell you that they suffer in Purgatory, that they weep, and that they demand with urgent cries the help of your prayers and your good works.

I seem to hear them crying from the depths of those fires which devour them: "Tell our loved ones, tell our children, tell all our relatives how great the evils are which they are making us suffer. We throw ourselves at their feet to implore the help of their prayers. Ah! Tell them that since we have been separated from them, we have been here burning in the flames!" "

-- Saint John Marie Baptiste Vianney

The Mysterious Chambers of the Human Heart

My doctor informed me of a 'blip' on my ECG scan, picked up as part of a routine annual physical examination. I was reminded of a saying by the stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius:- 'death stands at your elbow' and for a moment I could feel the grip of his icy fingers.

What followed was a series of heart tests to determine the problem. One in particular built on the incident and is only amusing with hindsight.

As I checked-in at the clinic for the treadmill stress test I was asked to sign a waiver, the gist of which was that if I died during the test that it wasn’t their fault and they would not be sued. Although they would make every effort to resuscitate me.

On entering the room the test was being conducted in, I observed little to offer any reassurance. There was an enormous treadmill, a bench; presumably to lay out the corpses of those who don’t complete the test and the menacing hum of a conveniently located defibrillator.

The only thing missing, as I later emerged undefeated, was a disappointed looking undertaker handing me his business card for the 'Happy Ending' funeral parlor and the quip, ‘see you later’.

Medieval art often contains a skull or skeleton to remind the viewer of death. And in a way it’s good to reflect on its inevitability so that our hearts are prepared for it by living lives of faith, adorned with works of mercy. Perhaps especially now in November, we have that chance to reach out to the Holy Souls through our prayers; they were once as we are, and we will soon be as they are …but not yet.