Our whole life on earth is a journey to the dwelling place Christ has prepared and reserved for us in His Father’s house. Sometimes we stay right on the path that leads us home and sometimes we take short cuts or make detours or even turn around and walk in the other direction! We need the Lord to shepherd us from death into life. So, it might be, it might even be likely, that at the end of our life our rough edges need some buffing and polishing. The Church has long taught that, after death, those not quite ready for heaven may need some further purification. This has most often been called purgatory. The Book of Wisdom says: “As gold in the furnace, God will prove us, purify us, and take us to Himself… we shall shine… and we shall abide forever with God in love…” If there is pain in purgatory, it is the pain of longing to be with God, to be worthy of the heaven Jesus has won for us.
Let us continue to pray for the happy repose of the souls of those who have gone before us, especially on this Seventh Day of our Novena for those who have died with nobody to pray for them. What an honor and important duty it is to spiritually assist them!
Opening Prayer: “Merciful God, during this Novena of prayer, we remember all those who have died. We pray for their joyful reunion with you, their loving Creator. You raised your Son from the dead that all may share in His joyful Resurrection. So, as your Son has commanded, we reach out in prayer for the benefit of all those who have gone before us. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.”
Saturday: The Joyful Mysteries (The Annunciation, the Visitation, the Birth of Jesus, the Presentation in the Temple, and Finding Jesus in the Temple)
Prayer for Day: “Into your hands, O Lord, and through the generous intercession of Our Lady, we humbly entrust our brothers and sisters who had no one to pray for them when they died. In this life you embraced them with your tender love; deliver them now and bid them eternal rest. The old order has passed away: welcome them into paradise, where there will be no sorrow, no weeping or pain, but fullness of peace and joy with your Son and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.”
