Purgatory, Purification and Advent

Fr. Higgins • November 28, 2021

This year, as often happens, the close of November, the Month of Remembrance for the Dead, coincides with the beginning of Advent. Indeed this coincidence re-enforces the over-lap of the liturgical mystery itself. The Year of Grace closes with the portents of the End of the World and Christ’s Second Advent: the Season of Advent for the new Year of Grace opens with the portents of this Second Glorious Coming of Christ and the passing away of the form of this world. The end is the beginning: the beginning is the end.
It is interesting to note that the Sequence Dies irae, so important a part of the Catholic Requiem Mass before the Pauline Reform of 1970, was originally used in the liturgy for the First Sunday of Advent. If we read the text of the Dies irae as a beginning-of-Advent prayer we can see how well it fits. All the pretensions of human self-will, all the wrongness of sin, melt before the overpowering manifestation of Christ the Divine Judge. Our only appeal is to His mercy, for in justice we cannot bear it.
This is a good moment to consider the Mystery of Faith which is Purgatory, particularly through the revelation to St. Catherine of Genoa, which is preserved in her Treatise on Purgatory. The times we live in are distinctly times of un-faith, where YOLO (“You-Only-Live-Once!”) is the default attitude towards our brief existence on this earth. To the extent that people believe in, or consider as a possibility, the prospect of life after death it’s “instant heaven”. St. Catherine’s Treatise on Purgatory therefore is a particularly good source for us to help us understand why, in the divine economy, this is not even possible.
It is not possible because a human soul cannot approach the divine goodness with any trace of sin or moral imperfection and this the soul itself experiences:
Hell and Purgatory manifest the wonderful wisdom of God. The separated soul goes naturally to its own place. The soul in the state of [mortal] sin, finding no place more suitable, throws itself OF ITS OWN ACCORD into Hell. And the soul which is not yet ready for divine union, casts itself voluntarily into Purgatory.
Heaven has no gates. Whoever will can enter there, because God is all goodness. But the divine essence is so pure that the soul, finding in itself obstacles, prefers to enter Purgatory, and there to find in mercy the removal of the impediment.
Their greatest suffering [in Purgatory] is that of having sinned against divine goodness, still finding those rusty “remains of sin”… These souls enjoy inexpressible peace, compounded of joy and pain, neither diminishing the other… These souls would not in any way lessen their sufferings they have merited...To conclude, only God’s omnipotent mercy can cure human deficiency. This transformation is the work of Purgatory.

(Source: Fr. Reginald GarrigouLaGrange, Life Everlasting, 1952, TAN reprint edition, 1993.).


St. Catherine of Genoa

1447-1510 A.D.


Who was St. Catherine of Genoa, to whom Our Lord entrusted such revelations regarding the Mystery of Purgatory? Her own life-story seems to have been a story of a Purgatory-on-earth. Even as a young child she received great graces of prayer, at only 8 years old choosing to sleep on straw and using a piece of hard wood as her pillow. At 16, she consented to her parents’ choice of marriage for her: Giuliano Adorno. This arranged marriage, so perfect from a worldly point of view, was a disaster in every way. Giuliano was a violent and immoral man who squandered his wife’s patrimony and left them in financial straits. In great discouragement and dejection, Catherine took the advice of her sister, who was a nun, to go to confession. As she knelt down in the confessional she received a powerful grace of conversion: “She received suddenly a wound in her heart, the wound of an immense love of God, with deep insight into her own misery, but also into God’s goodness. In sentiments of contrition, love, recognition, she was purified, nearly fell to earth, had to suspend her confession which she finished on the morrow. Jesus appeared to her carrying His Cross.” She did heroic penance until Christ revealed to her that she had satisfied divine justice. By prayer and penance she also obtained the conversion of her wicked, ne’er do well husband. He joined her in caring for the sick in the chief hospital of Genoa. “She led at that time a life of intense union with God, and suffered much for the deliverance of souls from Purgatory. A fire, mysterious and supernatural, tortured her frame and made her feel a hunger and thirst quite abnormal. During this time she had ecstasies of pain, during which she dictated her Treatise on Purgatory, which is as pithy as it is brief.”

(Source: Fr. Reginald Garrigou-LaGrange, Life Everlasting, 1952, TAN reprint edition, 1993.).

Good Counsel From St Francis de Sales as We Begin the New Year 2025

By Fr. Higgins • January 5, 2025
Prayer of Saint Francis de Sales: Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow. The same everlasting Father who takes care of you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations and say continually, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart has trusted in Him and I am helped. He is not only with me, but in me, and I in Him.”

St. Gregory the Wonderworker and the Faith that Moves Mountains

By Fr. Higgins • November 17, 2024
In the life of St. Gregory the Wonderworker (+270) we have the example of a Saint who fulfilled Christ’s words of the Gospel in a literal way: “ Amen I say to you that whosoever shall say to this mountain, Be thou removed and be cast into the sea and shall not stagger in his heart, but believe that whatsoever he saith shall be done: it shall be done unto him. (Mark 11:23) St. Gregory, the Bishop of Neocaesarea, performed great signs and wonders in the Name of Christ. As we read in the Roman Breviary: By his prayer he removed a mountain which was an obstacle to the building of a church. He also dried up a lake which was a cause of dissension between brothers. The River Lycus, which was inundating and devastating the fields, he restrained by fixing in the bank his stick, which immediately grew into a green tree, and served as the limit which the river henceforth never overpassed. The most powerful effect of St. Gregory’s prayers, however, was the graces of conversion for his city which he obtained: When he was dying, he asked how many infidels remained in the city of Neocaesarea: and on being informed that there were only seventeen, he gave thanks to God, and said: When I was made bishop, there were but seventeen believers. Indeed for anyone at all to be truly converted to Christ is the equivalent of a mountain being moved. And yet it does happens. May we be good instruments by prayer and good example.

The Mass of All Holy Relics

By Fr. Higgins • November 9, 2024
During All Saintstide there is a Mass which may be said: F east Of The Holy Relics Preserved In The Churches Of The Diocese,or, All Holy Relics . This Mass draw our attention to the Mystery of the Resurrection. The relics of the Saints—fragments of their bones, ashes, clothes, or other objects used by them—yet “ work wonders on earth.” Just as divine power emanated from Christ and worked miracles for people, even if they so much as touched the hem of His Garments, so Christ in His Church continues to heal and work wonders through the relics of His Saints. These relics “ exorcise devils, heal the sick, restore sight to the blind, cleanse lepers, drive away temptations and bestow on all the excellent gifts which come from the Father of Light.” (Lessons of the Second Nocturn at Matins for the Feast of All Holy Relics) This mysterious divine power of relics is a pledge to us of the future Resurrection. If God can work through their ashes here and now, how can He not also bring this dust back into a glorified, resurrected body on the Last Day? The early Christians had the spiritual intuition to connect the remains of the martyrs with the Sacrifice of the Mass. This is why Mass was celebrated near the tombs of the martyrs in the Catacombs “ in order to show that these Saints had mixed their blood with that of the Victim of Calvary.” (Vespers Antiphon) After the Persecutions had ended the beautiful churches erected served as vast reliquaries to preserve the tombs of celebrated martyrs. The remains of those who had confessed their faith were placed under the Church’s High Altar, in the Conf  essio . (For example, in St. Peter’s Basilica, the main altar is over the tomb of Peter. It is the Confession of St. Peter.) Related to this is the custom of placing martyrs’ relics in a small cavity of the altar stone called the “sepulchre” in the ceremony of the Dedication of a new Church. I can find no information on which particular martyrs’ relics are placed in the sepulchers of our parish altar stones, but we know that they are there. We also have our other visible reliquaries on the reredos over our High Altar. May the regular sight of them stir us to thoughts of Heaven and the Resurrection of the Body.

Prayers for Our New Archbishop

By Fr. Higgins • October 27, 2024
Thursday of this week, the Vigil of All Saints (All Hallows’ E’en) our new Archbishop, His Excellency Richard Henning formally takes possession of his Episcopal See of Boston with a Mass of Installation at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. This is an event of great significance for us as we receive our new Chief Shepherd. Our Thursday evening Mass at 5:30 PM will be offered for Archbishop Henning’s special intention.

Rosary Sunday

By Fr. Higgins • October 6, 2024
Today we are observing theFeast of Our Lady of the Rosary as an “External Solemnity”. (The actual Feast-day is October 7th.) The Feast has its origins as a Feast of Thanksgiving for the deliverance of Christendom from an Ottoman Turk invasion by sea. As we read in the summary from Dom Guéranger’s Liturgical Year: The Turkish fleet had already mastered the greater part of the Mediterranean, and was threatening Italy, when, on October 7th, 1571, it came into action, in the Gulf of Lepanto with the pontifical galleys supported by the fleets of Spain and Venice. It was Sunday: throughout the world the Confraternities of the Rosary were engaged in their work of intercession. Supernaturally enlightened, St. Pius V watched from the Vatican the battle undertaken by the leader he had chosen, Don Juan of Austria, against the three-hundred vessels of Islam. The illustrious Pontiff, whose life’s work was now completed, did not survive to celebrate the anniversary of the triumph; but he perpetuated the memory of it by an annual commemoration of Our Lady of Victory. His successor, Gregory XIII, altered this title to Our Lady of the Rosary, and appointed the first Sunday of October for the new feast …  It is to be emphasized here that the spectacular victory of the under-dog Christian navy against the invader was, on the higher, spiritual plane, a gratuitous gift of the Divine Mercy in answer to the earnest prayer of faith and so it was recognized by the people of that day. It was not in any way a matter of the Rosary as “spellcasting”, as if large numbers of people praying the same prayer could have generated a forcefield of energy to achieve the desired result. Our prayers, in and of themselves, are nothing. It is rather God compassionating our prayers that makes the difference. The clearer we are on this distinction, the stronger our prayer life will be and the greater our gratitude to God.

Michael Archangel

By Fr. Higgins • September 29, 2024
The Feast of St. Michael Archangel, also known as “Michaelmas” (Michael + Mass), is our gateway into the Mystery of the Holy Angels in God’s Plan of Redemption. In addition to being the Month of the Rosary, October is also the Month of the Holy Angels. October 2nd is the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. The two kinds of creatures of highest intelligence God created are Angels and Men (human beings). The Angels are pure spirits, of higher intelligence than us. We men are hybrids, with spiritual souls and physical bodies. In the beginning of creation, some of these pure spirits rebelled against God. “There was war in Heaven.” (Apoc. 12:7) The faithful Angels, led by Michael, “fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought, and his angels. And they prevailed not: neither was their place found anymore in Heaven. And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world. And he was cast unto the earth: and his angels were thrown down with him.” (ibid, vv. 7b-9) As best we can understand it from the content of Divine Revelation, Satan had some claim on divine justice to try to seduce the human creatures into sin, which, in the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, he succeeded in doing. When Christ comes into the world as the Man-God, we see Him doing battle with Satan, as He must do if He is to be truly the Second Adam. The Victory of Christ’s Cross is complete and irreversible over Satan’s power and his “right-of-conquest”, which he was holding over the sinful earth with the purest malice. All that is left to defeated Satan now until the Second Coming of Christ is to fight a “rear-guard” action by trying to snatch human souls who will perversely reject the graces offered them for salvation to the very last moment when death separates their immortal souls from their mortal bodies. This is what is meant by the phrase “final damnation”. Of all the evils in the world, the only absolute one for us is that one: final damnation. We most definitely have need then of St. Michael, the “Prince of the Heavenly Host”, and all the good angels to come to our aid against the “wickedness and the snares of the Devil.” Let us give praise and thanks to God today for the ministry of His Angels!

The Nativity of Mary and the Blessing of Seeds and Seedlings

By Fr. Higgins • September 7, 2024
Today on the Nativity of Our Lady we will offer the Blessing of Seeds and Seedlings at the end of Mass. We will repeat this Blessing on Saturday morning, September 14th, at the end of our 9 AM Mass for anyone who was not prepared for the blessing of their seeds for planting today. It is a beautiful Ritual Blessing which beseeches God, as the “Sower and Tiller of the heavenly world” to “cultivate the field of our hearts with heavenly tools, hearken to our prayers, and pour forth bountiful blessings upon the fields in which these seeds will be sown. By Thy protecting Hand turn away the fury of the elements, so that this entire fruit may be filled with Thy blessing and may be gathered without hindrance into the granary.”

Assumptiontide and the Blessing of First-Fruits

By Fr. Higgins • August 18, 2024
With the celebration of Our Lady’s Assumption we reach the high-point of our Catholic summer. At the Assumption Day Masses on August 15th we had the Blessing of the FirstFruits associated with this Feast-day. The texts of these prayers are particularly beautiful and fill the natural world with a heightened sense of God’s higher power of grace enfolding us. I quote sections of these prayers from the Roman Ritual: O GOD, by Moses, Thy servant Thou didst command the children of Israel to carry their sheaves of new grain to the priests for a blessing, to pluck the finest fruits of the orchards, and to make merry before Thee, the Lord their God. Hear Thou our supplications, and bestow blessings in abundance upon us and upon these bundles of new grain, new herbs, and this assortment of produce which we gratefully present to Thee on this festival— blessing them in Thy Name … Through the merits of the Blessed Virgin Mary whose Assumption we celebrate, may we likewise, laden with sheaves of good works, deserve to be lifted up to Heaven … O GOD, Who on this day hast raised up to heavenly heights the rod of Jesse, the Mother of Thy Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord, that through her prayers and patronage Thou mightiest communicate to our mortal nature the Fruit of her womb, Thy same Son; we pray that we may use these fruits of the soil for our temporal and eternal welfare— the power of Thy Son and the patronage of His glorious Mother assisting us. Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy So, Our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, forever and ever Amen. And may the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost come upon these creatures and remain for all time. Amen.

A New Archbishop for Boston

By Fr. Higgins • August 9, 2024
This past week we learned who will be our next Archbishop. It will be His Excellency Richard G. Henning, the current Bishop of Providence, Rhode Island. According to the Announcement made at the beginning of the week His Excellency will be formally installed as Archbishop of Boston on October 31st, the Vigil of All Saints. The era of Cardinal Sean’s stewardship will draw to its peaceful close and a new era for the life of our local church will begin. We want to make sure to do our part to welcome our new Archbishop and support him in the office of great responsibility which Pope Francis has placed upon him. Archbishop Henning’s Coat-of-Arms takes the motto Put Out Into The Deep . These words are taken from the Gospel scene where Christ commands Simon Peter to “launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught” (Luke 5:4) . Peter is reluctant to do so. “And Simon answering said to Him; Master we have labored all the night and have taken nothing: but at Thy word I will let down the net. And when they had done this, they enclosed a very great multitude of fishes and their net broke. And they beckoned to their partners that were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came and filled both the ships, so that they were almost sinking. Which when Simon Peter saw, he fell down at Jesus’ knees saying: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was wholly astonished, and all that we with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken. And so were also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners. And Jesus saith to Simon: Fear not: from henceforth thou shalt be a fisher of men. And having brought their ships to land, leaving all things, they followed Him.” (Luke 5:5-11)

Careful Speech About the Holy Eucharist

By Fr. Higgins • July 30, 2024
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