Issue 019: Modern Tempests, Praying for the Dead, and Flannery O'Connor
Issue 019: Modern Tempests, Praying for the Dead, and Flannery O'Connor
Newsletter
Greetings Readers!
In the month of November, Catholics especially pray for the souls of the faithful departed who have departed from this life but have not yet attained the fullness of eternal joy. With the nearness of Advent and the end of the Church Year, the liturgical readings will increasingly remind us of the Lord’s return and the end times.
Upcoming News: Fall Literary Issue!: This week we will begun publishing literary works submitted for our Fall Literary Issue. We’ll be publishing approximately a work every day before publishing a special literary Newsletter at the end. Stay tuned!
This November Remember to Pray for the Dead
Too often today, we speak of the deceased as if they all enter heaven immediately after death. Yet this assumption is no help to a person who has died. By assuming the deceased is immediately in heaven, we deny the deceased the help and aid of our prayers and good works. Scripture tells us: “It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins" (2 Maccabees 12:46). November is a fitting time to recommit to praying for the dead: for our friends and relatives who have died in the faith, for all the faithful departed, and for those poor souls who have no one to pray for them. Read more here.
Lessons on Grace: Flannery O'Connor and Christian Realism
Canonized saints are visible proof of God’s grace. But it is hard at times to hope for such seeming flood tides of visible grace for ourselves. That is where the Christian realism of O’Connor to our aid, to bolster our faith in God’s providence. Her works show us that where grace is less obvious, it is still present. Though we fail often, grace comes to us all again. And we ought to look for it in ourselves and others; for we are no doubt missing, at this very moment, the graces to which we are even now responding. Read more here.
Burial Practice and Belief: Why Catholics Should Not Cremate
The Catholic Church has traditionally forbidden cremation and still discourages it for several reasons. An important one is that practice reflects belief. The growing interest in cremation in the modern world clearly reflects a weakening belief in Christianity. Christians must fight this and hold fast to the true Christian hope, the Resurrection of the Body. And we must make certain that our practice of burial reflects that belief in testimony to ourselves, our families, and a pagan world. Read more here.
Remember God in the Storm
Rembrandt’s Christ in the Storm on the Lake of Galilee captures wonderfully an episode in the Our Lord’s ministry that is related in all of the Synoptic Gospels. He and His disciples were crossing the of Galilee when a sudden storm blew up. Several of the apostles were men of the sea, so the storm must have been a serious one to have troubled them. Therefore they sought desperately for Our Lord, waking him and asking, “Master, doth it not concern thee that we perish?” (Mark 4:38) With all the disasters and uncertainties in our world and even the Church, we may have often felt the same way. Yet, there is something cheerful and even hopeful in openly acknowledging this. Read more here.