Next week is Natural Family Awareness Week. Natural Family Planning Awareness Week is a national educational campaign. The Natural Family Planning Program of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops develops a poster each year with basic supportive materials. It is the individual dioceses, however, that offer a variety of educational formats in the local church to focus attention on Natural Family Planning methods and Church teachings which support their use in marriage. The dates of Natural Family Planning Awareness Week highlight the anniversary of the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae (July 25) which articulates Catholic beliefs about human sexuality, conjugal love, and responsible parenthood. The dates also mark the feast of Saints Joachim and Anne (July 26), the parents of the Blessed Mother.
Our human sexuality is a beautiful gift that God has given us. This gift is wonderfully explained in St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. His explanation and application of this teaching as revealed in the Word of God and Catholic teaching through the history of the Church is so important to our understanding of ourselves as human beings and of our relationship with others, especially the relationship of a man and a woman in the Sacrament of Marriage.
We have at our fingertips this teaching thanks to the internet. Anyone can search the internet using theology of the body as a starting point. Our Diocesan web site as well as the USCCB web site is filled with all kinds of information for people of all ages. For the next few weeks, you will find in the bulletin inserts that can teach us more about this very important topic. We must seek knowledge and understanding of all that is taught by the Church concerning the Sacrament of Marriage so we can be better witnesses in the world to truth that is Jesus Christ. Jesus and His Church are only concerned about ONE thing and that is our good. Please take the time to read these inserts and share them with your families, especially your children and grandchildren.
What are Gregorian Masses?
Gregorian Masses are a series of Holy Masses traditionally offered on 30 consecutive days as soon as possible after a person’s death. They are offered for an individual soul.
The custom of offering Gregorian Masses for a particular soul recognizes that few people are immediately ready for heaven after death, and that, through the infinite intercessory power of Christ’s sacrifice, made present in Holy Mass, a soul can be continually perfected in grace and enabled to enter finally into the union with the Most Holy Trinity – our God, Who is Love Itself.
HISTORY OF GREGORIAN MASSES. Gregorian Masses take their name from Saint Gregory the Great, who was sovereign Pontiff from 590 to 604. St. Gregory the Great contributed to the spread of the pious practice of having these Masses celebrated for the deliverance of the souls from purgatory. In his Dialogues, he tells us that he had Masses on thirty consecutive days offered for the repose of the soul of Justus, a monk who had died in the convent of St. Andrew in Rome. At the end of the thirtieth Mass, the deceased appeared to one of his fellow monks and announced that he had been delivered from the flames of Purgatory.
If you would like to know more about the Gregorian Masses, you can go to the web site helpers@Marian.orgor check out the pamphlets at the doors of the church. Please continue to pray for all the poor souls, especially those most abandoned. I was once asked in the confessional by a person who was wondering if, after five years, their loved one is in heaven. There is no way for us to know when a loved one actually gets to heaven, so we just keep praying. If the person is already in heaven, then those prayers are given to another poor soul who has no one to pray for them. We can only imagine how many souls are abandoned in purgatory because the vast majority of people do not believe in praying for the dead. We, as Catholics, pray for the dead at every Mass that is offered. My mother died 50 years ago, and I still pray for her every day. May all the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.
