Day 26

From the Dialogue of St. Cathrine of Siena

The just, have lived in charity and die in love. I f they have lived perfectly in virtue, enlightened by faith, seeing with faith and trusting completely in the blood of the Lamb, when they com e to the point of death they see the good I have prepared for them.  They embrace it with the arms of love, reaching out with the grasp of love to me, the supreme and eternal Good, at the very edge of death. And so they taste eternal life even before they have left their mortal bodies.

There are others who have passed through life and arrive at the end point of death with only a commonplace love, and were never very perfect. These embrace my mercy with the sam e light of faith and hope as those who were perfect. But these have this light imperfectly, and because they are imperfect they reach out for mercy, considering my mercy greater than their own guilt.

Wicked sinners, on the other hand, do the opposite. When in despair they see their place, they embrace it in hate. 

So no one waits to be judged. All receive their appointed place as they leave this life.  They taste it and possess it even before they leave their bodies at the moment of death: the damned in hate and despair; the perfect in love, with the light of faith and trusting in the blood. And the imperfect, in mercy and with the same faith, come to that place called purgatory.

Musical Selection

Prayer

Almighty and eternal God,

life of those destined to die

and joy of all the saints,

hear our prayers for your servants;

grant that, freed now from the bonds of death,

they may possess the eternal glory of your kingdom.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God for ever and ever. Amen.