Mark Dohle
Well-Known Member
All Souls Day 2021
No one is barred from heaven. Whoever wants to enter heaven may do so because God is merciful. Our Lord will welcome us into glory with His arms wide open. The Almighty is pure, however, and if a person is conscious of the least trace of imperfection and at the same time understands that Purgatory is ordained to do away with such impediments, the soul enters this place of perfection gladly to accept so great a mercy of God. The worst suffering of these suffering souls is to have sinned against Divine Goodness and not to have been purified in this life (St. Catherine of Genoa).
I don’t know the path I am on: (Anthony M.)
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In life, we can hide from ourselves. Repress all that is within us that we cannot bear to face. It can be looked upon as mercy. Yet, we are called to grow in self-knowledge, and the more we understand that we are ‘free’ in our choices, the more we are forced to become more responsible in how we conduct ourselves.
Our past can make us understand ourselves, as well as others, in the reasons for how life is lived, as well as the many ways we can live out self-destructive behaviors. Yet we are called to let go of excuses, and to live each day in the best way we can, without taking out our past on those we meet every day.
It is God’s grace that starts us on our journey if we accept the calling. Healing comes from our openness to God’s merciful intentions towards us all. We slowly grow in our ability to accept the truth about ourselves without falling into despair, because we come to understand God’s love for us that is beyond anything we can understand. We are called to walk a path that we do not know we are on, or to put it another way, to simply put one foot in front of the others.
Unmasking is a lifelong process. It can be very difficult, a death of sorts, as the ego is slowly healed of its need to put itself as the center of all that is and to allow God’s grace to take over.
When death comes upon us, this unmasking is immediate, and there is nothing to protect us from the truth. Our unconscious mind becomes one with the conscious mind. So it behooves us to begin this journey while we yet live, and learn to embrace our brokenness in the light of God’s Infinite Mercy.
The onus is on us. God seeks a relationship with us. We are loved in a manner that is again, way beyond our comprehension. We are free at a level that we often overlook, but in the end, all have to be faced. We do not get away with anything.
In the NDE, those who have a life review must face both the pain and joy, that they have caused others, and to experience, it has those they have interacted with did. Before we can truly love others in the way God is asking us to, we have to come to the understanding that they are ‘real’. No human being is a stereotype, but a beloved child of God. To experience this is not a punishment, but mercy. Without it, we would be trapped in a way of existence that would be truly hell-like.
So, many Christians, not just Catholics, pray for those who passed that their healing may be quick, and that home may soon be achieved. It is all grace, every bit of it.-Br.MD