Can the boundary between this life and the afterlife ever blur in ways the Church has not fully defined? Each year, All Souls’ Day and the Month of All Souls renew age-old questions about life, death and the mystery that unites both. In popular culture, ghosts are often imagined as spirits trapped between two worlds, wandering among the living. This image differs significantly from the concept...

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal offers the primary basis for singing the entire Mass, including the Eucharistic Prayer, when it says: “in the rubrics and in the norms that follow, words such as ‘say’ and ‘proclaim’ are to be understood either of singing or of reciting” (GIRM, 38). Put differently, any word that can be spoken in the Mass can also be sung. More explicitly, it goes further to say that “it is most appropriate that the Priest sing those parts of the Eucharistic Prayer...

Jimmy Akin is the senior apologist at Catholic Answers, with more than 30 years of experience defending and explaining the faith, and co-host of the Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World podcast. The Register recently asked him to explain Catholic teaching on ghosts and otherworldly phenomena. The Church teaches the existence of human spirits, and the term “ghost” means the same thing as “spirit,” which is why the Holy Spirit is also called the Holy Ghost...

Before I was a priest, I worked for a hospice for a number of years. I am no stranger to death. So much of my experience – especially now as a priest – has confirmed my belief that faith and death go hand in hand; that the full meaning of death is beyond our comprehension. I would like to share a recent experience that confirms this. I received a call recently that someone was in the hospital and they didn’t have long left in this world...

The month of November is dedicated to the Souls in Purgatory. We as the living so often soon forget the dead. We forget when we live, we are forgotten when we die. "Lay my body anywhere," pleaded the dying St. Monica with her son, St. Augustine, "only this I beg of you: remember me at the altar of God."

news

Feast date: Nov 06

St Leonard of Noblac was a Frank courtier, and during a certian invasion which they were losing, the Queen suggested to Leonard that he invoke the help of God to repel the invading army. He did, and the tide of battle turned, naming Clovis victorious. Saint Remigius, bishop of Rheims then used this miracle to convert the King, Leonard, and a thousand of thier followers to Christianity. Following his conversion, St. Leonard refused the offer of a See from his grandfather, King Clovis I.

He then began a life of austerity, sanctification, and preaching. His desire to know God grew so strong that he decided to enter the monastery at Orleans. His brother, Saint Lifiard, followed his example and, leaving the King's court, built a monastery at Meun, and lived there.

However, Leonard desired further seclusion, so he withdrew into the forest of Limousin, converting many on the way, and living on herbs, wild fruits, and spring water. He built himself an oratory, leaving it only for journeys to churches. Others, recognizing his holiness, begged to live with him, and a monastery was formed. Leonard had a great compassion for prisoners, and converted many and obtaining their release.

He died of natural causes around 559. After his death, churches were dedicated to him in France, England, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Bohemia, Poland and other countries. Pilgrims flocked to his tomb, and in one small town in Bavaria there are records of 4,000 favors granted through Saint Leonard's intercession.

Feast date: Nov 06

On November 6, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Jean-Théophane Vénard, a French missionary to Vietnam who was martyred for the faith.

Famous for having inspired St. Therese of Lisieux, who said of St. Jean-Théophane that he was someone who had lived her own image of a martyr and missionary, St. Jean was born in France, became a priest in the Society of Foreign Missions, and was sent to Vietnam.

Due to the persecutions of the anti-Christian emperor Minh-Menh, priests were forced to hide in the forest and live in caves. They were able to sneak out at night and minster to the people. Eventually someone betrayed St. Jean, and he was arrested. During his trail, he refused to renounce his faith in order to save his life. He was condemned to death, and spent the last few weeks of his life locked in a cage.

It was during his incarceration that he wrote many letters, some to his family. His most famous line is from a letter to his father in which he said, “We are all flowers planted on this earth, which God plucks in His own good time: some a little sooner, some a little later . . . Father and son may we meet in Paradise. I, poor little moth, go first. Adieu."

In reading these letters, St. Therese the Little Flower came to understand and use the image of being a little flower, whom God nevertheless cared for and cultivated, despite her minute size.

St. Jean-Théophane Vénard was beheaded Feb. 2, 1861. 

His severed head was later recovered and is preserved as a relic in Vietnam. The rest of his body rests in the crypt of the Missions Etrangères in Paris.

"In our prayers, let us not forget sinners and the poor souls in Purgatory, especially our poor relatives." - Saint Bernadette

cna