Showing posts with label Funeral. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Funeral. Show all posts

Thursday, February 7, 2019

Blessed Pope Pius IX

ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF BL. POPE PIUS IX
 
 

Today marks the anniversary of the death of Bl. Pope Pius IX, who reigned as Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church for 32 years – from 1846 to 1878. It is very difficult to visit the Eternal City and not see a bust, a statue, a coat of arms, a painting or a portrait of this magnificent Pope who gloriously filled the Chair of Peter during extremely turbulent and violent times. 

During his pontificate, he drew the line of demarcation between the Church of God and the world of Satan, between what was Catholic and what was anti-Catholic. Immediately after his election in 1846, Pius IX became Rome’s chief object of attraction. He became the most popular and esteemed Pope, especially during the long years of suffering, for which the very prophetically apt title of “CRUX DE CRUCE” was chosen for him.
 

 


“So far as ceremonial was concerned, nothing could be more gorgeous than the services at St. Peter’s as conducted by Pope Pius IX. For such duties no one could be better fitted; for he was handsome, kindly, and dignified, with a beautiful, singing voice… At the close of the service, the Pope, being borne on his throne by Roman nobles, surrounded by Cardinals and Princes, and wearing the triple crown, gave his blessing to the city and to the world. There must have been over ten thousands of us in the piazza to receive it, and no one could have performed his part more perfectly.”

~ Andrew Dickson White

 



His works of charity were well-known during his lifetime. His person (and his pontificate) added to the glory of Rome – that seat of the universal empire that conquered and transformed much of the known world in all aspects. Rome was made even greater and more glorious when Pius reigned in Rome. The Eternal City, baptized in the blood of the martyrs and made stronger through persecution, became more celebrated under the reign of Pope Pius IX, the father of Christendom.



“I have seen many pious priests in the performance of their sacred functions; but never before did I behold a countenance more intensely expressive of piety, or so illumined with the heavenly brightness which outwardly manifests the working of the spirit within. It seemed as if it were suffused with a light from above. Heart, and mind, and soul appeared to be absorbed, as they really were, in the sacred ceremonies in which he assisted; and not for a second's space did his attention wander from his devotions. He communed as truly with his God in the midst of that splendid crowd, and with hundreds of eager eyes riveted upon him, as if he were kneeling in his private chamber, and asking for another day of strength to meet the difficulties of his exalted but perilous position.”




“There have been great and illustrious pontificates in the history of the Church, pontificates that stand prominently forth by the personal holiness of the Pope and the great works he accomplished for the Church of God, or the great sufferings he underwent in her defense. These pontificates mark distinct epochs in ecclesiastical history; and with them posterity will range the remarkable reign of Pius IX.
 
The length of years during which Divine Providence has sustained him in his eminent position; the personal sanctity which breathes forth in all his actions; the zeal with which he has met the spirit of an unbelieving age, that seeks to destroy alike the organization and the faith of the Church; the defining of an article of faith called for by the piety of a world, the convoking of a general council, the heroism and serenity displayed amid the vicissitudes and misfortunes that have chequered his career; exile, spoliation, imprisonment; a great heart afflicted by the sight of the evils visited on those who adhered to him and to the cause of God; all these conspire to invest Pius IX and his pontificate with a halo peculiarly his own.”
 
~The Life of Pius IX

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“To the Clergy and People of Rome:

The majesty of the omnipotent God has recalled to himself the sovereign pontiff Pius IX, of blessed memory, according to the sad news just imparted to us by the most eminent Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, to whom it belongs to make known to the public the death of the Roman pontiffs.
 
At such an announcement, the Catholic people in every part of the world, devoted to the great and apostolic virtues of the immortal pontiff and his sovereign magnanimity, will weep. But, above all, are we most supremely sorrowful; we, O Romans! Since today has unhappily terminated the most extraordinary and glorious pontificate which God has ever conceded to his vicars upon earth.
 
His life as pontiff and as sovereign was a series of widespread benefits as well in the spiritual as in the temporal order, diffused over all the churches and nations, and in a most particular manner upon his Rome, where at every step monuments of the munificence of the lamented pontiff and father are met with.
 
In accordance with the sacred canons, in all the cities and important places solemn obsequies and suffrages for the soul of the departed pontiff should be made until the Holy Apostolic See be provided with a new head, and prayers should be made to the Divine Majesty for the speedy election of a successor to the deceased, whom we can never sufficiently lament.”
 
Given from our residence, the 7th of February, 1878.

R. Card. Monaco, Vicar
Placido can. Petacci, Secretary



Thursday, November 2, 2017

All Souls' Day

Death
By Fr. Eugenio Escribano
(Priestly Meditations, 1954)
 
 
A day will arrive -- who will dare to doubt it? -- when I myself shall be the one who is seriously ill, the one past recovery, the one dying, with people around me beginning to worry about preparations for my burial.
 
Do you think these details are somewhat ludicrous, unworthy of the seriousness of a meditation? Apply them to yourself, and perhaps they will have the effect of plunging you into deep thought. If the thought of death does not impress me or deter me from evil, as the Scriptures promise it will, it is because I think of someone else's death, not my own.
 
My God, frankly, I have never really given a thought to my own death, I have hardly believed in it, despite the fact that I see the face of death daily and almost feel its icy breath.
 
When my time comes, everything and everywhere around me will echo that respónsum mortis of which St. Paul speaks. God forbid that I should be the only one deaf to its challenge!
 
Let us picture the scene: The priest comes to hear your last confession; the tinkling bell heralds your Viaticum; then follow the Last Anointings, the prayers for the recommendation of the soul, and the low mumblings, drawn faces, and silent tears of relatives and friends standing round your bed --if indeed there is anyone at all to weep your departure!-- Your whole body is in a cold sweat, there is a gradual stiffening of your features, a twitching of your rigid fingers as if trying to clutch at something, the cold impression of the crucifix on your livid half-open lips; and the shadows of death crowd upon you thicker and thicker, and your eyes acquire that fixed look as if pursuing sights that vanish from you...
 
My Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who for love of me didst submit to the anguish of dying, do not fail me Thou when everything and everyone else forsakes me!
 
At long last, your soul will quit the body, leaving it a repulsive heap of lifeless matter.
 
The bells you so often heard toll for others will now toll for you. The funeral service that you so often heard chanted for others is now to be chanted for you. And there will be a burial, your very own; and the officiating priest, while your body sinks into the earth, will seal your disappearance from this world with a last supplication wherein you will lose even your name:
 
Anima ejus et ánimæ ómnium fidélium defunctórum, per misericórdiam Dei requiéscant in pace. Amen.
 
And then, what will this world have to offer you? What will become of those material goods that you seemed to have fused with your inmost soul, so deeply had you buried them within your heart's affections?
 
 
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A Prayer for a Good Death

Lord Jesus, God of goodness, and Father of mercy, I prostrate myself before Thee with a contrite and humble heart, and commend to Thee my last hour, and what thereafter awaits me.

When my feet, motionless, shall warn me that my course in this world is approaching its end, O loving Jesus, have mercy on me.

When my hands, cold and shaking, shall no longer be able to keep holding the crucifix presented to me, and I shall be obliged to let it drop on my bed of sorrow, O loving Jesus, have mercy on me.

When my eyes, cloudy, and turned aside, through dread of imminent death, shall cast upon Thy image languid and dying looks, O loving Jesus, have mercy on me.

When my lips, cold and trembling, shall utter for the last time Thy adored name, O loving Jesus, have mercy on me.

When my cheeks, pale and livid, shall inspire compassion and grief in the bystanders, and my hair, moistened by the cold sweat of death, shall announce that my end is come, O loving Jesus, have mercy on me.

When my ears, ready to be shut for ever to the discourses of men, shall open to listen to Thy voice, uttering the irrevocable sentence that fixes my everlasting doom, O loving Jesus, have mercy on me.

When my fancy, disturbed by painful and dreadful imaginations, shall be plunged into sadness, and my spirit, troubled by the sight of my iniquities and by the dread of Thy justice, shall struggle with the spirit of darkness who would turn away my eyes from Thy soothing mercies, and throw me into despair, O loving Jesus, have mercy on me.

When my feeble heart, torn by the pangs of illness, shall be assailed by the dread of death, and exhausted by the efforts it shall have made against the enemies of my salvation, O loving Jesus, have mercy on me.

When I shall shed the last tears, symptoms of my imminent dissolution, receive them, O Lord, as a sacrifice of expiation, and grant that I may breathe my last as victim of penance; and in that terrible moment, O loving Jesus, have mercy on me.

When my relatives and friends, standing by me, shall sympathize with my miserable state, and pray for me, O loving Jesus, have mercy on me.

When I shall have lost the use of my senses, and the whole world shall disappear from me, and I shall sigh in the anguish of agony and the struggles of death, O loving Jesus, have mercy on me.

When the last sighs of my heart shall compel my soul to leave the body, receive them, O Lord, as signs of a holy longing to fly to Thee; and then, O loving Jesus, have mercy on me.

When my soul, from the door of my lips shall go out of this world forever, and shall leave my body pale, cold, and lifeless, accept, O Lord, the dissolution of my being as a homage, which I offer to Thy divine majesty; and then, O loving Jesus, have mercy on me.

Lastly, when my soul shall appear before Thee, and shall behold for the first time the immortal splendor of Thy majesty, O Lord, pray, do not reject it from Thee; deign to receive my poor soul in the arms of Thy mercy, that it may sing Thy praises forever.

O God, who, condemning us to death, didst conceal the moment and the hour of it, grant that, walking in the paths of justice and holiness, we may deserve to depart from this world in Thy holy love, through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.