Welcome to Part 3 of Bishop Boyea’s series of meditations on praying for the dead.
Praying for the dead is a practice found in the earliest Christian liturgies and encouraged by the early Fathers of the Church. This pious custom has continued for two millennia with November being designated by the Church as a month to pray with heightened intensity for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.
“It is rather fortunate that those who are not ready to enter the presence of God due to their own sinfulness but also due to the effects of their sinfulness have a place to be made ready for Heaven,” says Bishop Boyea of Purgatory in his mediation today.
“If such did not exist, then the only alternative to the presence of the Holy One would be the absence of the Holy One, which we define as hell. But this place of preparation does exist, thanks be to God."