Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Fr. Anthony Brankin: Purgatory is Testimony to Divine Mercy

"Even our belief in purgatory—as much as it is testimony to Our Lord’s justice—is even more so testimony to His merciful Heart—that Jesus for no other reason than love will accept even our poorest and most imperfect protestations of sorrow for sin as reason enough to bring us to heaven.

"This is the God I have always believed in—a God of immense wisdom, and perfect understanding who looks with the eyes of the Sacred Heart at these poor, confused and troubled humans and sees them in all their weakness, and for them He becomes a God of mercy, a God of compassion, a God of forgiveness—the Sacred Heart is Divine Mercy personified. That is who Our Blessed Lord is.

"Of course, He then asks us—in our dealings with others—who are also confused and troubled and weak, He asks us to see as He sees—to love as He loves—to be indulgent as He is indulgent, and to act with the same mercy and same compassion and same forgiveness which we have received from Him."

~ Fr. Anthony Brankin, pastor of St. Odilo Parish, excerpts from the bulletin ~

St. Odilo Church is the only parish in the United States dedicated to the Souls in Purgatory. It was founded and sanctioned as the Shrine of the Poor Souls by His Eminence, George Cardinal Mundelein, in 1928, with a special indulgence of 200 days granted upon each visit to the shrine.

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