It's pretty rare when an entire school goes to a funeral. I can vouch for that. I've only known of one instance, and that happened a little over a year ago in my town. (not parochial school, talking about public school) The girl was in middle school and she was killed in an accident with a golf cart. It was either the entire school at the funeral, or her entire grade.
I should clarify. It was the entire junior high school, which in Iowa (at least at that time) was made of the 7th and 8th grades.
Her Guardian Angel has inspired you. We know they do this for us when we are in purgatory. And you can be sure she is praying for you and your family. Everything I read in the saints says the Holy souls are very very grateful for our prayers.
Maria Simna one time was asked one time why the Holy Souls all flocked to her for help and she answered, 'Because I help them!' So true. There would not be a lot of point if the Holy Souls came to people who would pray for them. I would not much like to be a Holy Soul stuck in Purgatory at the moment for there are so few people willing to help out with prayers. At the Church and at graveyards priests and families simply praise the deceased instead of begging prayers for them. They make the dead out to quickly to be saints and in heaven. Padre Pio said that more souls of the dead came to visit him looking for prayers than the living which says quite a lot. But you know it is not only the souls of those who are in Purgatory who visit but those from heaven. The other day for instance I felt my Spiritual Director , a wonderfully holy Passionist priest standing right beside me, smiling and telling me he still takes an interest in me and my little goings on.. It was St Paul who spoke of us being surrounded by a , 'Cloud of witnesses on every side, urging us on'.
I too find myself moved to pray at times for the souls in purgatory. I especially find myself thinking from time to time about priests from when I was a lot younger who set such a good examples to follow. I think many forget to pray for these priests now. Either because they no longer practice their faith or because they think that they are already in heaven. There are many priest that have died that have no extended family left on earth to pray for them.
Wonderful thought from God. For dead priests, Bishops and Cardinals, prayer. ...oh and for dead Popes and nuns too.
Each edition of The Catholic Standard, the DC paper , contains a necrology. Names of deceased priests and deacons are listed for the week and also their date of death. Readers are urged to pray for the repose of their souls. Some priests are even listed as passing away in the 1800’s. It’s wonderful.
I might make myself a liar I just looked online at Catholic Standard and can’t find it Maybe just in print edition which we no longer get
A little story of mine of a soul asking for prayers: Once at a gathering a friend told me her sister was at the cemetery at their grandmother's grave praying for their neenee. She asked neenee if she was in heaven yet or if she needed prayers. Although she was alone in the cemetery and it was a windless day, a paper dropped down in front of her on the grave. It was a black bordered white piece of paper that said PRAY FOR ME. I told her I would pray for neenee. One day I was praying the chaplet of Mercy and I forgot to mention neenee specifically. I stopped and said O Lord I forgot to mention neenee, you know I always remember neenee, O Lord here's a special Hail Mary for neenee and I prayed a very heartfelt Hail Mary for neenee. Just as I finished the Hail Mary, I heard -I've got her and I felt a woosh of air and I was lifted up into all whiteness and was just engulfed in love, such pure love. The next time I met the friend at a gathering, I told her what had happened. Well, she looked at me as if I had two heads and I thought ah well, that's that then. The next gathering we were at, she pulled me aside and told me she had told her father{neenee's son} my story and she said she couldn't believe it, her hard hearted father just broke down and cried and cried. He did convert after this{in fact he said the thing he hated most was being preached at} and boy then redemptive suffering set in for him, but he understood this and took it all and has since passed on too. What power there is in one Hail Mary from the heart. And by the way, what ever happened to me from praying that heartfelt Hail Mary for neenee, I can say with confidence, St. John was right. God is love. God is love, God is love.
This just blows me away. How beautiful. How good God is. And how wonderful that one heart felt Hsil Mary was all that was needed. Thank you so much for telling us. What a faith builder!
My uncle died about a decade ago at a relatively young age, actually on the same date that Padre Pio said his last mass. I remember one night waking, it must have been around three o clock, and could see his face. He said "pray for me". I prayed for him regularly for about a year and then suddenly no longer felt the urge to pray for him. He must be in heaven now, please God. He must have been in purgatory and I doubt anyone else in the family had bothered to pray for him as there is a presumption that souls go straight to heaven.
A year is a short time really, I think, compared to many others. I always love to pray for the souls deepest in Purgatory. But I believe some of the deepest down are forbidden the benefits of prayers, they really, really, really escaped hell by the very skin of their teeth.
For us it is only a year, but for them a year is like an eternity of suffering. Oh poor Amelia of Fatima!
