Daily Archives: June 7, 2023

Memento Mori

I ask the Blessed Mother every day to obtain for me the grace of attending daily Latin Mass every day.

I am currently on the road for an extended period of time. So far, she has not let me down.

She never does.

So tonight when I walked into the FSSP parish in Harrisburg, PA, with a sense of true joy that once again I was going into the altar of God, I noticed something a little different.

The church was set for a solemn requiem Mass for a priest of the FSSP who had died a month ago. His name was Fr. Terrance Gordon. Please pray for his soul.

But the catafalque draped in black, surrounded by the six candles, the black vestments of the young priest, the choir chanting Dies Irae and In Paradisum

This is the Church reminding us. This is the Church praying for her dead. In every Mass Father prays at the offertory, “for my own countless sins, offenses, and negligences, and for all here present; as well as all faithful Christians living or dead that it mag avail for my own and their salvation unto life eternal.”

I couldn’t help but think of my own soul. And then I thought of a few others who also need to be reminded that this is not our home, that we will be judged and possibly when we least expect it.

Stay confessed. Go to Mass. Pray your rosary.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord and may perpetual light shine upon him.