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ON ANGELS AT MASS AND THE SOULS IN PURGATORY: WHEN YOU PRAY FOR THEM, THEY PRAY FOR YOU!

Let's take a look at the mailbag.

First the afterlife.

"As a piano technician, most of my income comes from tuning and some from repairing pianos," writes Craig Turner of Burke, Virginia. "In 2010 I decided to purchase an old Steinway grand piano and then rebuild it to sell it. I spent a year doing that, then put the piano on the market. After four years of marketing it in every conceivable way, I still did not have a buyer. The price I was asking was reasonable—and I even lowered the price some—but the market was 'soft.'

"Finally, I found a piano retailer in Maryland who took the piano on consignment. I anxiously awaited the phone call informing me that the piano had been sold, but to no avail.

"A year went by but there was little interest. I became desperate after reading that the store was going to shut down within four weeks and dump its remaining pianos on the market at abysmally low prices. Five years of advertising and marketing had produced zero results and I now had four weeks to sell my piano.

"Ever since my conversion twenty years ago, I have had a devotion to the souls in purgatory, praying and offering Masses for them frequently. I have prayed most earnestly for suicides, offering Masses for them. It has been my practice not simply to have a Mass said for that soul, but to always be present at that Mass, pray for that person by name, and offer up every prayer of that day for them, including my own Holy Communion and the St. Gertrude prayer.

"Knowing the Blessed Mother has said that when we pray for the souls in purgatory, they in turn pray for us, I asked my guardian angel to ask each I have prayed for over the years to pray for the quick sale of this piano.

"Within two hours the piano was sold! A man walked into the store and put a down payment on a Yamaha, but after returning home, circumstances changed dramatically for him. Although the Steinway cost almost twice as much as the Yamaha, he was able to purchase the Steinway with cash. He decided to buy it even though he had walked past the piano and not even played it while he was in the store!"

On angels, we received this from Isabelle Rose Ledesma.

"On October 2, 2014 (the feast of the guardian angels) my nine-year-old daughter (Isabelle) was at morning Mass at her school (Donahue Catholic, Ave Maria, Florida) when just prior to the Consecration she heard a sound which she described as 'someone running their fingers across the strings of a harp and the sound of wind blowing through trees (combined) the sound was very faint and distant (but audible enough that it caused her to turn her head to her left in the direction it came from) and when she did so she saw an angel kneeling next to her.

"She then looked around her and noticed an angel 'on the left side of every single person in the church, all of the teachers, all the students, all of the parents, the priest on the altar and all of the altar servers'). At the moment of the elevation of the Holy Eucharist all of the angels 'zoomed' to the altar and 'with big eyes' witnessed the transubstantiation. There were also 'ten baby angels' (cherubim) who remained 'floating above the altar the entire time.' Immediately after the Consecration was over the baby angels ascended into the ceiling and disappeared while all of the other angels 'went back to their person and began to sing Hallelujah'… Isabelle said the angels sang two verses of the song in the most beautiful harmony she had ever heard."

Think of that next time you're at Mass.

The mystical dimension brings our faith alive, and our Faith brings alive the mystical dimensions.

Do we need to do more in this area -- especially for our young?

"My question to you is," wrote another viewer, Stephen D. Smith of Farmington, New Hampshire: "Would you ever consider writing a book that could be used for Catholic teens introducing them to the supernatural; a comprehensive book that would cover Eucharistic miracles, the incorruptibles, visions, miracles and the saints, miracles associated with the seven Sacraments, etcetera that could be used in a CCD setting? If not, do you know of a book that can be used for students? If I had such a book I would include it in my Confirmation classes. I do have a collection of books and I regularly include the supernatural, as well as Eucharistic miracles. I try to demonstrate the power of prayer and quote miracles of the Rosary and answered prayers. These young people need to know how dynamic and alive our faith really is."

Alive it is, when we give it a chance.

Back to the afterlife:

"Years ago I read an article about the afterlife that included a vision of souls clinging to something like fish net for an indefinite time because they did not believe in God but were not evil enough to go to hell," wrote another viewer. "I did not believe it. But I recently lost a nephew in a tragic motorcycle accident in the Himalayas and I subsequently saw him clinging to what seemed to be a giant net -- just hanging there as if he were asleep. He had been in trouble with drugs, etcetera, when he was a very young man, but he served time in prison and came out a changed man. He became a chef, owned many restaurants, and became very wealthy. In the last years of life he was a philanthropist and helped many people all over the world. I don't know whether he practiced his religion or even whether he believed in God, but he did a lot of good in the world. In my mind this expiated the sins of his bad years but I don't know that it works that way."

Our works do count.

And in this case it sounds like they indeed provided the "safety net."

Mary Undoer of Knots plus The Holy Cloak novena, $7.25

Michael Brown's books on Kindle or Nook

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