Indulge Me

Trigger warning: Blessed Virgin Mary; praying for the dead; honoring statues; indulgences; purgatory; the Pope; saints and their intercession; the rosary. Just fair warning for any of my Protestant friends whose head might explode reading this! lol
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Our family will be making a trek up to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown on Tuesday evening on pilgrimage. Pope Francis has granted the opportunity to receive a plenary indulgence for the centennial anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima appearing to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917.

What is a PLENARY INDULGENCE? It is a complete remission of temporal punishment due to sins.

Why is it important? Because only saints and martyrs go straight to Heaven after death; most of us have to go through a period of purification before we are ready to be with the Lord for all eternity. This is called PURGATORY, and it has it's root in scripture and tradition.

For our loved ones who have died and are going through this period of purification (the Church Suffering), there is no greater gift we can offer than our prayers, offering Masses, and obtaining indulgences on their behalf. Belief in indulgences and Her authority to grant them is an INFALLIBLE teaching of the Church.

Honoring the BVM during the centennial of her appearance in Fatima by PRAYING BEFORE A STATUE OF OUR LADY OF FATIMA that is on public display in a church for public veneration, in addition to going to Confession and Communion; being interiorly detached from sin; and praying for the intentions of the Holy Father will obtain for one a plenary indulgence for the complete remission of temporal punishment due to sin.

Our Lady appeared to the children in Fatima and gave them a vision of Hell, what awaits those who do not repent from sin and heed her call. Hell is real...ignore at your peril. She also encouraged families to PRAY THE ROSARY every day. We are at war with evil, and souls are blithely falling into hell every day like snowflakes, in the words of St. Catherine.

Sound extreme? Sound crazy? It's not crazy, though I know I sound like a lunatic zealot. But when you are in your room tonight getting ready to go to bed, just ask yourself in the dark of night...what if it's true? What if I am bound for Hell and I don't even realize it?

My job as husband is to help my wife get to Heaven. And her job as a wife is to help me get to Heaven. It is not to be happy together and to live a lifetime in comfortable security in the suburbs. It is to do whatever the Lord calls us so that we are with him FOREVER in eternity. This is very hard and we need HELP ALONG THE WAY! The SAINTS in HEAVEN (the Church Triumphant) are our friends and helpers. They have ran the race, they have fought the good fight, and their salvation is secured. The rest of us here on earth (The Church Militant) are still fighting, still hoping, still striving, still trusting. Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for few find it.

If you are a baptized Catholic, make a Confession. Go to Mass and receive Communion. Learn about Fatima, and read the Catechism....see for yourself what the Church teaches. Consider the request of Our Lady to honor her and listen to her warning. Hell is real, and it is forever. "Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent." (Mt 5:25-26)

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