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Grand and joyous is the feast of the Saints, when we lovingly honor all
our brethren who have gained their thrones in Heaven, and with faith
and hope invoke their powerful aid, that we, too, may come where they
are, and be partakers in their eternal blessedness; solemn and sad, but
most sweetly soothing to the heart of faith, is the day of All Souls,
when the altars are draped in black, and the chant is mournful, and
sacrifice is offered, the whole world over, for the dead who have slept
in Christ, with the blessing of the Church upon them. For them, if they
still have need of succor, are all the good works of the faithful
offered up, and the prayers of all the Saints and all the Angels
invoked, not only on the second day of November, but on every day of
that mournful month.
Thus do we, who are still on earth, honor the glorified Saints of God,
and invoke them for ourselves and for the blessed souls who may yet be
debarred from the joys of Heaven. And this is truly the Communion of
Saints--the Church on earth, the Church in Heaven, the Church in
Purgatory, distinct, yet united, the children of one common Father, who
is God; of one common Mother, who is Mary, the Virgin ever Blessed.
LEIBNITZ [1]
[Footnote 1: Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz, the eminent Protestant
philosopher.
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