dear departed friends. Their memory seems to perish with the sound of the funeral-bells, and we forget that the friendship which finds an end, even in death, was never genuine friendship."
From whence this sad and culpable forgetfulness? Its principal cause is want of reflection. Quia nullus est qui recogitat corde — " Because there is none that considereth in the heart." [1] We lose sight of the great motives which urge us to the exercise of this Charity towards the dead. It is, therefore, to stimulate our zeal that we are about to recall to mind these motives, and to place them in the strongest possible light.
We may say that all these motives are summed up in these words of the Holy Ghost: It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins, that is, from the temporal punishment due to their sins. [2] In the first place, it is a work holy and excellent in itself, as also agreeable and meritorious in the sight of God. Accordingly, it is a salutary work, supremely profitable for our own salvation, for our welfare in this world and the next.
" One of the holiest works, one of the best exercises of piety that we can practise in this world," says St. Augustine, "is to offer sacrifices, alms, and prayers for the dead." [3] " The relief which we procure for the departed," says St. Jerome, "obtains for us a like mercy."
Considered in itself, prayer for the dead is a work of Faith, Charity, and frequently even of Justice.
1st, Who are, indeed, the persons whom there is question of assisting? Who are those holy, predestined souls, so dear to God and our Lord Jesus Christ, so dear to their Mother, the Church, who unceasingly recommends them to our charity; souls who are dear also to ourselves, that were, perhaps, intimately united to us upon earth, and who supplicate us in these touching words: Have pity on me,
