Death, Judgment and Father Brown

[Peter_J]

No offense to your dear wife, but doesn’t her question assume that no one had been praying for the deceased brother before his death?

I had a similar thought, Della.

We, Catholics and Protestants alike, often speak of praying for someone in a way that makes it sounds like it’s unusual to do so. No reason to single out that priest’s comment and say “should have already been praying for him”.

 

[PJM]

Thanks, Todd977. I read the article and it was helpful. My wife came from the ‘Christian Church – Disciples of Christ’ denomination and so she has a bit of a different background than me. I am a little embarrassed to say I was unaware of the Methodist belief in praying for the dead until now, as it isn’t spoken about much at my church that I recall.

Follow up question:
When a person dies, does the Catholic Church believe the person goes immediately to judgment and then to their final destination of heaven, hell, or purgatory) or does the person go to a resting area to await the final judgment at a later time?

To me, it makes even more sense to pray for the dead if they are asleep awaiting final judgment. If anyone can help clarify, I would appreciate it.

Permit me to jump in on your second question

There are to be TWO judgments [same outcome]

At the instant of death the “Particular” Judgment; when our life’s decisions will determine where we have chosen to spend Eternity, and this is affirmed by Jesus

At the End Times: The Second judgment; the “General” Judgment which will be a public judgment of all of humanity for all of Time; and everyone will know where everyone else ended up.

It will be at this time tat our THEN Glorified bodies will be reunited with our immortal souls for Eternity, and the creation of “a new heaven and a new earth”

Thanks for asking

GBY

Patrick

 

[Peter_J]

I had a similar thought, Della.

We, Catholics and Protestants alike, often speak of praying for someone in a way that makes it sounds like it’s unusual to do so. No reason to single out that priest’s comment and say “should have already been praying for him”.

P.S. I was thinking about something that I hope will help … Say a couple are finishing supper and suddenly the wife says “Dear, I think we need to talk.” Does this imply that they didn’t do any talking during supper?

Likewise, sometimes a person might decide to go to a quiet place to pray … But that doesn’t necessarily mean that he or she did not do any praying before.

 

[Kaninchen]

I like to watch the BBC Father Brown TV series

This is absolutely, totally, off-topic but it’s fun to count how many different hats Mrs McCarthy (Sorcha Cusack) wears in each episode.