I cannot figure out this site

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What I haven’t yet said about myself is that I wake up in the morning and remember that I’m tethered to a machine, and I get anxious and upset by the very fact that I am on oxygen. I try to pray, and to thank God for what I do have, and the fact that I have eyes to see, ears to hear, arms and legs that work, a brain that still works, and yet I still feel sad and hopeless in the morning. I will usually feel better as the day wears on, but it’s so terribly difficult to make it through the first hour of being awake.
 
You are procrastinating. You are allowing the evil of this world to keep you from worshipping God.
I am sure there is a spot in the Church where those who can’t go up for communion have the communion come to them.
If you cry, you won’t be alone.
And crying can be a gift… the gift of tears. So no biggie. Rejoice in your crying.
Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted

Just go , join in, as part of the Body of Christ, in worshipping God.
God will give you the strength. Have faith.

🙏🕊️
 
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Of course you are right.

On another subject. Somewhere, a Catholic wrote: “Catholics understand that we have a relationship with those who are living in heaven, and that during the Mass heaven and earth connect.”

My question is about whether we believe the dead are “living in heaven” NOW, or if the Church believes that the believers go to Heaven when Christ returns.

The context is praying to the saints. Are the saints in Heaven NOW? And in the Memorare, the implication is that Mary answers prayers, but she doesn’t, does she?
 
I’ll attempt to answer this.😉

Yes, the Saints are in Heaven right now with God, beholding Him face to face. All people who have been saved are in either in Heaven or Purgatory. People who are saved but still need to be purified go to Purgatory, and then eventually to Heaven after their attachment to sin has been burned away. People who die do not go to a sort of “limbo” and wait for Jesus to return.

This is why, when we ask the Saints for their intercession, their prayers are so effective. They are with God now, in the Beatific Vision. They are pure and righteous and can pray for us in perfect alignment with God’s will for us, better than we can pray ourselves. The Church teaches we that are all one Body, but the Body is in three separate “places”. The Church Militant is us down here on Earth, fighting the battle of sin against the Devil. The Church Suffering (or Penitent) is in Purgatory, who have the expectation of Heaven, and the Church Triumphant, who have conquered all and are in Heaven.

Mary is the Queen of the Saints, and her prayers are the most effective, because as Jesus’ mother, He loves to answer her every wish. She is in perfect communion with Her Son. All of her grace comes straight from Jesus and is then given to us; she has no power on her own to answer our prayers, but she intercedes powerfully for us with Jesus, and we can be assured that He hears her prayers. Jesus gave Mary to us as our Mother. We can fly to her protection…she longs to bring us to her Son. She wants to help us know God better.

I hope I worded all of that correctly…I’m always afraid I won’t explain something quite “correctly.” I’m still learning more and more about Mary myself as a convert to the Faith. But I’ve been told many, many times…we can’t possibly love Mary more than Jesus does.

Hope that helps.
 
Yes, it helps, but the Memorare speaks of her answering prayer. And isn’t there scripture about “sleeping in Christ”? I knew, of course, about Purgatory, but I guess I forgot it. And what about “on the last day,” when Jesus comes, and in the meantime we wait. So the souls of the dead do not sleep in Christ. Some might go to Heaven immediately? At a Catholic funeral, though, I don’t remember what was said. I need to learn more about this. I was a convert, but that’s no excuse for being so ignorant at this late date! Thank you for your answer.

Peace.
 
This quote talks about the communion of Saints .

So

We are all ( dead and alive) part of the Body of The Church. Christ is the head of His Church.

That’s how everyone is connected.

It’s also called the communion of Saints. So everyone alive, everyone in heaven and, everyone in purgatory belong to the communion of Saints and the Body of Christ’s church
 
Yes, in the sense that when she hears our prayers, she takes them to Jesus and intercedes for us with Him. We are not praying directly to her as if she is God…we are begging for her help and assistance. I don’t think she answers our prayers directly in the sense that you mean…she is not God herself…but she loves us and wants us to become holier and closer to God. We can go to her as her little children, and she answers our prayers by begging God to help us, which He is always wanting to do, anyway. God is always eager to help us, but often (usually?) has to wait for us to repent and turn to Him because we are stubborn and want our own way.

Catholics say that the graces we are given from God come through Mary, but I’m still not entirely sure how that works. I know that by praying to her, we are meant to be drawn into a closer relationship with Jesus. We get to know Jesus better by pondering Mary’s love for Him. She knew Him better than anyone else on earth, and loved Him more than anyone else. Perhaps someone with a better understanding of Mary can chime in here, but I hope that answers the question a little. Trying searching on the official Catholic Answers also…they have many, many pages of apologetics answers about this. And I love the book Behold Your Mother by Tim Staples…that’s a good one to get started with.

ETA: Also, the Memorare is making reference to the fact that Jesus loves to grant His mother’s wishes. So no one who begs for Mary’s assistance is going to be left unaided, because she will ALWAYS hear us and intercede for us, and Jesus will ALWAYS respond to her and want to fulfill her request. Now, we might be asking for something contrary to God’s will, but in that case I think she will instead ask God to help us with what we REALLY need, not what we think we need. If we are turning and praying to God and asking for His will to be done in our lives, not our will, then He is certainly going to grant that request. He wants us to abandon sin and reign with Him in Heaven forever, so everything in our lives is working towards that goal, even though we might reject it.
 
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@ThisOne I work for a parish. Please know what joy it brings to a local priest when someone calls and asks for the priest to visit them, when that person has been away and He can come and bring the Sacraments. We rejoice more and smile more than when someone brings us cookies or a puppy 🙂

You are part of a parish, reach out. They will bring you the Sacrament every week, someone will visit who will talk with you.

I pray that you can make that call today!!
 
The point I am making is that the Memorare specifically asks her to “answer” the prayer. Why would a prayer do that, if Mary doesn’t answer prayer?
 
She answers it by taking our petitions to Jesus, but I do think it goes further than that. Perhaps it means that she can also, with God’s permission, answer us in many ways, through Scripture, circumstances, friends, apparitions, healings, peace, joy, feelings, etc. I think, since God gave her to us as our mother, we can expect her to answer us as a mother would.

I know myself, a couple of years ago, when I was just beginning to think that perhaps the Catholic Church was the true church, sent up my first feeble, tentative prayer to Mary. I was feeling incredibly sad and lonely that night, and I immediately felt completely enveloped in warm, radiant love. And I could tell that it was a feminine love…something entirely different than the peace I had felt from God before. I knew, without a doubt, that it was Mary. From that moment on I knew I would be coming home to the Catholic church.

I know God allows other saints to answer us. St. Therese promised to send us roses as sign of answered prayer. I was hesitant to say too much and overstep correct theology, but I think it is correct to say, that united with God, through His power, she does hear and answer us, and meets us right where we are. She is active in bringing us to her Son. And as her apparitions show, she is very involved in our lives herself. Our prayers are laying roses at her feet, and she loves our devotion.
 
The Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.

Amen.

Note the words exactly.

If we seek the intercession of Mary, we won’t be left unaided.
God Answers Prayer. According to His will.
Mary and the other saints intercede on our behalf.
ThisOne said:
The point I am making is that the Memorare specifically asks her to “answer” the prayer. Why would a prayer do that, if Mary doesn’t answer prayer?
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ThisOne said:
I cannot figure out this site. And where are the dates? I’m totally confused. When I click a category, it says no more posts.
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Hello, ThisOne. I, too, have trouble figuring out this site. Maybe, if we just stick with it, we will understand in time? 😁
 
Thank you. This was really helpful to me–to think of “answering” as meaning many things. I really appreciate your taking the time to respond.
 
Yes, I think you’re right. I certainly think it looks great. It’s visually a great improvement over the old site, I think.
 
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