Sinners and Sacrifices

[FuzzyBunny116]

When reading the “transcript” of Fatima, I came across a message from Our Lady:

**‘Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to Hell because they have no one to make sacrifices and pray for them.’

What does this mean? It sounds to me that one can make sacrifices (I’m assuming things like prayer, time/money donations, even mortification) for the salvation of sinners. Is this how it works? It’s certainly a comforting idea to be able to make sacrifices for our loved ones that have fallen astray.
**

 

[MistyF]

FuzzyBunny116:

When reading the “transcript” of Fatima, I came across a message from Our Lady:

**‘Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to Hell because they have no one to make sacrifices and pray for them.’

What does this mean? It sounds to me that one can make sacrifices (I’m assuming things like prayer, time/money donations, even mortification) for the salvation of sinners. Is this how it works? It’s certainly a comforting idea to be able to make sacrifices for our loved ones that have fallen astray.
**

I’m definitely no expert, but my guess would be that it means that we should make sacrifices that might result in the ways of the sinner being turned towards repentence. You can’t do anything to make another person become saved, you can only try to show them the way. You can pray to the Lord that He will guide them into his Church, but, in the end, that person has free will, and it is up to them to reach out for salvation.

(I’m just offering an opinion there, I wonder if I should even bother to post this, but if nothing else, if I have it wrong somehow then someone can correct me )

 

[Genesis315]

The Mass is primarily a propitiatory sacrifice for sins. Likewise, we can make reparations for all the sins that wound our Lord’s Sacred Heart. My priest suggested we all pray the Litany to the Sacred Heart everyday during this past Lent for that very reason.

 

[ames61]

My understanding is that sacrificing for someone is similar to “offering up” your suffering for someone. Everytime we commit a good act, or join our suffering to Christ, that act increases the treasury of graces available to the Church. Now Christ won all the grace necessary for the redemption of the world on the cross. But it pleases Him for us to participate in that redemption through our faith, in our love, manifested in our actions. So in those actions we can specifically request the grace to be addressed to someone, and if they are open to that grace, it may please God to do so. The pour souls in purgatory who have no one to pray for them have already opened themselves to grace to some extent (or else they would be in hell).

St. Therese of Lisieux embodied this beautifully with her Little Way, in which she did small acts of charity or sacrifice with great love for our God. Concretely today, we can do the same by picking a sacrifice focus for the day (or hour or afternoon), say for the conversion of so-and-so. Then each time we are tempted to snack (or curse, or resent our neighbor . . .whatever), we deny our selves and offer it up to so-and-so. This has so many benefits its almost laughable. First, offering up a sacrifice make me realize just how small most of my sacrifices are (face it, I’m not starving or being persecuted in China). Second it assists me in forming good habits. Third it increases the treasury of graces to some small extent. Fourth it may assist the person for whom you are praying. Fifth it turns the day into a constant prayer, increasing my awareness of my God and my neighbor. And so on.

I don’t know if this makes sense or is relevant. Just my two cents.