Fr. Simon's Happenings: I will be gone this Sunday night and return this Friday night hunting pheasants in the Claremont area or at least try again! I wasn’t able to even get a shot off two weeks ago when I hunted two days there with our small group.
Gregorian Masses for a Poor Soul: As popularized by Pope St. Gregory the Great, these are a series of thirty (30) Masses offered consecutively for thirty days for the repose of the soul of an individual departed person. According to this pious belief the individual soul, if in Purgatory, immediately goes to heaven after the completion of these Holy Masses. The Sacred Congregation on Indulgences has declared that "the offering of Gregorian Masses has a special efficacy for obtaining from God the speedy deliverance of a suffering soul, and that this is a pious and reasonable belief of the faithful." This devotion is due to Pope St. Gregory the Great writing in his fourth book Dialogues about when he was an abbot prior to being Pope, fearing that a certain monk may have to spend a long time suffering in purgatory, had thirty Masses offered for him, one each day consecutively, for thirty days. On the thirtieth day he appeared to a brother monk to tell him he was freed from Purgatory due to the thirty Masses offered for the repose of his soul. These Masses do not have to be offered by the same priest, but the priest is making a serious obligation by accepting the Gregorian Mass stipend to successfully accomplish this whether or not he is able to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on any scheduled day. He will have to have at least one backup priest ready on any given day to avoid interruption. Failure to do this means restarting the series of Masses. A web search will provide offers of this service or you can contact Fr. Brian Simon. Arrangements can be made to have Gregorian Masses offered for oneself after death upon notification by a survivor as directed. This direction can be in important papers to be read after one's death or stated in one's Last Will & Testament.
