Monday, January 7, 2019

The Catholic Faith of the Early Church

From Aleteia:
Some of the inscriptions are more explicit in asking for prayers for the dead. For example,

Ut quisquis de fratribus legerity, roget Deum ut sancto etinnocent spiritu ad Deum suscipiatur. 
If any of the brethren reads this, let him ask that this holy and innocent soul may be received by God (Publications of the Catholic Truth Society.) How sure can we be that early Christians really prayed for the dead? Are these short invocations enough? ortunately there is testimony outside of the catacombs that validates their message. One is Tertullian, who lived from around 155 to 240. In On Monogamy, he writes the following in reference to widows: 
Indeed, she prays for his soul, and requests refreshment for him meanwhile, and fellowship with him in the first resurrection; and she offers her sacrifice on the anniversaries of his falling asleep. For, unless she does these deeds, she has in the true sense divorced him, so far as in her lies; and indeed the more iniquitously.
Tertullian is not the only early witness to this practice. In the Confessions, St. Augustine also records his mother Monica asking him to pray for her after her death. Read more.)
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