18. THE QUESTION WAS….What practice was St. Augustine referring to when he declared: “For the whole Church observes this practice which was handed down by the Fathers.”

 

A.    Praying and giving alms for the dead

B.   Praying for the living

THE ANSWER IS….A….Praying and giving alms for the dead.

 

St. Augustine said:

“But by the prayers of the Holy Church, and by the salvific sacrifice, and by the alms which are given for their spirits, there is no doubt that the dead are aided, that the Lord might deal more mercifully with them than their sins would deserve. For the whole Church observes this practice which was handed down by the Fathers; that it prays for those who have died in communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, when they are commemorated in their own place in the sacrifice itself; and the sacrifice is offered also in memory of them, on their behalf. If, then, works of mercy are celebrated for the sake of those who are being remembered, who would hesitate to recommend them, on whose behalf prayers to God are not offered in vain? It is not at all to be doubted that such prayers are of profit to the dead; but for such of them as lived before their death in a way that makes it possible for these things to be useful to them after death.” [St. Augustine’s Sermon 172, 2 as listed in The Faith of the Early Fathers, Volume 3, p.29, excerpt #1516, compiled by William A. Jurgens)

 

For pages and pages of direct quotes from the sermons of St. Augustine and other Early Church Fathers, a must-have resource is the Faith of the Early Fathers (three volumes compiled by William A. Jurgens).

 

 

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