Today is Memorial Day. We give thanks for the valor and sacrifice of those who died in service to our country and we recall those who grieve for them.
“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
John 15: 13
A salute to those who served God and country:
Those too who devote themselves to the military service of their country should regard themselves as the agents of security and freedom of peoples. As long as they fulfill this role properly, they are making a genuine contribution to the establishment of peace.
Pope Paul VI, Gaudium et Spes, December 7, 1965
The religious overtones of a civil holiday:
We are here primarily because men and women have repeatedly renounced their own interests, put their security at risk, and gone forth to defend our Nation, her friends, and the innocent all over. Let us give thanks and pray for those who have died in the service of our Country, those who still carry the wounds of their service in body and in mind, the families who have sacrificed while loved ones were far away or did not return, and those veterans who have succumbed on the final journey.
Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., Archbishop for the Military Services, Memorial Day Mass, 20 May 2018
Killed in action administering Last Rites to a wounded soldier:
The bodies of the dead must be treated with respect and charity, in faith and hope of the Resurrection. The burial of the dead is a corporal work of mercy; it honors the children of God, who are temples of the Holy Spirit.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2300
The Catholic chaplain that men of every faith loved:
We celebrate Mass for those who have responded to the call of their country and rendered that “last full measure of devotion”:
OUR DEAD – Memorial Verse of the Catholic War Veterans, by Rev. Edward Lodge Curran
Our dead are not Unknown Soldiers.
We know who they are and wither they seek to go.
We know that some may languish in Purgatory until the last earthly stain is wiped away and until the last earthly injustice is repaired .
We also know that we can speed their passage from a Purgatory of shadow and pain to a Paradise of Happiness and light . We can hasten the dawn of eternal rest and the rays of perpetual light.
Our prayers and Masses and works of charity can assist our dead in gaining entrance into the blessedness of heaven.
We love our dead.
We can help our dead.
Let us pray for them always.
Flowers wither upon their graves.
A daily garland of prayers is better than an armful of roses.
As we approach the Golden Memorial hour of the Catholic War Veterans, Eleven o’clock,
Stand for a moment in silence and let there rise from your heart a prayer beseeching Almighty God, the Father of us all, to grant to the souls of our departed comrades, a peace and a glory that is theirs because of the sacrifice they made that other men might live.
A virtual Memorial Day retreat:
https://issuu.com/bustedhalo/docs/bh-memorialdayretreat-final
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