Tonight, a friend had me over and we made Communion of Saint's posters to hang up in November. I made this 8 years ago and kept reusing the same one, but then with the move I decided not to move it and just remake it. I'm sad I don't have the original, but it was so much fun to make again and update with new pictures. We have new children in the family, some of the Church Suffering are now part of the Church Triumphant, so it was exciting.
I kept looking back and my last one hoping to replicate it fairly accurately. This really is my favorite project I've ever done. You can see the original here.
Below is what I did, feel free to copy or make your own. You can adjust the text to fit your project.
****For my project I made the text a size 7 and used Comic Sans for the font style. The link to the wording and prayers is here.
At
the top I put a picture of the Holy Trinity surrounded by angels praising God. Below that is the Blessed Mother and various
saints that we have a special love for or the children are named after. All in the Church Triumphant. I then used cotton balls to make the clouds
to separate them from the Church Suffering where I put photos of our deceased
relatives and holy men and women. I then
made flames out of construction paper to separate them from the Church Militant. For the bottom section I put photos of family
members…all the kids, grandparents, the Pope, our parish priest. I included a picture of a priest holding up
the Eucharist during Mass since our prayers at Mass are so special for those in
Purgatory.
For
each section I included an explanation and scripture. I took things from
different sites I like and changed them around to make our own project that fit
our family.
At
the very top I added the following….
This Church, comprises of three parts which make up the
complete Body of Christ or Communion of Saints.
Death does not separate us, as Our Lord said Himself, (Mark 12:26-27) “As for the dead being raised, have you not read in the Book of Moses,
in the passage about the bush, how God told him, ‘I am the God of Abraham,
(the) God of Isaac, and (the) God of Jacob? He is not God of the dead but of
the living. You are greatly misled.”
The complete Church supports each other by prayer and
sacrifice.
----------------
I
then broke up the rest of the text as follows
The Church
Triumphant
This is the Church of the saints on Heaven and we celebrate
these members on the feast of All Saints.
They do not need our prayers, but the Church Suffering and the Church
Militant are in need of their intercessory prayer. Hebrews (12:1-2) tells us: “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses (saints),
let us lay aside every earthly care and run with perseverance he re that is set
before us, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…”
First Peter (3:12) and James (5:16) remind us: “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are
attentive to their prayer...” “…A good
man’s prayer is powerful and effective.”
We do not intercede to dead people, (dead in the sense they
are damned; lost souls) we pray to the living
saints of God who are now completely righteous through God’s saving grace, as
the Bible quote from St. Mark’s Gospel reminds us
The Church Suffering
These are the souls who have been saved, but upon death, were
not completely freed from smaller sins and failings. Revelations (21:27) tells us “Nothing impure will ever enter
it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those
whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
Our understanding of Purgatory comes from 1st
Corinthians (3:12-15): “Now if any man builds on the
foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s
work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed
with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any
man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any
man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet
so as through fire.”
The Holy Souls are blessed, they have assurance of their
salvation, but they are suffering as they do penance for the sins hey committed
on earth that they did not make full atonement for. They are helpful. They cannot help themselves to pass through
this place of suffering, faster than expected. They rely on our prayers and sacrifices. While they cannot help themselves, they can
pray for us in thanksgiving, especially once they have entered their blessed
homeland – Heaven.
The Church Militant
This is
everyone living upon Earth striving for salvation (ourselves, family, friends):
Philippians (2:12): “Why, my beloved, as you have
always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence,
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”
“The Lain word “militans” has a primary meaning of ‘serving as a soldier, military’, but it acquires a secondary meaning of “to struggle, to make an effort”, which is the intended sense here. Christians on earth (the Church Militant) are still struggling against sin in order that, when they die, they might go to Heaven and be members of the Church Triumphant, those who have triumphed over sin. However, if this struggle is successful, but not completely so, then after death they temporarily become members of the Church Suffering before ultimately joining the Church Triumphant.”
We are able to pray for ourselves as the passages from Peter and James reminded us. The offering of he Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on earth for people on earth and for the Holy Souls. We also pray for priests (spiritual motherhood) and for religious. They in turn pray mightily for the whole world and are hat powerful human arm of prayer and sacrifice that often holds back God’s Divine arm of justice that weighs heavily over us. (We read about that in particular in the Diary of St. Faustina). Our Lady of Fatima reminded us that “some souls go to Hell because they have no one to pray for them.” We can also pray for the Holy Souls suffering in Purgatory. We too rely on the intercessory prayers of the saints in Heaven and also the Holy Souls who finally enter the Church Triumphant.
This is the mystical body of Christ.
Then
at the very bottom, I added the Prayer of St Gertrude the Great. I like to work on memorizing this in November
before her feast day.
Prayers of St. Gertrude the Great
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the Universal Church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen
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