Praying for the Dead

A reader writes:

When a family member dies and one is unsure if they have been saved, can a living member pray for that person after they have died and possibly aid to their salvation.  From what I understand there is no time table that God lives in and its possible hhe could use prayers after the person has died to use for their salvation when they die.  Is there any scriptual reference to this?  I sure would appreciate an answer to this.

There are two ways in which people customarily pray for the dead. The most common of these is praying for the person to have their transition into heaven smoothed in some way (i.e., that they spend less time in purgatory or have their experience of purgatory made less paiful or something). This form of prayer for the dead does not aid the person’s salvation per se, since all those who are in purgatory will go to heaven and are thus saved in that sense, but it can aid the process by which their salvation is brought to completion.

The kind of prayer that you mention is discussed a lot less but it still goes on a great deal. It’s entirely natural, when someone died, to ask God to pray for the person’s salvation. Since a person either is or is not saved (i.e., destined for heaven) at the time they die, we can’t pray that the person will be saved after they die, but we can pray that they were saved when they died.

At the time we say such prayers, their death lies in the past, and so whether this is okay depends on whether it is okay to pray for things that have happened in the past.

The answer is that it is okay (normally) and the reason is the one you identify: God is outside of time and so he can apply prayer that you say today to events that were occuring yesterday (or at any point in the past).

The only time that it is not okay to pray for something in the past is when you are praying for something that you know was not the case. For example, I could not justly pray that the September 11th, 2001 attacks never happened. I know that they did, and so I can’t pray that God stop them since I know that he didn’t (at least in my timeline).

I can pray, even today in 2005, that all those who died in the attacks were saved, and God can apply my prayers to them back in 2001, but I can’t pray that the attacks didn’t happen.

The rule is that you can pray for any event in the past as long as you don’t know that its outcome was contrary to your prayer.

If you know that then it constitutes a form of presumption to pray for the contrary, but since we don’t know the salvation of our loved ones, you can pray for that.

NOLA Will Rise Again

Nolarise_2 SOURCE.

After more than a week of tragedy and heartbreak in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, sentiments like this make me want to stand up and cheer.  NOLA (acronym, "New Orleans, Louisiana") may never be the same, but she will survive (even if only in the hearts of those who loved her); and, God willing, may she rise again.

If you haven’t yet done so, please consider donating something to help the survivors of Hurricane Katrina soldier on.  Here is one option for your donations.   

Crecent of OUTRAGE!

You may have heard of the plans to build a memorial to the heroes of Flight 93, who died trying to wrest control of the ill-fated flight from Mulsim terrorists who sought to plow it into a major American landmark, most likely either the White House or the Capitol Building.

This was the flight where, as the passengers learned via cellphone that a massive terrorist operation was underway, the men on the plane voted (democracy) and then stormed the terrorist-controlled cabin, showing that Americans would no longer sit passively by and allow this kind of terrorism to take place.

It was the flight on which Todd Beamer uttered the immortal words, "Let’s roll" as the passengers began their heroic bid to take back the plane.

I said at the time that they needed to build a statue to those guys.

I did not envision the following MONSTROSITY:

SOURCE.

The plans currently call for the memorial to take the form of a "Crecent of Embrace" composed of maple trees of a species that will turn red in the fall, just like the red Islamic crecent.

MORE ON THIS OUTRAGE FROM MICHELLE MALKIN.  AND MORE.

If you are as outraged as I am by this hijacking of the memorial that the heroes of Flight 93 deserve by turning it instead into an orgasm of political correctness that honors their MURDERERS then I invite you to join me in contacting the National Parks Service and telling them they must cancel this abomination and go back to the drawing board.

The person to be called is Joanne Hanley, the Superintendent of the Flight 93 National Memorial.

She can be reached at (814) 443-4557 or faxed at (814) 443-2180.

You may also be able to send an e-mail message HERE, though there are reports that the form doesn’t work.

I also agree with one of the commenters over at Michelle Malkin’s:

I propose a single block of unfinished granite, representing the
enduring and unvarnished legacy of Flight 93 with the immortal line,
“Let’s Roll” hewn into it in 5’ high letters. A panel below should be
smoothed and polished and the names of the fallen engraved there along
with a description of their actions that day. In front of this would be
a simple paved plaza with one flagpole facing the monument in their
honour. Let the memorial be simple and straightforward, uncluttered by
the baggage of others and with a clear and unambiguous message for all
who would stand before it.

Only I’d like one change: I want the letters in LET’S ROLL to be ten feet high.

Evil Reptilian Kitten-Eater From Another Planet

Dalton McGuinty

Today, September 12, back in 2003, the Ontario Conservative Party issued a press release in which it outed liberal politician Dalton McGuinty as “an evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet.”

McGuinty initially denied the charges that he eats kittens.

A Kitten

Some of his statements, however, displayed a studied ambiguity, as for example his declaration, “I love kittens, and I like puppies too,” which can be taken more than one way.

The truth seemed to emerge, however, when supporters printed T-shirts with the legend: “We may be kitten-eaters but we want change.”

From the report I have at hand, McGuinty did not deny being evil, reptilian, or from another planet. His denials seemed to center exclusively on the charge of kitten-eating.

GET THE STORY.

POSTSCRIPT: McGuinty also did not deny that he was in the pay of the Easter Bunny.

Catholicism For Dummies

Fordummies

A reader asks:

"Have you read the book Catholicism for Dummies? Would you recommend it for learning about the Church? Thanks!"

Catholicism For Dummies by Frs. John Trigilio and Kenneth Brighenti, two priests associated with EWTN, is, in fact, the only secular "For Numskulls"-type book on Catholicism that I can recommend. I have read others on the market, published under other "For Numskulls"-type imprints, and the ones that I have read are all deficient, ranging from somewhat to seriously so. I was so impressed with Catholicism For Dummies, however, that I recommended it to Catholic Answers to carry.

YOU CAN BUY IT HERE.

Just Price Analysis

Over at ChronicleMagazine.Org, Scott Richert has wondered what I’d make of the just price theory that developed out of Scholasticism and how I’d compare it to my own views.

The concept of a just price has varied considerably over the course of time, and so for me to interact with it, I need a definition to work from. Fortunately, Mr. Richert has provided one. In the combox over yonder, he endorses the following as a good working definition of the just price concept:

all commodities [in the Middle Ages] had a certain value which common estimation could
determine and which accidental circumstances, such as scarcity or the
special needs of the buyer or seller, could not substantially change.

Mr. Richert takes this definition from Fr. Edward Cahill’s book Framework of a Christian State, which was first published in the 1930s. In order to understand the above passage in the sense that Fr. Cahill wrote it (and, I assume, the sense in which Mr. Richert means it), one needs to see it with a bit of context. Here is the full quote as given by Mr. Richert (emphasis in original):

The doctrine of the Just Price and the whole mediaeval attitude towards
trading profits imply a fundamental contrast between the Catholic
economic outlook and the one that prevails in modern times. Although it
may be difficult to determine with exactness the intrinsic value of a
commodity or the just price at which it might be sold, it was
universally admitted that all commodities had a certain value which
common estimation could determine and which accidental circumstances, such as scarcity or the special needs of the buyer or seller,
could not substantially change. Competition was thus confined within
the limits of natural equity, and the unjust activities of the
financier, the middle-man and the trader were kept in check [p. 45].

This brings out an important element that one needs to understand the just price concept. Fr. Cahill alludes to the difficulties that exist if one wants to "determine with exactness the intrinsic value of a commodity or the just price at which it might be sold," which indicates that commodities have intrinsic values that are relevant to the price that may justly be charged for them.

Just before this passage, in a section Mr. Richert does not quote, Fr. Cahill is even more clear on the point:

According to medieval teaching on the other hand, the price of a commodity was supposed to be determine by objective value alone; and could not be justly influenced by the special need or ignorance of buyer or seller [p. 43].

We might try to combine these conditions to form a definition of the just price as follows:

The just price of an item is a sum of money equivalent to (a) the intrinsic value of an item (b) as determined by the common estimation of the community and which (c) is not substantially affected by accidental circumstances.

Without feedback from Mr. Richert, I can’t say if this is an accurate rephrasing of his understanding of the just price, but I have tried to make it accurate. If I’m wrong, I hope Mr. Richert will correct me.

Now here are the problems with this definition.

Continue reading “Just Price Analysis”

Some New Orleans Murders Committed By Doctors

Not all of the murders committed in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina were committed by people from lower socio-economic brackets.

Some physicians were afraid of the threatening circumstances created by murdering hoodlums in the city.

So they murdered them themselves.

If the following press report is true.

GET THE (ABOMINABLE!) STORY.
(CHT to the reader who e-mailed.)

Republic Day!

Kimjongil_1Today, September 9th, is Republic Day in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), a.k.a., North Korea.

Why they would call it "Republic Day" when North Korea is a Stalinist dictatorship rather than a republic, I dunno, but their "Dear Leader" (left) is funny like that.

So . . . floral baskets all round, gang!

LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS FASCINATING WORKERS ‘ PARADISE.

I’m sure that NK-NEWS.NET also has some interesting things you can read as part of the festivities.

The Boarding School Solution

Parents who are frustrated with their local schools and wary of their own ability to homeschool may be wondering if boarding school is the answer. One boarding school alumna assures them that it is probably not the case:

"[A]n increasing number of parents are deciding against boarding school. Enrollment at private day schools has grown 15 percent in the past decade, while enrollment at boarding schools has grown only 2.7 percent. Overall boarding school enrollment dropped from about 42,000 in the late 1960’s to 39,000 in the last school year — even though, according to the Census Bureau, the population of 14- to 17-year-olds was more than 1.5 million higher in 2004 than in 1968.

"Reporting on this, The Wall Street Journal attributed the shift away from boarding school to a trend of greater parental involvement, which translates into parents reluctant to be apart from their children. This is, evidently, the same reason some parents are now accompanying their teenagers to boarding school; these mothers and fathers literally move, sometimes cross-country, to be close to the campuses of the boarding schools their children attend.

"While the new breed of super-involved parent strikes me as slightly creepy (having worked as a private-school teacher, I’ve also seen parents whose idea of "involvement" is doing their children’s homework for them), I don’t think the conclusion they’ve come to is the wrong one. Among the reasons I wouldn’t send my own child to boarding school is that being around one’s adolescent peers 24 hours a day doesn’t seem particularly healthy. It makes the things that already loom large in high school — grades, clothes, sports, heartache, acne — loom even larger.

"Going home at night provides physical distance from the relentlessness of all teenagers, all the time, and, ideally, parents provide perspective. Although they might be dorky, parents know an important lesson about everything from serious hazing to the embarrassment of dropping a lunch tray in a crowded cafeteria: This, too, shall pass."

GET THE STORY.

Maybe it’s my inner fox eyeing the grapes dangling out of my reach, but there’s some satisfaction in discovering that the most expensive educational alternative is not always the best choice for children. What counts is not the money a parent throws at the problem, but his own involvement in shaping his child’s studies. A parent worried about his own ability to homeschool can at least take comfort in the fact that he is likely to do a better job at it than others who are unable to give the child personalized attention and parental values.