For Parents - Communion of Saints

Communion of Saints for parents

Key Ideas
1. Mary is Jesus’ mother and first disciple and model to all Christians
Mary is the mother of Jesus Christ. She was the first person to say yes to Jesus when the Angel Gabriel came to her, greeted her and told her she was to be the mother of Jesus. She said "Yes" to God's will. Jesus was a human being as well as God and Mary raised him as any mother raises their son. So she was close to him in a special way.

Recognising Mary's special closeness to God we ask her to pray for us:

From: simple.wikipedia.com - licensed for reuse
"Hail Mary, Full of grace,
The Lord is with you,
Blessed are you among women,
And blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners,
Now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

2. Communion of Saints is all the souls in heaven, purgatory and God's family - the church on earth.
A saint who has officially been recognised as a saint by the church has been canonised. There are many other saints who are in heaven who are not famous but are also close to God.

When we say "Communion of Saints" we actually mean all of God's family. That is the souls in heaven, the souls in purgatory and the people living on earth who are part of God's family.

3. Our choices affect the type of person we become and what happens to us after we die

We can make one-off choices which may be a mistake or a lapse. But if we continue to make the same choice, our character becomes formed around that choice. For example if we consistently choose to tell lies we become a liar by default. Or if we consistently choose to be kind and generous we become a more generous person.

If we consistently turn away from God and put ourselves first, then when we die we have become the sort of person who does not want God. Jesus in Matthew's Gospel says we will be judged after we die and we will be judged on how we treat the least of God's people.God's family.

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