On 7 November 1920, in strictest secrecy, four unidentified British Soldiers' bodies were exhumed from Temporary Battlefield Cemeteries, at Ypres, Arras, The Aisne, and The Somme, all in France.
Sentries were posted, and Brigadier-General Wyatt,
and Colonel Gell, selected one body at random.
The other three bodies were reburied.
A French Honour Guard was selected and stood by the Coffin of the chosen Unknown Soldier overnight.
On the morning of 8 November 1920, a specially-designed Coffin, made of Oak from the grounds of Hampton Court, London, arrived, and The Unknown Soldier was placed inside.
On top of the Coffin was placed a Crusader's Sword and a Shield, on which was inscribed:
"A British Warrior, who fell in The Great War 1914-1918, for King and Country".
On 9 November 1920, The Unknown Soldier was taken by Horse-Drawn Carriage, through Guards of Honour and the sound of Tolling Bells and Bugle Calls, to the Quayside.
There, The Unknown Soldier was Saluted by Marechal Foche, and loaded onto HMS Vernon, bound for Dover.
The Coffin stood on The Deck, covered in Wreaths, surrounded by The French Honour Guard.
Upon arrival at Dover, The Unknown Soldier was met with a Nineteen-Gun Salute - something that was normally only reserved for Field Marshals.
A Special Train had been arranged,
and The Unknown Soldier was conveyed to
Victoria Railway Station, London.
The Unknown Soldier remained there, overnight, and, on the morning of 11 November 1920, the Coffin was finally taken to Westminster Abbey, London.
The idea of The Unknown Soldier was thought of by a Padre, called David Railton, who had served on The Front Line during The Great War. The Union Flag he had used as an Altar Cloth, whilst at The Front, was the one that had been draped over the Coffin.
It was his intention that all of the relatives of the 517,773 Combatants, whose bodies had not been identified, could believe that The Unknown Soldier could very well be their lost husband, father, brother or son . . .
THIS is the reason we wear Poppies.
We do not glorify War.
We remember - with humility - the great and the ultimate sacrifices that were made, not just in this War, but in every War and Conflict where our Service Personnel have fought - to ensure the liberty and freedoms that we now take for granted.
Elchingen Abbey was a Benedictine Monastery in Oberelchingen, Germany. For much of its history, Elchingen Abbey was one of the forty-odd, self-ruling, Imperial Abbeys of The Holy Roman Empire and, as such, was a virtually Independent State that contained several villages, aside from the Monastery, itself. At the time of its Secularisation in 1802, the Abbey covered 112 square kilometers and had 4,000-4,200 subjects.
Dedicated to The Virgin Mary and Saint Peter and Saint Paul, the Monastery was Founded by The Counts of Dillingen in 1128. The Abbey was one of the very few Abbeys that enjoyed Imperial Immediacy (Independent of the Jurisdiction of any Lord and answering directly to The Holy Roman Emperor, and, thus, a Territorial Principality in its own right). The Abbot sat in The Reichstag of The Holy Roman Empire.
Like all the other Imperial Abbeys, Elchingen Abby lost its independence in the course of the Secularisation process in 1802-1803, and the Monastery was Dissolved. By 1840, the buildings had been almost entirely demolished. In 1921, The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate settled on the site. Today, the Abbey Church remains.
The East End of the Abbey was completed in 1146. Other buildings in the complex were added over the next fifty years. The Abbey was built in The Gothic Style, and in the form of a Saint John's Cross. A considerable portion of the Abbey is now in ruins. A structure dating from 1590 is maintained as a Museum and is open to the public.
King Alexander II and other Scottish Kings and Nobles are buried at the Abbey. A Lead Container, believed to hold the embalmed heart of Robert the Bruce, was found in 1921 below The Chapter House site; it was found again in a 1998 excavation. The rest of his body is buried in Dunfermline Abbey.
Melrose Abbey is known for its many carved decorative details, including likenesses of Saints, Dragons, Gargoyles and Plants. On one of the Abbey's stairways is an inscription by John Morow, a Master Mason, which says: "Be halde to ye hende" ("Keep in mind, the end, your Salvation"). This has become the Motto of the Town of Melrose.
Rievaulx Abbey was the first Cistercian Monastery in The North of England, Founded in 1132 by twelve Monks from Clairvaux Abbey, France.
Its remote location was well suited to The Order's ideal of a strict life of Prayer and self-sufficiency, with little contact with the outside World. The Abbey's Patron, Walter Espec, also Founded another Cistercian Community, that of Wardon Abbey, in Bedfordshire, on unprofitable wasteland on one of his inherited Estates.
The first Abbot of Rievaulx, Saint William I, started construction in the 1130s. The second Abbot, Saint Aelred of Rievaulx, Elected in 1147, expanded the buildings and otherwise consolidated the existence of what, with time, became one of the great Cistercian Abbeys of Yorkshire, second only to Fountains Abbey in fame. Under Aelred, the Abbey is said to have grown to some 140 Monks and 500 Lay Brothers. By the end of his tenure, Rievaulx Abbey had five Daughter-Houses in England and Scotland.
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Fountains Abbey is one of the largest and best preserved ruined CistercianMonasteries in England. It is located approximately three miles (five kilometres) South-West of Ripon, in North Yorkshire, near the village of Aldfield. Founded in 1132, the Abbey operated for 407 years, becoming one of the wealthiest Monasteries in England, until its Dissolution in 1539 under the orders of King Henry VIII.
He provided them with land in the Valley of The River Skell, a tributary of The River Ure. The enclosed Valley had all the natural features needed for the creation of a Monastery, providing shelter from the weather, stone and timber for building, and a supply of running water.
After enduring a harsh Winter in 1133, the Monks applied to join The Cistercian Order, which, since the end of the 10th-Century, was a fast-growing Reform Movement that, by the beginning of the 13th-Century, was to have over 500 Houses.
So it was that, in 1135, Fountains Abbey became the second Cistercian House in Northern England, after Rievaulx Abbey. The Fountains Abbey Monks became subject to Clairvaux Abbey, in Burgundy, France, which was under The Rule of Saint Bernard. Under the guidance of Geoffrey of Ainai, a Monk sent from Clairvaux, the group learned how to Celebrate the Seven Canonical Hours, according to Cistercian usage, and were shown how to construct wooden buildings in accordance with Cistercian practice.
The Abbey was constructed in The Romanesque Architectural Style, with three Churches built in succession from the 4th-Century A.D., to the Early-12th-Century. The earliest Basilica was the World's largest Church until Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.
The establishment of The Benedictine Order was a keystone to the stability of European Society that was achieved in the 11th-Century. In 1790, during The French Revolution, the Abbey was Sacked and mostly destroyed, with only a small part of the Abbey surviving.
Starting around 1334, the Abbots of Cluny maintained a Townhouse in Paris known as The Hôtel de Cluny, which has been a Public Museum since 1843. Apart from the name, it no longer possesses anything originally connected with Cluny Abbey.
All but one of the English and Scottish Cluniac Houses, which were larger than just Cells, were known as Priories, symbolising their subordination to Cluny. The exception was the Priory at Paisley, Scotland, which was raised to the status of an Abbey in 1245, answerable only to the Pope.
Cluny's influence spread into The British Isles in the 11th-Century, first at Lewes, Sussex, and then elsewhere. The Head of their Order was the Abbot at Cluny. All English and Scottish Cluniacs were bound to cross to France, to visit Cluny, to consult or be consulted unless the Abbot of Cluny chose to come to Britain, which he did five times in the 13th-Century, and twice in the 14th-Century.
The Arts.
At Cluny, the central activity was The Liturgy; it was extensive and beautifully presented in inspiring surroundings, reflecting the new personally-felt wave of piety of the 11th-Century. Monastic intercession was believed indispensable to achieving a State of Grace, and Lay Rulers competed to be remembered in Cluny's endless Prayers; this inspired the endowments in land and benefices that made other arts possible.
The fast-growing Community at Cluny required buildings on a large scale. The examples at Cluny profoundly affected architectural practice in Western Europe from the 10th-Century through to the 12th-Century.
The three successive Churches are conventionally called Cluny I, Cluny II, and Cluny III. The construction of Cluny II, circa 955 A.D. - 981 A.D., begun after the destructive Hungarian raids of 953 A.D., led the tendency for Burgundian Churches to be stone-vaulted. In building the third and final Church at Cluny, the Monastery constructed what was to remain the largest building in Europe until the 16th-Century, when the new Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome was built.
The Cluny Library was one of the richest and most important in France and Europe. It was a Store-House of numerous very valuable Manuscripts. During the Religious Conflicts of 1562, The Huguenots Sacked the Abbey, destroying or dispersing many of the Manuscripts. Of those that were left, some were burned in 1790 by a rioting mob during The French Revolution. Others were stored away in the Cluny Town Hall.
The French Government worked to relocate such treasures, including those that ended up in private hands. They are now held by The Bibliothèque nationale de France, at Paris. The British Museum holds some sixty or so Charters originating from Cluny.
English: Cluny Abbey, France.
Deutsch: Ostflügel und Turm der Abtei von Cluny (Frankreich),
The following Text and Illustration, dated 27 October 2017, is from FSSPX NEWS
After nearly nine Centuries of Cistercian presence in Himmerod, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, there were only six Monks left in 2017. The fate of the Abbey’s Community was sealed by the decision of The Congregation’s Chapter to dissolve it.
“The precarious financial situation, and especially the small number of Monks, played a key role in the painful decision,” declared Fr. Johannes, Superior of The Congregation of Mehrerau, a Branch of The Cistercian Order, in the columns of the 15 October 2017 Issue of The Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper.
The following Text is from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.
The Seven Sacraments Altarpiece, by Rogier van der Weyden, is now in The Royal Museum of Fine Arts, in Antwerp, Belgium. It was painted between 1445 and 1450, when van der Weyden was in Brussels, and is generally held to have been commissioned for a Church in Poligny, in the Jura Département, Eastern France.
It is a Fixed-Wing Triptych, with a complex scene that continues across the three divisions of The Altarpiece. The central focus of the iconography is a large Crucifixion scene, with attendant figures set up in the centre of The Nave of a Late-Gothic Flemish Church. It’s a large Church, with double Side Aisles and an Apsidal East End with an Ambulatory. The Seven Sacraments are shown being acted out in the Church, primarily in the Side Aisles.
In this Article, I’m not going to look in any depth at The Sacraments as a whole, as I’m interested in focusing here on only one of them: The Mass [Editor: The Holy Eucharist]. In this complex image, there are three separate depictions of The Mass, all going on concurrently. I’m interested in thinking through what these depictions of The Mass might reveal to us about the use of space, the purpose of divisions within a Church building, and how 15th-Century Lay People encountered the Liturgical Action and experienced The Mass.
A Mass is taking place at an Altar up against the Chancel Screen.
The Priest is assisted by a Layman with an Elevation Torch.
Behind the central Crucifixion, we can see that there is a division between The Nave and The Chancel of this large Flemish Church in the form of a Chancel Screen. The Screen, in part a barrier, physically and visually reveals and hides action going on behind it, but it is primarily presented here as a backdrop against which The Celebration of The Mass takes place.
In a recess in The Screen is an Altar, presumably Dedicated to The Virgin Mary, as there is a Reredos above it with her image. A Priest is Celebrating The Mass here, and he has come to the most Solemn moment of it, the Elevation of The Host.
We might think of the Late-Mediaeval Mass as a little-understood Ceremonial taking place apart from the people in a Clerical-ised, screened off zone. This Celebration of The Mass is in The Nave, the people’s space, and in proximity to them – the Sacred Species is shown here Confected among the hurly-burly of this busy place; God Incarnate comes Sacramentally into the midst of His people.
A Layman, in a Grey Doublet, stands some distance from the Screen Altar,
The Laity are not kept at a distance in this tableau, but play an integral part in this offering of The Mass. As the Priest elevates The Host, a Layman, in fine clothing, a Purple Doublet and Red Hose, holds an Elevation Torch, and he lifts the base of the Priest’s Chasuble. There is no fear here of any proximity to The Divine. Standing between two Pillars, is a man in a Grey, his hand on the knife at his belt, with his hat on the other, he focuses his attention on The Host; today, he has seen his Maker.
If we move to the Left-Hand Panel of the painting, to a depiction of a Side Aisle of this great Church, we see a Chapel at the end of the Aisle, screened off. There is an Altar, here, surrounded by "Riddels".
[Editor: Images and documentary mentions of early examples often have Curtains, called Tetravela, hung between the Columns; these Altar-Curtains were used to cover and then reveal the view of the Altar by the Congregation at points during Services — exactly which points varied, and is often unclear.
A Mass is taking place in a Chancel Side Chapel, beyond a Parclose Screen.
Altar-Curtains survived the decline of the Ciborium in both East and West, and, in English, are often called "Riddels" (from French "Rideau", a word once also used for ordinary domestic Curtains). A few Churches have "Riddle Posts" or "Riddel Posts" around the Altar, which supported the Curtain-Rails, and perhaps a Cloth, stretched above. Such an arrangement, open above, can be seen in Folio 199v of The Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry. Late-Mediaeval examples in Northern Europe were often topped by Angels, and the Posts, but not the Curtains, were revived in some new, or refitted, Anglo-Catholic Churches by Ninian Comper and others around 1900. In earlier periods, the Curtains were closed at the most Solemn part of The Mass, a practice that continues to the present day in the Coptic and Armenian Churches. A comparison to the Biblical Veil of The Temple was intended. The small domed structures, usually with Red Curtains, that are often shown near the writing Saint in early Evangelist portraits, especially in The East, represent a Ciborium, as do the structures surrounding many Manuscript portraits of Mediaeval Rulers. A single Curtain, hung, usually, on a wall behind an Altar, is called a Dossal].
The Deacon singing the Gospel at a Lectern in the Chancel.
There is an Altarpiece, a Wooden Tabernacle with an image of the Saints. A Priest, in a Blue Chasuble, turns to the people, perhaps he’s turned to say "Orate fratres et sorores", to ask his brothers and sisters to Pray for him, as he begins The Canon of The Mass and begins to offer The Sacrifice on their behalf.
It’s important to note that those who are witnessing this Mass taking place are within the screened off Chapel. There is a group of men and women, just within the Screen, to The Left, and there is another figure, on The Right of the entrance, who appears to be busy with his Primer. Just below the Altar Step, is a figure dressed in a Green Doublet, with a Purple Liripipe over his shoulder. Here, The Screen of this Chapel acts, not as a barrier to keep The Laity at a distance from The Holy, but as an enclosure in which men and women, seeking Christ’s presence, are welcome. The Screen exists only to mark the particularity of this Liturgical Space.
Then, there is The Third Celebration of The Mass depicted in this painting, but we only get a glimpse of it. In The Choir Screen, there are two Gates, and these give us a restricted view beyond to The Chancel of the Church. Our restricted view gives us enough visual information to be able to determine that Solemn Celebration, a High Mass,is underway, there. We see, through The Left Gate, the Deacon of The Mass in his Dalmatic, where he appears to be reading The Liturgical Gospel from an Eagle Lectern. This Lectern is placed just where you would expect it, below the Footpace of the Altar, and we can see the edge of the Altar enclosed with Riddel Posts, with figures of Angels on the top and with a Green Frontal. A Missal is open on a Lectern on the Altar. We can see no more of the Altar and cannot see the Priest and the other Ministers.
A couple stand in a Chancel Aisle, viewing The Mass taking place in the Chancel.
There is a further visual clue that shows that a Mass is underway in the Chancel. Through The Right-Hand Gate of the Choir Screen, we can see the Arcade, that divides the Chancel from an Ambulatory, and there are no Screens to create a division between these spaces.
Beyond, standing in the Ambulatory, are two figures. The first is a man in a Blue Doublet, who appears to be looking across the Chancel to where the Deacon is reading the Gospel. His wife stands beside him, dressed in a Purple and Black Gown, she is reading and concentrating on her Primer, in its White Chemise covering.
These people are standing at a reverential distance from the action in the Chancel, but they are not shut out; without Screens under the Arcade they will have had an uninterrupted view of the action, an action that is hidden from our eyes by the Choir Screen. The Liturgical action in the Chancel is clearly more complex than in the other two Masses, and the distance of those Lay people is probably explained, not by a desire to keep away from The Holy, but through a need to allow the complex Liturgical action to take place unhindered.
One thing to notice about these three depictions of The Mass, in Van der Weyden’s painting, is that they are at different stages in the Celebration. Those stages in the Liturgical action are more or less evenly spaced out, and The Elevations of The Host would have been staggered.
The Celebration at The High Altar has only got as far as the Gospel; that in the Side Chapel has got as far as the beginning of The Canon of The Mass, and the most prominent Celebration, in The Nave, has reached the moment of Liturgical climax; The Elevation of The Host.
Late-Mediaeval Churches were busy places, where complex Liturgical action took place concurrently, and, if this painting's observation is any evidence, that action took place in close proximity to the people.
The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia. Rogier van der Weyden, or Roger de la Pasture (1399 or 1400 – 18 June 1464), was an Early-Netherlandish Painter, whose surviving works consist mainly of Religious Triptychs, Altarpieces and commissioned Single and Diptych portraits. He was highly successful and internationally famous in his lifetime; his paintings were exported – or taken – to Italy and Spain, and he received commissions from, amongst others, Philip the Good, Netherlandish nobility, and foreign Princes. By the latter half of the 15th-Century, he had eclipsed Jan van Eyck in popularity. However, his fame lasted only until the 17th-Century, and, largely due to changing taste, he was almost totally forgotten by the Mid-18th-Century. His reputation was slowly rebuilt during the following 200 years; today, he is known, with Robert Campin and van Eyck, as the third (by birth date) of the three great Early-Flemish artists (Vlaamse Primitieven or "Flemish Primitives"), and widely as the most influential Northern Painter of the 15th-Century.
The Feast of All Saints is intimately connected with the remembrance of The Holy Souls, who, detained in Purgatory to expiate their Venial Sins, or to pay the Temporal pains due to sin, are nonetheless confirmed in Grace and will, one day, enter Heaven.
Therefore, after having joyfully Celebrated the Glory of The Saints, who are The Church Triumphant in Heaven, The Church on Earth extends her maternal solicitude to the place of unspeakable torments, the abode of Souls who equally belong to her.
"Réquiem aetérnam".
The Gradual from The Mass for The Dead.
Gregorian Chant notation from The Liber Usualis (1961), pp. 1808-1809.
"On this day," says The Roman Martyrology, "Commemoration of All The Faithful Departed, in which our common and pious Mother The Church, immediately after having endeavoured to Celebrate, by worthy praise, all her children who already rejoice in Heaven, strives to aid, by her powerful intercession with Christ her Lord and Spouse, all those who still groan in Purgatory, so that they may join, as soon as possible, the inhabitants of The Heavenly City."
Nowhere in The Liturgy is more vividly affirmed the mysterious unity which exists between The Church Triumphant, The Church Militant, and The Church Suffering, and never is better fulfilled the double duty of Charity and Justice, incumbent on every Christian by virtue of his membership of The Mystical Body of Christ.
It is through the very consoling Dogma of The Communion of Saints that the merits and suffrages of The Saints may benefit others. Whereby, without infringing the indefeasible rights of Divine Justice, which are exercised in their full vigour after this life, The Church can join her Prayers, here on Earth, to those of The Church in Heaven, and supply what is wanting in The Souls in Purgatory, by offering to God for them, by The Holy Mass, by Indulgences, by the Alms and sacrifices of her children, the superabundant Merits of Christ's Passion and of His Mystical Members.
"Réquiem aetérnam".
The Introit from The Mass for The Dead.
Gregorian Chant notation from The Liber Usualis (1961), p. 1807.
Latin lyrics sung by The Schola of The Vienna Hofburgkapelle.
Wherefore, The Liturgy, the centre of which is The Sacrifice of Calvary continued on the Altar, has always used this pre-eminent means of exercising, in favour of The Departed, the great Law of Charity; for it is a precept of Charity to relieve our neighbour's wants, as if they were our own, in virtue of the supernatural bond, which unites in Jesus, those in Heaven, in Purgatory, and on the Earth.
The Liturgy of The Dead is, perhaps, the most beautiful and consoling of all. Every day, at the end of each Hour of The Divine Office, we recommend to The Divine Mercy the Souls of The Faithful Departed. In The Mass, at the Suscipe, the Priest offers the Sacrifice for the living and the dead and, in a special Memento, he implores The Lord to remember His servants, who have fallen asleep in Christ and to grant them to dwell in Consolation, Light and Peace.
Masses for The Dead are already recorded in the 5th-Century A.D. But, to Saint Odilo, the fourth Abbot of the famous Benedictine Monastery of Cluny, is due The Commemoration of All The Departed. He instituted it in 998 A.D., and prescribed that it should be Celebrated the day following All Saints' Day.
"Domine Jesu Christe".
The Offertory from The Mass for The Dead.
Gregorian Chant notation from The Liber Usualis (1961), pp. 1813-1814.
Through the influence of this illustrious French Congregation (Cluny Abbey), the custom was soon adopted by the whole Christian World and it even sometimes became a Day of Obligation. In Spain, Portugal and the formerly-Spanish parts of South America, Priests, in virtue of a Privilege granted by Pope Benedict XIV, Celebrated three Masses on 2 November.
A Decree of Pope Benedict XV, dated 10 August 1915, authorises the Priests of the whole World to do the same. [By this same institution, The Holy See granted a Plenary Indulgence toties quoties, on the same conditions as on 2 August, applicable to The Souls of The Departed on All Souls' Day, to all those who visited a Church between Noon, on All Saints' Day, and Midnight on the following day and Prayed for the Intention of The Sovereign Pontiff.]
"Dies Irae".
The Sequence from The Mass for The Dead.
Gregorian Chant notation from The Liber Usualis (1961), p. 1810.
The Church reminds us in an Epistle, taken from Saint Paul, that the dead will rise again, and tells us to hope, for, on that day, we shall all see one another in The Lord. The Sequence strikingly describes The Last Judgment, when the good will be for ever separated from the wicked.
The Offertory reminds us that it is Saint Michael who introduces Souls into Heaven, for, as the Prayers for the recommendation of the Soul say, it is he who is "the Chief of The Heavenly Host" in whose ranks men are called to fill the places of The Fallen Angels.
"Libera Me".
A Responsory from The Mass for The Dead.
Gregorian Chant notation from The Liber Usualis (1961), p. 1767.
Latin lyrics sung by The Schola of The Hofburgkapelle, Vienna.
"The Souls in Purgatory," declares The Council of Trent, "are helped by the suffrages of The Faithful, especially by The Sacrifice of The Altar." The reason is that, in Holy Mass, the Priest offers officially to God The ransom for Souls, that is, The Blood of The Saviour. And Jesus, Himself, under the elements of Bread and Wine, which recall to The Father the Sacrifice of Golgotha, Prays God to apply to these Souls its atoning virtue.
Let us, on this day, be present at The Holy Sacrifice of The Mass, when The Church implores God to grant to The Faithful Departed, who can now do nothing for themselves, the remission of all their sins (Collect) and Eternal Rest (Introit, Gradual, Communion), and let us visit the Cemeteries where their bodies repose [the word "Cemetery" comes from a Greek word meaning "a place where one rests in peace".] until the day when, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of The Last Trumpet, they will rise again to be clothed in immortality and to gain, through Jesus Christ, the Victory over Death (Epistle).
Mass:Réquiem aetérnam. Sequence:Dies irae. Preface: Of The Dead. Absolution:Libera me. Collect:Fidélium.
On this day, all Priests may Celebrate three Masses. If a Priest only says one Mass, The Proper of The Mass is that of The First Mass; the same if on of the Masses is sung (Missa Cantata), and the Priest may say the two others before or after The First Mass.
The following Text is taken from "The Liturgical Year", by Abbot Gueranger, O.S.B., for All Souls' Day, 2 November. "We will not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are asleep, that you be not sorrowful, even as others who have no hope." [Saint Paul, I Thess. iv. 13.] The Church today has the same desire as The Apostle thus expressed to the first Christians.
The truth concerning the dead not only proves admirably the union between God's Justice and His Goodness; it also inspires a Charitable pity, which the hardest heart cannot resist, and, at the same time, offers to the mourners the sweetest consolation.
"Absolve, Domine".
The Tract from The Mass for The Dead.
Gregorian Chant notation from The Liber Usualis (1961), p. 1809.
If Faith teaches us the existence of a Purgatory, where our loved ones may be detained by unexpiated sin, it is also of Faith that we are able to assist them; and Theology assures us that their, more or less, speedy deliverance lies in our power.
Let us call to mind a few principles which throw light on this Doctrine. Every sin causes a twofold injury to the sinner: It stains his Soul, and renders him liable to punishment. Venial sin, which displeases God, requires a Temporal expiation. Mortal sin deforms the Soul, and makes the guilty man an abomination to God: Its punishment cannot be anything less than eternal banishment, unless the sinner, in this life, prevents the final and irrevocable sentence.
But, even then, the remission of the guilt, though it revokes the sentence of damnation, does not cancel the whole debt. Although an extraordinary overflow of Grace upon the prodigal may, sometimes, as is always the case with regard to Baptism and Martyrdom, bury every remnant and vestige of sin in the abyss of Divine Oblivion; yet, it is the ordinary rule that, for every fault, satisfaction must be made to God's Justice, either in this World or in the next.
