Please pray

The noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened as the result of the sin of those who had fallen. He also took up a collection, man by man, to the amount of two thousand drachmas of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin-offering. In doing this he acted very well and honourably, taking account of the resurrection. For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, so that they might be delivered from their sin. - 2 Maccabees 12: 42b-45

Of your charity, please pray for the bounties of the Lord's goodness to be extended to Stella: a strong woman for whom the cares of this life became too much, and who laid violent hands upon herself. May whatever she did as a result of human frailty and weakness be cast into oblivion, for God is a good God and a friend of man.

O God, unto Whom all live, and by whose power our bodies, when they die, are not destroyed, but are in due time transformed into a better estate: we humbly beseech Thee, of thy loving-kindness and mercy, to wash away and pardon whatsoever stain of sin contrary to thy holy will thy handmaid may have contracted, through the fraud of the devil and through her own frailty and iniquity; and that Thou wouldest grant that her soul be carried by the hands of thy holy Angels, and be placed in the bosom of thy Patriarchs, of Abraham thy friend, and of Isaac thine elect, and of Jacob thy beloved, where there is no more sorrow nor sadness nor sighing, where the souls of the faithful rejoice with a happy gladness: and that in the last day of the great judgment Thou wouldest cause her to receive among thy Saints and elect ones a portion in thine everlasting glory, where eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which Thou hast prepared for them that love Thee. Through Jesus Christ thine only Son our Lord, Who with Thee and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth, God, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.