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Question

Dear Father Angelo,

I would like to ask you if there is a particular prayer, novena or any other practice of piety in the doctrine of the Church or in private revelations approved by the Church that guarantees Heaven for someone. I am aware of Jesus’ promise to Saint Faustina: when the chaplet of the Divine Mercy is recited next to a dying person, Jesus does not present himself as a just judge, but as a savior. However, as far as I understand, this is only valid for a person who is about to die.

I would like to know if there is a particular practice of piety to guarantee Heaven even to a young man who is healthy, but who is perhaps completely far away from God and faith.

I thank you for this and for all the other answers, so precious in this historical moment in which the “dictatorship of relativism” seems to have taken over, even if we have the Magisterium and the sacred scriptures, infallible sources of truth, which are unfortunately questioned even by some practicing Christians and priests.

So I would like to thank you, and I thank Our Lady and our Lord Jesus Christ, who even in private revelations (although it is not mandatory to believe them), bring us back to the infallibility of the Magisterium and Sacred Scripture, and invite us to put those teachings into practice as a lamp for our steps. Praised be Jesus Christ.

Andrea

Answer from the priest

Dear Andrea,

1. There is nothing in Sacred Scripture, nor in private revelations that I know of, that suggests a particular practice to secure the eternal salvation for a given person. 

2. In private revelations, there are promises to the subject who performs certain practices. Among these, for example, there is practice for the first nine Fridays of the month: “He will not die in my misfortune” or even to the recitation of the Holy Rosary: “Whoever recites the Holy Rosary devoutly, with the meditation of the Mysteries, will be converted if he is a sinner and, if just, will grow in grace and be made worthy of eternal life” and “the devotees of my Rosary at the hour of death will not die without the Sacraments”.

3. The reason is clear: there is nothing so personal as conversion and the will to return to God to live in communion with Him.

4. Our prayers can help others on the journey of conversion. For this reason, in Sacred Scripture, we read: “The fervent prayer of the righteous person is very powerful” (James 5:16), but our prayers cannot replace the prayers that others don’t say.

5. Beyond the practices of piety, which are always useful for everything, we have the Holy Mass.

St. John Vianney said: “When Our Lord is on the altar during Holy Mass, as soon as we pray to him for sinners, He throws rays of light towards them to discover their miseries and convert them” (See C. Journet, La Messe, p. 177; F. Trochu, The Curé of Ars, p. 637).

6. During the Holy Communion we have Jesus who comes into our hearts with hands full of graces of all kinds as Our Lord said to Saint Faustina Kowalska: “Be aware, My daughter, that when I come to a human heart in the Holy Eucharist, I have my hands full of graces of all kinds and I wish to give them to the soul”(19.11.1937).

Among those “graces of all kinds” there is also that of the salvation of someone for whom we repeatedly pray.

7. Commenting on the words of Jesus, St. Thomas said: “and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (John 6:51) recalls that the Eucharist is the only sacrament that is not only beneficial to those who participate directly, but to everyone.

Here are his precise words:

“We should note that this sacrament is different from the others, for the other sacraments have individual effects: as in baptism, only the one baptized receives grace. But in the immolation of this sacrament, the effect is universal: because it affects not only the priest, but also those for whom he prays, as well as the entire Church, of the living and of the dead. The reason for this is that it contains the universal cause of all the sacraments, Christ.

And he adds that, although Holy Communion does not produce ex opere operato universal effects, because it is not sacrifice but only communion, (…) due to the intention of the person who is acting and receiving the sacrament, this can be communicated to all those to whom he directs his intention”. (Ib.).

8. The Holy Rosary prayed for the conversion and eternal salvation of a specific person, novenas, pilgrimages, alms and various practices have similar effects.

I greet you, I wish you well, I remind you to the Lord and I bless you.

Father Angelo