| Sirach 7:37
| A gift hath grace in the sight of all the living, and restrain not grace from the dead.
| Dead: detained in purgatory. (Worthington) --- And restrain not grace from the dead. Withhold not from them the benefit of alms, prayers, and sacrifices. Such was the doctrine and practice of the Church of God, even in the time of the Old Testament. And the same has always been continued from the days of the apostles in the Church of the New Testament. (Challoner) --- Meat was also placed on the tombs of the deceased, for the benefit of the poor, Tobias 4:18. (St. Augustine, Confessions 6:2.)
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