MONTH OF HOLY SOULS IN PURGATORY - THIRTEENTH DAY

 

Thirteenth Day

We will now hear from the great St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. I am quoting from his treatise on care for the dead. Mark how beautifully he writes: “We read in the book of Machabees that there were sacrifices offered up for the dead, but even if there had been no mention made of the subject in the pages of the Old Testament, the authority of the Church would be sufficient as manifested in her practice, according to which the priest at the altar makes commemoration of the faithful departed.” By her funeral rites, offices and commemorations of the dead, as well as her ancient Ordos, the Catholic Church has at all times clearly and definitely testified to and declared her belief in the existence of purgatory. Further, she has solemnly declared it an article of faith in several Councils—as, for instance, in the General Council of Trent, which defines that there is a purgatory, and that the faithful can come to the assistance of the souls suffering therein by their prayers, and oblations of the most holy sacrifice of the Mass. And it even threatens with excommunication from the Church all those who maintain that every penitent sinner, having received justification, is forgiven as to his guilt and eternal punishment in such a way that there remains no temporal punishment to be expiated in purgatory.

Prayer

Release, O Lord, the souls of all the faithful departed from the bonds of their sins; and by the assistance of Thy grace may they escape the sentence of condemnation, and enjoy the bliss of eternal light. Amen.

MONTH OF THE HOLY SOULS IN PURGATORY - TWELFTH DAY

 

Poor Souls in Purgatory

Twelfth Day

Tradition excludes every doubt, even the least shadow of doubt, as to the existence of purgatory. We have testimony from a whole army of renowned writers of the Church: Sts. Augustine, Chrysostom, Epiphanius, Jerome, Cyril, Gregory, up to Tertullian, who lived in the second century. The tradition is contained not only in the writings of the Holy Fathers, but also in the practice of the Church reaching down to the apostolic age, according to which prayers and sacrifices were at all times offered up to God for the souls of the departed. Tertullian speaks of the sacrifices for the dead as of an apostolic tradition, and St. John Damascene says, in his sermon on the dead: “The apostles and disciples of our divine Saviour, who had seen the eternal Word with their own eyes, and had converted the multitudes of the living world, taught that in the awful, immaculate and life-giving mysteries of the Eucharist, remembrance should be made of those who died in the Lord.” In confirmation of it he alleges the testimony of St. John Chrysostom in these words: “That John, who on account of his eloquence was called the golden-mouthed, teaches that not inconsiderately or accidentally was it ordained by those wise disciples of God and transmitted to the Church, that the priest should offer prayers for the dead in the celebration of the awful divine mysteries.”

Prayer

Release, O Lord, the souls of all the faithful departed from the bonds of their sins; and by the assistance of Thy grace may they escape the sentence of condemnation, and enjoy the bliss of eternal light. Amen.

MONTH OF SOULS IN PURGATORY - ELEVENTH DAY

 

Month of Holy Souls in Purgatory

Eleventh Day

With regard to the doctrine of purgatory, the apostles taught as their divine Master did. St. Paul says: “For other foundation no man can lay but that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be manifest; for the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. 

If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work burns, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved, but so as by fire.” He who appears before the Judgment Seat of God with works still stained and imperfect will reach indeed his happy end, but not before those stains and imperfections have been cleared away by a process which is like unto the crucible of fire. The fire which the Apostle speaks of cannot be the fire of tribulation, or the sufferings of this life; for he speaks of a fire which burns on the Judgment Day; that is, after this life. Again, it cannot mean the mere ordeal of the Judgment, because here the soul is not only tried, but also burns and suffers from the burning. Nor can it mean the fire of hell, because he who burns in the fire will come out of it and be saved, which cannot be said of those in hell. The Apostle could only have had the fire of purgatory in view—that fire which burns for the purification of souls not quite spotless, and which will continue until the Day of General Judgment.

Prayer

Release, O Lord, the souls of all the faithful departed from the bonds of their sins; and by the assistance of Thy grace may they escape the sentence of condemnation, and enjoy the bliss of eternal light. Amen.

 

MONTH OF THE HOLY SOULS IN PURGATORY - TENTH DAY

 

Tenth Day

In the fulness of time the divine Saviour Jesus Christ appeared on earth. While disowning in His teaching all the false theories and erroneous traditions of Scribes and Pharisees, while condemning with the greatest precision their errors on the subject of death and resurrection, He never uttered one syllable against the general belief in purgatory, or against the public practice of praying for the dead. On the contrary, He left it just as it existed under the Old Law. Could the Son of God, Who had come down to make known the will of His Father, have acted thus if this were not a holy, just, and pious custom? 

The Redeemer did not find it necessary to give lengthy proofs of the existence of this place of punishment. It was enough to simply remind the people of it. For, in truth, He addressed a people who had never entertained the smallest doubt on the subject. In one of His sermons He unmistakably alludes to purgatory, where He speaks of a prison from which no one can be delivered except on the payment of the full debt. 

What other prison but purgatory can here be meant? Heaven cannot be meant, and out of hell there is no redemption. The Gospels have preserved another saying of the Son of God which presupposes the existence of purgatory: “And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come.” There are, then, sins which can be atoned for in the next world.

Prayer

Release, O Lord, the souls of all the faithful departed from the bonds of their sins; and by the assistance of Thy grace may they escape the sentence of condemnation, and enjoy the bliss of eternal light. Amen.

MONTH OF HOLY SOULS IN PURGATORY - NINTH DAY

 

Pope St. Gregory the Great prays for Emperor Trajan to be released from purgatory for helping a grieving widow - Dante's Purgatory

Month of Poor Souls in Purgatory  

Ninth Day

The Holy Scriptures imply, in the narration of the actions of the great leader Judas, the existence of purgatory, or some such place of purification in the next world, where the souls of the departed can be assisted by our prayers and sacrifices, and be cleansed from their sins. Certainly it would have been impossible, in such a heavy time of war, to gather from the people such large sums of money, or to all at once introduce an innovation in religious practice of that kind, if this belief in purgatory had not been long and firmly implanted in their hearts. All the passages from the Old Testament clearly prove the truth of the Catholic doctrine, which teaches us that there exists a place for the purification of such souls as die in a state of grace but have not yet fully expiated all their sins, and that those souls can be delivered by the prayers and good works of the faithful. The son of Sirach bears witness to the same when he says: “A gift hath grace in the sight of all the living, and restrain not grace from the dead,” which means that we should pay our dead the last respects and offer up sacrifices for them. This passage supports the general belief of the Jews that we can assist the departed by good works. The Jews even now believe in the existence of some place of purification and are in the habit of praying for their dead. The Jewish belief in purgatory rested on a very firm foundation.

Prayer

Release, O Lord, the souls of all the faithful departed from the bonds of their sins; and by the assistance of Thy grace may they escape the sentence of condemnation, and enjoy the bliss of eternal light. Amen.

MONTH OF HOLY SOULS IN PURGATORY - EIGHTH DAY

Eighth Day

Instructed by holy and exalted prophets, the people of Israel, from the earliest times, made sacrifices and offerings for the dead, and thereby clearly showed their belief in purgatory. The records of all the past centuries referring to the subject clearly show that not the smallest doubt can be entertained on this point. When the star of the Jewish civilization began to fade, the heroic line of the Machabees gathered all their force once more together, in order to inaugurate a new epoch of power and glory. In the description of their noble and heroic actions we come across the unmistakable proof of their universal tradition and belief. Judas, the mighty hero, having lost a great number of soldiers in battle, did not confine himself to merely giving them an honorable burial. He commanded a collection to be made, and sent the sum to Jerusalem for a sacrifice to be offered for the fallen heroes. Holy Scripture concludes the narrative with the words: “It is therefore a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins”—that is from all temporal punishment due to those sins. This thought is justly called holy, because it springs from a holy source, that of faith and charity. It is called wholesome, in the first place to the poor souls themselves, because it comforts and encourages them in their sufferings, in the next place to those who pray for them, because they increase their own merits thereby, and gain new, faithful friends in heaven.

Prayer

Release, O Lord, the souls of all the faithful departed from the bonds of their sins; and by the assistance of Thy grace may they escape the sentence of condemnation, and enjoy the bliss of eternal light. Amen.

MONTH FOR THE HOLY SOULS IN PURGATORY

 

Month To the Poor Souls in Purgatory Seventh Day

The Bible, in its very first pages, shows us that a custom of praying for the dead existed among the people of the earliest centuries. This implies the existence of purgatory, because it stands to reason that we do not pray either for the saints in heaven or for the damned in hell. For, says St. Thomas Aquinas, those prayers would be useless and in vain, if there were no purgatory, because prayers cannot be offered up for those who have already arrived at their end, but only for those who have not yet reached their final destiny. When Jacob and Joseph were about to depart from this world they earnestly besought those who stood around their deathbeds, especially their own children, to convey their mortal remains to Palestine. For those pious patriarchs well knew that their descendants there would offer sacrifices of expiation, and they hoped these offerings would gain for them the longed-for peace and rest. On the announcement of the death of Saul, all the inhabitants of Jabesh imposed upon themselves a seven days' fast. The inspired poet-king takes part, not only in the sorrow, but also in the sacrifices. He himself sings in touching, elevated strain, the doctrine of purgatory, when describing the inexpressible joy and delight of those souls who have happily passed through the fire and water of tribulation, and have arrived at the ardently longed-for joy and refreshment of the Lord. The prophet Micheas says: “I shall arise, when I sit in darkness, the Lord is my light. I will bear the wrath of the Lord because I have sinned against Him, until He judge my cause and execute judgment for me: He will bring me forth into the light, I shall behold His justice.”

Prayer

Release, O Lord, the souls of all the faithful departed from the bonds of their sins; and by the assistance of Thy grace may they escape the sentence of condemnation, and enjoy the bliss of eternal light. Amen.

 

MONTH OF THE HOLY SOULS IN PURGATORY - SIXTH DAY

 

Month of the Poor Souls in Purgatory

Sixth Day

The Church is the mystical body of Jesus Christ, of which He is the Head, and all the faithful are the members. It is divided into three parts: the Church Militant on earth, consisting of the faithful who are still fighting for their faith and struggling for their salvation; the Church Triumphant, consisting of the saints in heaven; and finally, the Church Suffering, consisting of the souls in purgatory. All the dead, then, who die in the Lord, belong to the great mysterious body of Christ, either as members glorified already, or as still awaiting the glory to come. But all are united among themselves and form one great communion of saints. Therefore when we consider what faith teaches us concerning the Church Suffering, or purgatory, we cannot help exclaiming: “O faith! how beautiful thou art! How touching is the communion of saints!” We children of the Church Militant stretch forth one hand towards our brethren of the Church Triumphant for help and protection; and with the other extended we supplicate by our prayers, our alms, and patient sufferings, that the time of probation for our brethren of the Church Suffering may be shortened. We feel they entreat us to alleviate their torments, and their gratitude for our good services will incline them to help us in our infirmities and weakness. How often does this thought occupy our attention? It should engage us frequently. As we are now so once were the souls in purgatory; as they are now so we hope to be—for once in purgatory it means that heaven is within our reach.

Prayer

Release, O Lord, the souls of all the faithful departed from the bonds of their sins; and by the assistance of Thy grace may they escape the sentence of condemnation, and enjoy the bliss of eternal light. Amen.

 

MONTH OF HOLY SOULS IN PURGATORY - FIFTH DAY

 

Month of Poor Souls in Purgatory

Fifth Day

The doctrine of purgatory implies two truths. First, that after a mortal sin is forgiven in the Sacrament of Penance, and the eternal punishment due to it is remitted, there still remains some debt of temporal punishment to pay, either in this life—by deeds of penance—or in the next in purgatory. 

Second, even venial sins are a stain which prevents the soul from entering into heaven. These stains, therefore, must first be wiped off, if the soul is to enter the abode of all holiness. Now, purgatory is the place where the souls predestined to eternal glory are detained for a time, and this period is fixed by God's justice for the purpose of expiation and purification, until they are quite worthy of the everlasting bliss prepared for them. Until the end of the world, until the last Day of Judgment, there will be an intermediate place between heaven and hell. Heaven is the place where only the just and holy are admitted. 

Hell is the dungeon into whose depths are plunged the souls of the impious and unrepenting. But purgatory lies between the two, and is meant to receive for a time those souls of the just who will require some further purification. And I am hurrying to one or the other place. Which shall it be? Whichever it is it will be of my own making and choice. God is now giving me time and opportunities sufficient to gain the one and avoid the other. Let me reflect whither my course is leading me. Let me do it now—tomorrow may be too late. God has given me only one life in which to accomplish my salvation. According to the eternal decree, that life will end at the appointed time.

Prayer

Release, O Lord, the souls of all the faithful departed from the bonds of their sins; and by the assistance of Thy grace may they escape the sentence of condemnation, and enjoy the bliss of eternal light. Amen.

MONTH OF HOLY SOULS IN PURGATORY - FOURTH DAY

 

Fourth Day

You have, perhaps, stood at the grave, and seen the earth cover the remains of a dear one. It may have been the remains of the most beloved one you ever knew. Oh, how you stood in need of consolation! There were moments when you felt as if your heart must break. Yet when faith came to your aid, and you remembered that the separation was only for a time, that the moment of reunion would come, and you would again see the dear one, only purified, glorified, and free from all the blemishes life on earth entails, there was an awakening, a consolation, a strengthening, which no other thought could bring. With this new feeling came the resolve to help the one gone by such gifts as your love would dictate and your faith direct. 

What if that dear one was condemned to tarry in a place of purgation? What if you by your good works and prayers could assist, but instead spent your time in fruitless lament and regrets? Then it was that you felt all your old love quicken, and the eagerness which had led you to care for the loved one in life, received a new incentive. You recollected that the time in which he could help himself had passed, and he had to rely entirely on the good services of his friends—that the hand of God was to lay heavy upon him until the full measure of expiation had been paid. 

There is comfort in the reflection that we can still be of service to those we loved in life; we can be charitable to them, and improve ourselves by the practice of that charity. The true Christian mourns his friends, but he mourns over them, not with a vain hope, but with a prayerful appeal to the throne of mercy.

Prayer

Release, O Lord, the souls of all the faithful departed from the bonds of their sins; and by the assistance of Thy grace may they escape the sentence of condemnation, and enjoy the bliss of eternal light. Amen.