Pope St. Gregory the Great Saving the
Souls of Purgatory
by Sebastiano Ricci
NINTH DAY
THE SOULS IN PURGATORY SUFFER GREATLY FROM THE CONSIDERATION OF THE OFFENSES THEY HAVE GIVEN TO GOD, WHOM THEY LOVE SO
MUCH.
The greater the love we bear to any object, the greater the pain we
shall suffer at having offended him. The souls in purgatory, being loosed from
the snares of the body, cherish a most passionate love to God, their chief
good: hence they feel severely tortured by the pain of having offended him. The
Seraphine of Carmel, St. Theresa, had conceived so great a horror of offending
God, even slightly, that she used to say that, if venial sin was on one side,
and all the devils of hell on the other, she would rather have thrown herself
into , the arms of the devils than into those of sin. Let us bethink ourselves
in earnest, then, how to free the souls in purgatory from so cruel a torment,
and, at the same time, let us take care ourselves also not to fall into the
like misfortune.
Ejaculation
To Thee, a humble penitent I come, o'erwhelmed with grief. And for these
suffering souls, O Lord, I bow to beg relief.
De profundis
Out
of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice. Let thy ears be
attentive to the voice of my supplication. If thou, O Lord, wilt mark
iniquities: Lord, who shall stand it. For with thee there is merciful
forgiveness: and by reason of thy law, I have waited for thee, O Lord. My soul
hath relied on his word: My soul hath hoped in the Lord.
From
the morning watch even until night, let Israel hope in the Lord. Because with
the Lord there is mercy: and with him plentiful redemption. And he shall redeem
Israel from all his iniquities.
Prayer
O God, the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful, give to the souls
of Thy servants departed, the remission of their sins: that through the help of
pious supplications they may obtain the pardon they have always desired. Amen.
Saint Teresa of Ávila Interceding for Souls in Purgatory
St. Theresa, the Carmelite nun, shall be the protectrix of this day, of
whom we are told, that, owing to the great affection which she cherished for
the souls in purgatory, she introduced into her convents the custom of
inquiring of the religious, on the day of the commemoration of All Souls, what
suffrages they were inclined to make the year following for the souls in purgatory.
(Bened. torn. ii. Serm. 11.)
Example
There is nothing more detestable than sin; it is the only real evil to
be found on this earth, which is called the vale of tears, And really is so,
owing to sin. What must not Paschasius, a deacon of the Roman Church, have
suffered, what works of piety must he not have practiced, in order to avoid the
eternal pains of hell, deserved for his obstinacy in recognizing and honouring,
as legitimate pope, Laurentius, against Symmachus, who, having been elected to
the Pontificate by the unanimous consent of the Bishops, and recognized by holy
Church as legitimate Vicar of Christ, died quite in the odour of sanctity.
St.
Gregory the Great tells us, that so great was the purity of manners, and the
charity, especially towards the poor, of this great personage, Paschasius, that
even after his death he set one person free from a demon by which he was
possessed. With these works of piety he was able to cleanse his own spirit more
and more; but he could not entirely escape the pains of purgatory. He appeared
one day to St. German, Bishop of Capua, who, for the good of his complaints,
was bathing in the Angolan baths. To him he intimated what torments he suffered
in punishment for his sins, and be sought him to offer fervent prayers to God, that he might pass from the slavery of purgatory into the liberty of the
blessed. And so it came to pass: St. German made fervent prayers for him, and
offered the sacrifice of the Mass, and freed Paschasius's soul from purgatory.
Let us avoid sin, the pest destructive of our souls, in order that we may avoid
those punishments which we should have to pay in purgatory at all events, and
so pray with more fruit for the souls of the departed.
(De Greg. lib. iv. cap. 40.)
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