NINETEENTH DAY
BY GIVING SUFFRAGES TO THE SOULS IN
PURGATORY, A THING IS DONE MOST AGREEABLE TO ALL THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN.
The saints in paradise, according to the measure
of the grace and glory they enjoy, are filled with love towards God and towards their neighbour. The centre of their thoughts, their desires, their joys,
is the glory of the Most High. Hence it comes that they rejoice exceedingly in
seeing those seats in paradise filled up, which were left empty by the angels
who rebelled against God; for they would wish, if it were possible, that the
great God should be glorified by an
infinite number of souls.
Hence they display so great a zeal in our behalf,
and for our eternal salvation, declaring themselves our special advocates. What
delight must they not take in seeing us engaged in freeing with our suffrages
those souls from purgatory who are their sisters, and whom they desire to see
united to their blessed company, so that they too may be united with themselves
to bless the Divine Benefactor of them both! We that have such need of the
protection of the Saints, why do we not try with our suffrages to increase
their number, that, having our intercessors multiplied, we may succeed in
obtaining of God all that we desire?
Ejaculation
The saints that gaze in ecstasy Upon your God
above, Upon these holy souls bestow A look of pitying love.
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.
St. Francis meditating on death - Caravaggio
St. Francis the Patriarch will be the protector of
this day, who, for the tender love which he cherished towards the souls in
purgatory, prescribed to his lay children, in the third chapter of his rule,
that every day, in addition to the Pater Nosters assigned to them, they should
pray for the dead. (Ex. ejus Iieg., cap. iii.)
Example
It is not, my intention to examine how, and
of what sort, the suffrages are, with which the blessed in heaven may succour
these souls; and there is no doubt of that which the saintly masters, Augustine and Thomas, teach, that is, that the saints in heaven are especially powerful
in obtaining their liberation by the efficacy of their prayers. The following
example, related by Cardinal Baronius, will be as useful as any: Dagobert the
First, king of France, after his first wars, gave himself much up to piety, to
promote the worship of God and His saints, and specially the glory of the
martyrs Denys and Maurice, to whose honour he erected two magnificent churches.
At last Dagobert the pious died, and was condemned by Divine justice to the
pains of purgatory. It was revealed to a great servant of God, who was praying
for the soul of the pious monarch after his death, that the aforesaid glorious
martyrs, who were invoked by him in his owning flames, came to his succour, and
freed him from that dark prison, and accompanied him with great joy to heaven. Let us
with alms, sacrifices, and prayers, make to ourselves protectors in heaven,
that when we die they may receive us into the tabernacles of paradise. (Baron.
Card. Ann. 647, No. 4.)
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