FIFTH DAY
REFLECTION
THE RESEMBLANCE THAT THE FIRE OF PURGATORY HAS TO THE FIRE OF HELL
The Angelic Doctor affirms that the
fire which torments the damned is like the fire which purges the elect. Hence
it is that the Church, in the offertory of every Mass celebrated for the dead,
prays to the King of Glory, to the Lord Jesus, thus: Liberate the souls of all the faithful departed from the pains of hell. That the heat of hell-fire is insupportable, every one
knows. Even the rich glutton, as it is in the Gospel, protested that he could
not endure it, and called with great importunity to Abraham to send him by
Lazarus at least a drop of water to cool his thirst. But if the fire of
purgatory be like it, not indeed in duration, yet still in intensity, what pain
will not these blessed souls experience, condemned as they are to this fire by
Divine justice? If the mere apprehension of the pain once felt from our fire
could, as Benedict XIII relates, make a Catholic priest of the city of
Maastricht sweat blood; what agony will not those holy souls suffer, when tied
and bound with the most tormenting chains of a living fire like to that of
hell? And we, while able to make them free and happy — shall we stand as if we
were, so to say, uninterested spectators?
Act of Virtue for one Day
Recite, when the clock strikes, the
prayer " Requiescant in pace: May they rest in peace.
Act of Virtue for the whole Month
Endeavour to console with actions, or
at least with words, the afflicted souls.
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.
Eternal rest grant to them, O Lord;
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
V. Absolve, O Lord, the souls
of the faithful departed
from every
bond of sin.
R. And by the help of Thy grace may they be
enabled to escape the avenging judgment, and to
enjoy the happiness of eternal life.
Lord, have
mercy. Be mindful, O Lord, of Thy servants
and handmaids, N. and N., who are gone before us with the sign of faith and repose
in the sleep of grace. To these, O Lord, and to all who rest in Christ, grant,
we beseech Thee, a place of refreshment, light and peace, through the same
Christ Our Lord.
Amen.
The tomb of Benedict XIII
Example
Benedict XIII, in
order to show how much assistance the prayer " Requiescant in pace'' is to
the souls in purgatory, recounts a wonderful instance which is related in the
chronicles of Chartreuse: An English gentleman having lately passed to a better
life, his son went to visit the fathers of Chartreuse, to recommend to their
prayers the soul of the deceased, giving them a large quantity of gold, as
alms. The monks having been all assembled by the prior, and the soul of the good
knight having been recommended to their suffrages, they sang altogether Requiescat in pace," and returned in silence to their cells. The pious
alms-giver remained astonished, and thinking the suffrage he had ordered was
too little, he said to the prior, “My father, is this very short prayer of the
friars all that my father's soul is to have? are you not going to add anything
more?" Then the prior having called the monks back, ordered every one to
write upon a small piece of paper his Requiescat in pace, and then put them in
a pair of scales, and had the mass of gold placed in one scale, and in the
other the little pieces of paper; and lo and behold, most wonderful to relate,
the gold, though very heavy, as if a feather or a mote, mounted up on high, while
the pieces of paper sunk low down with the holy weight of their words! This
prodigy, as it drew tears from the eyes and sighs from the heart of the alms-giver,
so it moves us with frequency and devotion to send to the souls in torment this
joyous message: Requiescat in pace.'' (Bened. XIII. Trig. i. Serm. 23.)
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