SECOND DAY
REFLECTION
THE SOULS IN PURGATORY LOVE GOD... YET CANNOT SEE HIM.
The more one loves an object, the
more one desires to see it. The souls in purgatory love God ardently, and
therefore burn with an insatiable thirst to see Him." Love," says
the Angelic Doctor," is not satisfied with affection only, but of its own
nature tends to union ; and hence it is that friends are not satisfied with
wishing each other well, but endeavour and seek to see each other." Who
can set forth the pair that these souls suffer in finding themselves in
purgatory, deprived of the sight of their God that they love? If Absalom, the
son of David, protested, when in punishment for his sins, he was deprived of
the sight of his father, that he would rather have suffered death than such a
punishment; what must be the pain of these souls in purgatory, loosed from the
snares of the body, deprived of senses, not wheedled by objects of sense, led
by nature to seek their God, quick through grace and impelled to turn by love?
What must their agony be? What tears,
what groans, what sighs must they not send from their hearts while they belong
entirely to God, and yet are bereft of God? And shall we not take their pangs
to heart?
Act of Virtue for a single Day.
Put a particular guard upon the eyes.
Act of Virtue for all the Month.
Fix your eyes every day on the image
of the Crucified, and recommend to Him the souls in purgatory.
Ejaculation.
Ah, when shall those afflicted souls
Their exile end, and see Thy face, That face they love, and dwell, my God, Within
thy fatherly embrace?
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.
Let us pray
Deus, Venice largitor
O God, bountiful in forgiving, and
lovingly desirous of man's salvation, we beg Thy mercy for the brethren of our
congregation, its friends, and benefactors, who have passed away from this
life, that by the intercession of Blessed Mary ever Virgin, and that of all the
Saints, Thou mayest allow them to come to the full participation of everlasting
bliss. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord; and
let perpetual light shine upon them. The glorious Virgin Mary, Mother of God,
will be the Protectrix of this day, as being she who is the Queen of all
Saints, and who, according to St. Bridget, is called Consolatrix of the souls
in purgatory, and Mother of the same.
St. Malachy, the Bishop of Ireland,
will be the protector of this day. St. Bernard writes concerning him, that when
he was but a deacon, he was very forward to perform the obsequies of the dead,
and to bury them with his own hands. With his sacrifices he liberated from
purgatory the soul of his sister, who was condemned to it for having rebuked
him for these works of charity: he died upon the very day of All Souls. (St.
Bernard, in the life of St. Malachy.)
Example
On the second day of November, on
which the Church makes a solemn commemoration of the faithful departed, (of
which the institutor, or at all events most zealous promoter, is said to have
been St. Odilo, Abbot of Cluny, who lived in the tenth century,) many Saints
have been remarkable for praying for these souls. Blessed John of Alvernia, of
the order of the Minors, used to celebrate on this day the holy Mass for the
souls of the faithful departed with so much fervour, that it seemed as if he
wished to melt his whole self into tears. One occasion, while elevating the
most holy Body of the Lord, he offered it to the Eternal Father, praying Him,
with the utmost fervour, that He would deign, for the merits of His only-
begotten Son, to set the souls in purgatory free from such great pains, and
admit them to His glory; he saw a great multitude mount to Paradise, in the
form of a great number of sparks coming out of a furnace. Let us, then,
endeavour, in imitation of the Saints, to distinguish ourselves particularly
upon this day, by giving suffrages to these blessed souls. (Turlot de Purgat.)
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