SIXTH DAY
AN HOUR OF PAIN SEEMS TO THESE SOULS THE PAIN OF MONTHS AND WEEKS
The more a man finds himself in an
unnatural state, the more he wishes to come out of it; and the more unnatural
that state is to him, the longer the delay of his progress appears to be. Now
the souls in purgatory are continually in an unnatural state, because away from
God, the centre to which they naturally tend; and this state being one which,
through the ardent love they bear to God their chief good, is quite unnatural
to them, hence it comes to pass that an hour of purgatory seems like many
months and years of most cruel pains. And in short, what would a thirsty person
not suffer if the drink he beheld with the utmost avidity were kept from him
for a single hour? or what would not a sick man, tormented by internal pain,
suffer if he knew that a medicine or balsam was at hand that would quickly
restore his health, and yet saw the hopes of this delayed by the remedy being
deferred? O how must this delay prove to souls enamored of God one of the most
cruel of torments! We have power to relieve them from such cruel torments, by
making the possession of their chief good come more quickly to them by means of
our suffrages; and do we delay still the performance of them?
Ejaculation
The lingering hours slowly pass,
Replete with pain and woe! Ye cleansing fires, answer me, When will ye cease to
glow?
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.
A PRAYER FOR THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED
God, the Creator and Redeemer of all
the faithful; give to the souls of thy servants departed, full remission of all
their offenses,
that through the help of pious supplications, they may obtain the pardon which
they have always been desirous of, who livest and reignest, world without end.
Amen.
V. Give
them eternal rest, O Lord.
R. And
let perpetual light shine unto them.
V. May
they rest in peace.
R. Amen.
St Bernard, the Abbot will be the protector
of this day, who, from the most yearning feelings which he had for the souls in
Purgatory, encouraged himself in one of his sermons to succour them in these
tender expressions: I will rise to help them, I will conjure the Lord
with groans, will supplicate Him with sighs, will make myself intercessor with
prayers, will offer sacrifice in particular for their satisfaction, hoping the
Lord will look favourably upon them, and turn their sorrows into rest, their
misery into glory, their torments into reward.
(Serm. de quinquagint. et quinq reg.)
St. Austin is of opinion that the
pains suffered by a soul in purgatory only during the time required to open and
shut one's eye, is more severe than what St. Lawrence suffered on the gridiron:
and so he sharply rebuked a man who said he did not fear the transitory pains
of purgatory, if he should escape the eternal pains of hell. It is related of a
religious of St. Dominic, that, finding himself at the point of death, he
earnestly begged a friend who was a priest, to be pleased, as soon as he was
dead, to offer the sacrifice of the Mass for a suffrage for his soul. He had
scarce expired, when the priest went to the church and celebrated with devotion
for the soul of his deceased friend. When the sacrifice was done, he had hardly
taken off the sacred vestments, when the deceased religious presented himself
to him, and rebuked him severely for his hardness of heart in leaving him in
the most cruel fire of purgatory for the long space of thirty years. “How,
thirty years!" answered the good priest, all astonishment: " why, it
is not yet an hour since you left this life, so that your corpse is, so to say,
still warm." To this the dead man replied: Learn hence, my friend,
(and let us learn it too, for our own spiritual advantage and that of others,)
how tormenting is the fire of purgatory, when barely an hour seems to be thirty
years, and learn to have pity too upon us.'' (Da Fusign., torn, iv.)
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