Friday, November 6, 2015

MONTH OF POOR SOULS OF PURGATORY - SIXTH DAY



            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?

 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.

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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