Purgatory - A New Problem

One thing I did learn in reading about Devotion to the Holy Souls is that there is a certain type of Tradition in the Church which I never heard about before, at least here in Ireland. This is a kind of, You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours', kind of thing. In other words the Holy Souls are very ,very grateful for anything we ever do for them. They don't forget and do pay back ten times over. They cannot pray for themselves, it is not permitted but they can pray for us and since they can do little else but pray their prayers are amazingly powerful. They know perfectly well hear us praying for them and show gratitude big time. For instance their used to be a tradition for business people to set aside a part of their income to have masses said for the Holy Souls to have their prayers.

While of course we should not be praying for the Holy Souls for purely selfish reasons, still it fits so well into the Communion of Saints I think it is wonderful. We are helping them, they are helping us.

How wonderful.

Of course this seems to be the centre of the Novena of the Holy Cloak. I just think this is marvelous. Helping each other out like this. We help them, they are helping us. Friends for Eternity. I believe when we idea some of the first folks we will meet on the the other side is a big crowd of these Holy Souls we have assisted.

We might forget to show thanks down here; they never ever do.

 

I can't kneel as well, also there isn't any place to kneel anymore as they've since taken down the altar rail. I've asked my priest about my concern about not being able to kneel, and he said not to worry, that the Lord knows that in my heart it is my sincere desire to kneel, but at my age it's almost impossible without help. I pray he is right.

 

There is an interesting story about something like this from the life of St Margaret Mary Aloqcue (the French nun who met the Sacred Heart). One of St Margaret Mary's confessors was a Jesuit priest, St Claude Colombiere. Well St Claude was a saint, canonized by the Church ,so enough said about how Holy he was. But St Margaret Mary comments that St Claude did not go to heaven right away. He was delayed just a brief while because of some imperfection and St Margaret Mary's prayers helped lift him on through.

But it is sobering to consider that a saint like this spent time in purgatory. If so what about the rest of us.

I think it is better to assume that we are all of us going to spend a time in Purgatory. It may be a very light purgatory, just maybe just spending a little time in front of the Blessed Sacrament but we will very probably have to pay some dues.

We will be glad then of the help of the Holy Souls whom we have helped ourselves.

 

Padraig, Stewart is now on my list. Also I think Purgatory is a great mercy from God. Only the perfect may enter heaven and sadly there are few of us who die in a state of perfection. To me it is another mark of the great mercy of Christ. Why a Catholic should be offended by this is more than I can understand. Poor catechesis and a de-emphasis on the four last things--and as someone mentioned above, a protestantization of death. What agony for souls who are waiting for prayers and their family has "canonized" them and moved on.

 

Well said Padraig. There is this frightening misconception going about these days personified in Saul Alinsky's dedication in his Rules for Radicals: "for Satan the first rebel"---They are in for a terrible shock. A terrible shock.

 

Padraig, yes, there is a tradition of St. Jospeh for the Holy Souls. It's in a book I have by Susan Tassone with prayers for the souls in Purgatory. Also, I think Nicky Eltz is a man. Pretty sure. When I said "her" I was referring to Maria Simma. So sorry about that mix up. I have never seen any holy souls but I have dreamed often of relatives or others and it does seem those dreams are pleas for prayer so I pray. A few days ago my husband who is not Catholic (was, sadly, but joined the Lutherans) mentioned a college friend he hadn't thought of in years. He said, "funny I just had a nudge to look him up on line. he died last week." I felt in my soul this was an immediate grace for this man to be prayed for so I've put him on my list. How merciful God is.

 

Whenever I hear about Purgatory, I am moved to pray for them. I always feel bad for them but often they are not in my thoughts. I need to train myself to pray for them throughout the day. I have them in my prayer intention book but I often think I am not doing enough. So many are forgotten as so many people think we go straight to Heaven so they don't even consider praying for them.

 

Yes, Maria Simma mentions all these little, 'Nudges', people get and especially mentions, 'Knocking', which is something I have never heard, thank God, I would die of shock.

She mentions dreams but recommends being careful of them. This, I suppose in the tradition of St John of the Cross. However I reckon if you dream of someone deceased and feel drawn at least to pray for them it can only be a source of good. Certainly it can do no harm. The harm comes if people try to directly contact, which is spiritualism and condemned.

 

Maria Simma tells a couple of funny stories of people who came to see her and wanted to get to see the Holy Souls for themselves I love this stuff. One of them was a lady who booked a bedroom right next to Maria. She got hear a Holy Soul say and , 'Our Father', in the presence of Maria as she kept her bedroom door open to listen in. She heard it as though, 'From a deep cave'. She appears to have been shell shocked the next day.

Maria would have liked to have sent the Holy Souls to those who doubted her testimony for them to see for themselves! Again I think this would have been a riot.

 

Speaking of odd nudges, during the Year of Mercy my husband and I went several times to pray for members of our families and friends who had died. The first time we went was for our respective mothers, and we then asked for masses to be said for each of them. About six weeks later, for some reason we both felt unsure about our first request for indulgences for our mothers, since we weren't quite sure if we did everything in a timely manner, and decided to go back and do it again for them. We did, and during mass that day, the priest mentioned that the mass was being offered for and mentioned the names of our two mothers. My husband and I were shocked, and took this as assurance that this time we did the indulgence right and that heaven was sending us a message that our mothers got the indulgences.

 

I came across this site over the weekend. Nice to know there are groups like this out there.

http://www.thepoweroftherosary.com/the-releasers.html

 

The 15 Promises of Our Lady for those who say the rosary I always find reassuring when I have worries about loved ones:

 

St Joe is like a Spiritual Shadow of Mary, where she goes he follows. I suspect his footsteps are often heard in the prisons below.

 

I would say the place were I felt the Holy Souls closest all around me was Lough Derg.

 

We all think this way criticizing ourselves for what we don't remember to do. I need to preface this with my ignorance of Purgatory. Being an evangelical most of my life I have never spent any time studying it. That said I know it is pretty grandiose of me but I like to think of prayers for those who have passed on as possibly being the straw that broke the camels back so to speak. Maybe, just maybe the prayers that we say for them will help someone enough to allow them to pass to heaven or at least to progress toward it. It helps me to remember them this way. I also, want others to pray for me as well when it is my time.

 

What a blessed act of spiritual mercy. The Releasers! Thank you Andy3 for sharing this.

 

As long as we are talking about praying for the Holy Souls, here is a hidden treasure for everyone.
And it is ABSOLUTELY FREE!

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2017/03/reminder-rorate-caeli-purgatorial.html#more

This is an association of priests who will say free Masses for the deceased.
They currently have 78 priests saying Masses.
Send them as many names as you wish. Your entire family back ten generations!
It will cost you nothing at all.

As Padraig mentioned above, if you pray for the Holy Souls they will pray for you.
We are all going to need all of the prayers we can get in the coming years.
Please help those who have passed on. It will only take you minutes...

 

^^^I did this a few years ago and sent them names of every deceased family members I could think of.

 

Thank you Andy. Checked out the site snd signed up immediately. My devotion to praying for the Holy Souls can be 'sourced' from when i read the book on Maria Simma, Get us out of Here. At the back of the book are a number of prayers. One of them is the one which is at the heart of the Releasers apostolate. I learn the prayer ftom the Maria Simma book , abd now finally i found out which saint composed it.