My wife and I started yesterday this monthly novena for souls in Purgatory. In case you wanted to pray as well, I will copy them into here. Its a bit confusing. The format is: -Everyday you begin with opening prayer on page 4. -Read the daily reading - recite one decade if Rosary, litany of deceased (p 52), Creed, Salve Regina (p 54), prayers for souls in Purgatory, De Prondis (p1)
I've written on this before. I went to 3 [NovOrd] masses in the last 2 days. Purgatory was mentioned in one only (and indulgences inaccurately) ONE said prayers for the dead after mass. It seems that nowadays, all the deceased are in heaven. I scoured the 'net' for church bulletins - no mention of 'indulgences' One of several mentioned a visit to the cemetery. This fellow tells us that on All Souls Day (alone) we can benefit souls in the 'deepest pit' In the post-Vatican Church the words "Purgatory" and (more-so!) "Indulgences", seem to be 'politically incorrect'. I've posted on this before: https://motheofgod.com/threads/purgatory-indulgences.18798/#post-396276 Surely delivering souls from Purgatory greatly outranks 'feeding the hungry' or even attending a pro-life rally. Instead we write names of relatives on cards and hang them from a November-tree or contribute stipends in 'expensive' (we were told!) church envelopes on which we write names of departed relatives. No masses in this Diocese today (Monday) so I attended a Latin mass 150km away where it was still allowed - the words of the liturgy brought tears to my eyes, acknowledging the need to pray for the dead. The neglect distresses me! I fail to understand the neglect. It seems mor important to find some flaw in Pope Leo or immigration laws.
On All Souls' Day, Painting by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (1793–1865), Painted in 1839, Oil on canvas © Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin
I remember the first time I ever met a soul from the other side , it was my brother Colm (26) and it was just a day after he died. I was walking around a local park in the morning when he suddenly came. Colm I should explain was a complete atheist he never took anything to do with the Church at all really. But he appeared smiling and said to me , 'You were right and I was wrong! But I know far more about these things that you do now!' So I was silly and innocent enough to tell my family what I had just seen and of course my brothers ridiculed me , I was attention seeking ,crazy, etc. This upset me and I went at once to the religious house in the country to see my Spiritual Director Father Bernard and told him about it. To my great surprise he did not bat an eyelid. He told me it was very common for Catholics to see the recently deceased in the immediate period after a death and most priests knew this. This was so reassuring as I thought I might be going nuts. But you know I suspect lay people rend to be more open to these things than priests. I think people with a little religious education fear being ridiculed and anyway modern Catholic teaching is very Protestant in tine and greatly, greatly down plays the mystical the supernatural. Purgatory, so to speak, is simply not a thing. But for myself in November, the Month of the Dead, the doorway from here to purgatory seems to spring wise open and I feel surrounded by the Holy Souls hands out imploring our prayers. They also that at Christmas Our Blessed Lady descends from heaven and on that day the greatest number of souls are released. http://catholicsaints.mobi/ebooks/may/may18.htm But these poor souls have one Advocate that never fails them, Mary, who, having loved her servants who were in the world, loves them to the end, after the example of her Divine Son. Not content with assisting at their last struggle, and frustrating the hopes of the enemy in this decisive battle, she, moreover, with the Angels, presents their souls at the tribunal of divine justice, dispelling their fears by her sweet presence, and it is she who succours and relieves them in Purgatory. "The more pitiable the condition of these souls, who are incapable of assisting themselves, the more zealous is Mary in love and solicitude towards them." Saint Bernardine of Sienna assures us that the Queen of Heaven exercises a certain sway over that prison in which divine justice purifies the spouses of Jesus Christ. He applies these words of Ecclesiasticus to the Blessed Virgin - "I have walked on the waves of the sea," comparing the pains of Purgatory to waves generally, because they are transient, and likening them to the "waves of the sea ," as they have its bitterness. Now Mary" descends into these gloomy depths, and walks on these most bitter waves to console her children and alleviate their sufferings. "See how it imports us to serve this great lady faithfully," says Novarinus, "seeing that she forgets not her clients when they are in flames; and though all the souls in Purgatory experience the aid of Mary, yet she assists in a special manner those among them who had been more devout to her during life." Our Lady said to Saint Bridget - "I am the Mother of all the souls in Purgatory, inasmuch as not an hour passes but their sufferings are mitigated through my intercession. The sole name of Mary, when it echoes through this abode of pain, becomes a relief similar to that given to a sick person by the soothing words of consolation." The prayers of the Blessed Virgin for the suffering souls are as a dew descending on these flames and tempering their intolerable ardour. To relieve her clients is but little; Mary even breaks their chains. We learn from a pious tradition, and Gerson has left it in writing, that, on the day of her glorious Assumption, "Purgatory was left empty." Novarinus confirms it. "Grave authors relate," he says, "that the Blessed Virgin, at her death, solicited and obtained of her Son the favour of leading in her train all the souls detained in that place of expiation." From that time "she has enjoyed the privilege of liberating her faithful servants from the pains of Purgatory," and through her merits "the sufferings of these souls are not alone alleviated, but are even abridged." Saint Peter Damian tells us that a certain Marosia appearing after death to a person of her acquaintance, told her that, on the Feast of the Assumption, she had been released from Purgatory with such a number of other souls as exceeded the population of Rome. Saint Denis the Carthusian affirms that "Mary also descends into Purgatory on the solemn Feasts of the Nativity and Resurrection of Christ, attended by legions of Angels, and delivers a vast number of souls;" a deed of charity which happens on all her own Festivals, according to Novarinus. Why not hope for the same favours and graces for ourselves, if we cherish a true devotion towards this Holy Mother? Who knows but she will do yet more for us, if she will not obtain that our souls may be so completely purified on earth that we may be permitted to enjoy the beatific vision without passing through Purgatory? This is what she did for Blessed Godfrey. "Go," said Mary to Brother Abondas, "and tell Brother Godfrey to advance in virtue; he shall then belong to my Son and me, and when his soul shall be separated from his body I will not suffer it to fall into Purgatory, but will receive it and myself present it to my Son." Mary the Queen of Purgatory O turn to Jesus, Mother! Turn, and call Him by His tenderest names; pray for the Holy Souls that burn This hour amid the cleansing flames.
I started the monthly novena for the souls in Purgatory yesterday. One thing which came to mind was the passage in Scripture where Jesus tells us that before approaching the altar, if we have anything against a brother or sister, we should leave our gift and go and sort it out with them - for if we go before the Judge we may be put in prison and will not get out until we have paid every last penny of our debt (heavily paraphrasing here). It seems to me that Jesus was talking about Purgatory here.
This sermon is very worth listening to! Skipping Purgatory... (15min) Fathers of Mercy, Auburn Kentucky
A clear and detailed teaching on Purgatory! I'll have to keep this as a wonderful outline for a homily.
What a wonderful month this is. A great selfish thought comes to me praying to the Holy Souls. In helping them we help ourselves. It is all money in the back. They cannot pray for themselves but they can certainly pray for us. We can not only pray for them, we can pray to them. They are saints that stand in the hallway to heaven. Saints in waiting. I would say the great sign that we ourselves will avoid purgatory and go straight to heaven is to have a Devotion to the Holy Souls. What goes around comes around.
I am so grateful that a group of people in my parish are staying after 9 am Mass to read and recite prayers from the booklet. As I read more, I am wondering more if my experience was actually a glimpse of purgatory? In any case, having this month to pray for these poor souls and to focus on my own short comings is a blessing from God. Today, we go to the Funeral Mass and burial of our dear friend Kathleen. I trust she is in Heaven as she received the apostolic pardon before her death. But I still pray for her. She is being buried in same cemetery as my parents and many of my family. So, another blessing to visit a cemetery within octave of All Souls. remembering and praying for all your dear loved ones https://www.catholic365.com/article/56325/double-plenary-indulgence-until-january-6-2026.html
Our friends pray card had this little pray: PRAYER FOR A GRACIOUS LADY Dear Lord, a lovely lady left her earthly home tonight; gaily taking the upper path that leads to You and light. She will be a little lonely, and a little weary too, and she may not know just how to turn when heaven comes into view. So it would be a very kindly thing to send the Little Flower to meet her on the pathway and lead her to her bower. And may she have a garden, it matters not how small, with larkspur for the summer and asters for the fall. And would your Mother Mary drop in some day for tea, and chat in woman fashion, cach had a son You see. And may it be Your gracious Will, when she lies down to rest, to send her dreams of her homefolks, of those she loved the best. If you could do these things, dear Lord, it would ease us in our plight, for she was a gracious lady, who went Home to You this night.
Ah, the anticipated joy surrounding my hoped-for meeting with the Little Flower is precious. I'm sure my deceased Grandpa Dan (whom I've never met) will be there along with my parents, John and Christine.
I will be doing day nine of the month long novena today. Not that I have ever experienced any interaction with the Holy Souls in Purgatory. I am praying for them out of blind Faith. I had not previously understood or appreciated what was involved in Purgatory. In my ignorance I had a kind of 'no-big-deal' attitude to it. But if the purifying fire and the multiple other pains of Purgatory are as bad as Fr. Berlioux says then it is a fearful vista to contemplate. Peehaps there are multiple levels to Purgatory? I don't know, but I know that Our Lady told Lucia that her cousin would be in Purgatory until the end of time. I pray that our prayers can release many souls from Purgatory. I have to say that my new appreciation of the pains of Purgatory has added to my anxiety about dying. I pray that my sufferings (and prayers) here on earth will not be more than I can bear and that they will be of use for myself and others in the avoidance or mitigation of the pains of Purgatory. Lord, be their Conciliator and remit their sins! Lord Jesus, be our Conciliator and save us!
Maybe you might consider the Divine Comedy by Dante. The three books include Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. You could start with Purgatorio. The allegorical nature of it speaks to greater truths. Purgatorio has 7 levels, each level pertaining to each of the 7 deadly sins. I would love to see a conventional cinematic trilogy of the Divine Comedy. I think it would be up there with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Personally I do not see purgatory as punishment in the sense that God allocates a person a certain punishment for their crimes. But rather there is an entirely natural cleansing that has to take place before one goes into heaven. This cleansing sounds to be painful and long lasting, depending on the hardness of one's heart and the depth of one's sins. Like how rushing water eventually erodes the rocks beneath them, but the process can be a very very long time. But when we confess and repent here, the stones get washed away, which makes it a lot easier on this side of the grave stone. Obviously it is God who forgives our transgressions here, but on the other side that option apparently is no longer available. I don't know that it is God that condemns people either, but rather that people condemn themselves by their own actions. It is wonderful that you pray for the suffering souls. I am positive they are grateful.
One thing I love to do this month is to pay attention to thoughts of people I knew in the past ,especially people who I owe a debt of love to and to pray for them. Maybe they are in Purgatory ; maybe they are not but I pray for them anyway. One that sprung to mind recently was a hermit monk I knew called Brother Vader who died very yuong in his forties decades ago. He looked a bit like a Vulcan in Star Trek very thin and and dark and saturnine. Also very saintly indeed. He lived in an old deserted stone house on the Antrim Coast in a place called the hidden village. It was a long desrted little group of houses and he must have lived a penitential life there. I hope he was never in purgatory but I will keep praying for him anyway. If I had to guess I would say we might be surprised who might have gone to purgatory and who might not but it is kinder to pray from them anyway, not to make assumptions.
https://www.catholic365.com/article/17757/c-s-lewiss-argument-for-purgatory.html C. S. Lewis's Argument for Purgatory Our souls demand Purgatory, don’t they? Would it not break the heart if God said to us, "It is true, my son, that your breath smells and your rags drop with mud and slime, but we are charitable here and no one will upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into the joy."? Should we not reply, "With submission, sir, and if there is no objection, I’d rather be cleaned first." "It may hurt, you know."--"Even so, sir." I assume that the process of purification will normally involve suffering. Partly from tradition; partly because most real good that has been done me in this life has involved it.” (Letters to Malcolm, Letter XX)
We have a real debt to people who helped us in life. We owe this debt in Justice. We really need to pay it. Folks like to our parents if they have died. We really, really need to pay it through praying for their souls.
You said so well exactly what i have been thinking asI completed day 10 today. I have heard often in past not to "worry" or be frightened about purgatory. But after only 10 days of this novena , It has my attention as never before. I am happy to pray for these poor souls knowing once they do reach Heaven, they will return the favor. And, it gives me much more of an urgency to take advantage of the plenary indulgences of walking through the Holy Doors snd prayers.
