“Eternal Father, I offer Thee, the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus in union with the masses said throughout the world today for all the Holy Souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my home and within my family. Amen.”
Jesus told Saint Gertrude the Great that every time this prayer is said fervently, 1,000 souls are released in purgatory.
Poor and holy
Immediately after death, the soul is internally illuminated where it should go. It decides its “punitive reparation.”
“Not even the slightest shadow of sin or evil can enter heaven,” explained Fr. Adolf Faroni, SDB, in Mysteries of Purgatory.
Mother Church in Catechism of the Catholic Church underscored: “Those who die in God’s grace and friendship and imperfectly purified, although they are assured of their eternal salvation, undergo a purification after death so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of God” (CCC, 1054).
The gravity of offenses against God’s majestic goodness is compounded when sinners are unaware if the sins they committed are mortal or venial. Too, when sinners are not sincerely sorry for their sins and do superficial penance or none at all.
The Doctrine of Purgatory was approved in the Council of Trent and Florence in reference to scriptural texts, which refer to cleansing fire (CCC, 1031).
The soul’s yearning for God is their greatest suffering. But every soul suffers joyfully, aware of the beatific vision of God that awaits them in heaven.
The fires of purgatory are “equal in intensity to the fires of hell and contact with it is more dreadful than all sufferings of this earth,” according to Saint Thomas of Aquinas.
Saint Catherine of Genoa, a mystic who experienced the sufferings in purgatory on earth, said that the torment of suffering stemming from a “continually consuming interior fire kindled by separation from God for whom the soul is aflame with love,” is so intense that it “transforms each instant into a martyrdom of pain.”
Christ told Saint Faustina that in His mercy He does not want anyone to go to purgatory but His justice demands it.
Fr. Domie G. Guzman, SSP, adds that “God intends that the moral order He created be protected, thus, purgatory is a way to restore God’s Divine glory to full majesty.”
Souls in purgatory are called poor and holy. Poor, because they cannot see God and cannot pray for themselves; holy because they can no longer commit sin and are fully aware they are bound for heaven.
Saint Frances of Rome saw three levels of purgatory where souls undergo different sufferings related to the sins they committed. The highest level is populated by souls closest to being released.
Place of joyful suffering
Maria Simma, a mystic from Austria, also attest that there are indeed, three main levels, but within each level are more levels since every soul is very different in their needed purification.
Since 1954 until her death in 2004 she received visits from souls in purgatory to explain to her their sufferings and their need for prayers. The souls appeared to her exactly as they are “in the prime of their life” when on earth.
For 50 years, they complained about how their families and loved ones have “almost completely forgotten them.”
The souls who come every night begged her for prayers and she offered her spiritual and mystical experiences to shorten their stay in purgatory. Her encounters with souls in purgatory are narrated in the book Get Us Out of Here.
Maria Simma united her sufferings with Jesus and placed them in the hands of the Blessed Mother, who she said “knows best who needs our prayers and offerings of sufferings.”
A woman of self-denial, sacrifice and poverty, she experienced her limbs pulled violently, with stabs inflicted on her body or laid in blocks of ice for the atonement of souls in purgatory.
Souls in purgatory cannot pray for themselves but they can pray for people on earth who ask for their intercession.
“They can obtain for us the living astounding favors, deliver the living from evils, sickness and dangers of any kind, through the providence of God,” Saint Alphonsus Ligouri has said.
The church of the Sacred Heart of the Suffering is a popular place for pilgrims who pray for the holy souls and visit the Museum of Holy Souls in Rome.
Susan Tassone endorsed the Purgatory Movement to intercede for the suffering church, enjoined others to reflect on the reality of purgatory and the need of souls for prayers from the living.
Saint John Paul emphasizeed that praying for these holy souls is the “highest act of supernatural charity.”
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Damo-Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and of Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.
Image credits: John Stephen Dwyer/Wikimedia Commons
1 comment
I’m looking for the “A new Rosary to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary” taught by Jesus Christ, 18th February 1998 Extract from (Messages from Heaven – translated by Fr. Adolf Faroni – Our Lord and Our Lady speak to the world through Tina of the Blessed Sacrament)
Can you please help me with this,
Thank you.
Trish.