+J.M.J.+ On this last day of November, please pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory✝️🙏🏼NOVEMBER - DEVOTION TO THE HOLY SOULS From Fr. Schouppe's book entitled Purgatory: "There is in Purgatory, as in Hell, a double pain - the pain of loss and the pain of sense. The pain of loss consists in being deprived from a time of the sight of God... It is a moral thirst which torments our soul. The pain of sense, of sensible suffering, is the same as that which we experience in our flesh." (p.32) "Speaking in general, the Doctors [of the Church] agree in saying that the pains are most excruciating. The same fire, says St. Gregory, torments the damned and purifies the elect. 'Almost all theologians', says St. Robert Bellarmine, 'teach that the reprobate and the souls in Purgatory suffer the action of the same fire.' It must be held as certain, writes the same Bellarmine, that there is no proportion between the sufferings of this life and those of Purgatory. St. Augustine declares precisely the same... They will be saved no doubt, after the trial of fire, but that trial will be terrible, that torment will be more intolerable than all the most excruciating sufferings in this world. Behold what St. Augustine says, and what St. Gregory, Venerable Bede, St. Anselm, and Bernard have said after him. St. Thomas Aquinas goes even further; he maintains that the least pain of Purgatory surpasses all the sufferings of this life, whatsoever they may be." (p.33-4) Let us, therefore, offer fervent prayers for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. The month of November is dedicated to the Holy Souls in Purgatory and is a privileged time to pray for them. The Church commemorates all her faithful children who have departed from this life but have not yet attained the joys of Heaven. St. Paul warns us that we must not be ignorant concerning the dead, nor sorrowful, "even as others who have no hope…the Lord Himself shall come down from heaven…and the Dead who are in Christ shall rise." The Church has always taught us to pray for those who have gone into eternity. Even in the Old Testament prayers and alms were offered for the souls of the dead by those who thought "well and religiously concerning the resurrection." It was believed that "they who had fallen asleep with godliness had great grace laid up for them" and that "it is, therefore, a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins." We know that a defiled soul cannot enter into heaven. God, Lord of mercies, grant to the souls of your servants and handmaids, the place of refreshment, the bliss of eternal rest, and the splendor of your light. Amen |
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