Holy Souls in Purgatory

“What you are, I was; what I am, you will be. Remember me, I pray for you. Have pity on the dust of Peter that lies here.” Personally written before his death, this is the epitaph on St. Peter Damian’s tomb (Lives of Saints, p. 77).

Everybody dies. Status, age, treasure, looks, accomplishments, passion to live, holiness, vileness, sickness, full health – and more, cannot prevent man from dying. In this regard, all men are equal. Death is a great equalizer.
Our Catholic faith teaches us that there is an ‘in-between’ place or state between heaven and hell. We call it Purgatory.

The word ‘Purgatory’ is not in scriptures. Neither is the word ‘trinity’ in it. Yet GOD given faith taught us there is a Purgatory, and we believe in the HOLY TRINITY FATHER, SON and HOLY SPIRIT.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church writes Purgatory as a process of “purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven, experienced by those who die in GOD’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified (#1030).”

These still-to-be purified are called the Holy Souls in Purgatory. By virtue of our baptism, they, we the living pilgrims on earth, and the blessed Saints in heaven make up the communion of saints. We share in the communion of graces and blessings through our LORD JESUS CHRIST. Fully dependent on our cooperation with the will of GOD, we can relieve the souls in Purgatory.

2 Maccabees 12:45 exhorts us still living that “it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins.”

Mother Mary promised those consecrated to Her brown scapular that she, “the Mother of races, shall descend on the Saturday after their deaths, and as many as” she finds “in Purgatory” she will free (Our Lady of Fatima).

St. John Chrysostom said “Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and offer our prayers for them.” The late Dominican lay brother Blessed John of Massias obtained chiefly by praying the Rosary, the liberation of one million four hundred thousand souls (Read Me or Rue It book*). Still many other Saints are devoted to the plight of the Holy Souls.

The Holy Souls are powerful intercessors. St. Alphonsus Liguori says that, although they cannot merit for themselves, they can obtain for us great graces.* Not merely for this favor, but for the love of GOD, and obedience to HIS call to love our neighbors, living and dead, let us offer acts of mercy for them.
“JESUS!,” “Sacred Heart of JESUS,” “JESUS, Mary, Joseph, we love YOU, save souls” are just some of the short and efficacious prayers for the Holy Souls.

Released from Purgatory are 1,000 souls as you all join us in praying: 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.

Let us not only pray for souls on All Souls Day. The Holy Souls need us now.
To GOD be all glory!
( Bella A. Sarenas/Contributor)