Twenty-Eighth Day: They have Great Reason to Fear Who Show no Mercy towards the Souls Departed.
by VP
Posted on Thursday November 28, 2024 at 12:00AM in Meditations
"With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again." (Matt. VII. 2. ) It will be readily seen that these words of the Divine Savior are applicable also to the assistance we should render the souls departed. The learned Cardinal Cajetan says: "Those who in this life forget the departed, will hereafter, in my opinion, be deprived in Purgatory of all participation in good works and devout prayers, though ever so many be offered for them by others; for Divine Justice is wont in this manner to punish their cruelty and hardness of heart." Hence, he who shows no mercy towards the suffering souls, and remains cold and indifferent to their pains, will even though his souls may have escaped eternal damnation, languish in the flames of Purgatory without relief and consolation and look in vain for friends and intercessors. And the faithful who do not forget the suffering souls completely, but seldom think of them, will not be deprived of friends and intercessors entirely, but will derive very little help and comfort, and their complaints will be answered by the words of St. Paul: "He who soweth sparingly, shall also reap sparingly." (2 Cor. IX. 6).
Prayer: O God, whose goodness and mercy are infinite, have pity on the souls of those, who on account of their want of charity are undeserving of Thy bounty, and accept our fervent prayers in reparation for their faults, that they may not suffer without consolation. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Prayer for Priests in Purgatory: My Jesus, by the sorrows Thou didst suffer in Thine Agony in the Garden, in Thy Scourging and Crowning with thorns, in the Way to Calvary, in Thy Crucifixion and Death, have mercy on the souls of priests in Purgatory, especially those most forgotten and who have no one else to pray for them. I wish to remember all those priests who ministered to me, the priests my heart has never forgotten, and for those that I no longer recall due to my frailty of memory. Do Thou deliver them from the dire torments they endure; call them and admit them to Thy most sweet embrace in Paradise.
Pope Saint Pius X and Saint John Vianney, pray for us and especially for our priests. Amen
Special Intercession: Pray for the souls who suffer for their want of charity.
Lord grant them eternal rest, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen. (Three times)
Invocation: My Jesus, mercy!
Source: Manual of the Purgatorian Society, Redemptorist Fathers. 1907