A Prayer of St. Bernard for the Holy Souls in Purgatory

Devotion of St. Bernard to the Shoulder Wound of Jesus

Releases many souls from purgatory each time it is prayed.

O Loving Jesus, meek Lamb of God, I a miserable sinner, salute and worship the most Sacred Wound of Your Shoulder on which You bore Your heavy Cross, which so tore Your Flesh and laid bare Your Bones as to inflict on You an anguish greater than any other Wound of Your Most Blessed Body. I adore You, O Jesus most sorrowful; I praise and glorify You and give You thanks for this most sacred and painful Wound, beseeching You by the crushing burden of Your heavy Cross to be merciful to the souls in purgatory and to me, a sinner, to forgive me all my mortal and venial sins, and to lead me on towards Heaven along the Way of Your Cross. Amen.

What the Church means by Purgatory?

Ways to Pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory

The following comes from the Catholic Company:

“The devotion to the memory of the dead is one of the most beautiful expressions of the Catholic spirit.”

   – Pope Saint John XXIII –

The Catholic Church dedicates the entire month of November to the Holy Souls in Purgatory. November 2nd is All Souls Day, sometimes called the Day of the Dead.  During this entire month we pray for the souls of the faithful departed, especially those whom we have known and loved.

Those in purgatory die in the mercy of God; however, because they still had attachment to sin at the time of their death, they must undergo the spiritual purification of their souls before they are able to fully love God with their whole heart, mind, and soul for all eternity. For more information, read What Do Catholics Really Believe About Purgatory?

Those in purgatory cannot pray for themselves, this is why they are called “poor” souls.  They can no longer merit anything for themselves and rely entirely on others to pray and make sacrifices on their behalf. As they are nevertheless part of the communion of saints, they depend upon us to help ease their suffering and quickly advance them through their purification so that they can join the saints in heaven.

Prayers for the faithful departed pleases God, who makes use of our prayers to help purify these souls that He loves. It is an act of charity that we can give for those we have known and loved, for our ancestors who gave us life, for those souls whose memory is lost, and for those who have no one else to pray for them.

Here are some ideas for praying for these suffering (and often neglected) souls, especially during the month of November dedicated to their memory:

  20 WAYS TO PRAY FOR THE HOLY SOULS IN PURGATORY

1. Pray the Novena to the Holy Souls.

2. Offer up your Holy Communions for the souls in purgatory.

3. Have Masses said for your departed loved ones, especially on the anniversary of his or her death.

4. Pray The Way Of The Cross for Souls in Purgatory.

5. Pray the special Holy Souls Rosary. After the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Holy Rosary is the most powerful prayer.

6. Obtain indulgences:  Indulgences reduce or cancel the temporal punishment that we incur through sin. There are many ways to obtain indulgences through pious actions, and we can apply their merits to the dead. You can find a partial list of indulgences here.

Read the rest here.

Scott Hahn: The biblical basis for Purgatory

Catholic Apologetics: Purgatory

Purgatory - Does a cleansing state of the soul exist before entering Heaven for those who need it?  Yes, for Scripture says nothing unclean or impure will enter into the kingdom of Heaven (Revelations 21:27).  St. Paul mentions the saving of a person's soul, but through fire (1 Corinthians 3:13-15).  In addition, Jesus mentions being forgiven for sins in the next world (Matthew 12:32) and that we shall not be released until we have paid for all our sins (Luke 12:59).

All Souls, Purgatory and the Bible

The following comes from Prayer and Perspective:

On All Souls Day, the Catholic Church offers prayers and liturgies for the repose of the dead. As Catholics, we are called by the Church to focus our spiritual energies to assist these poor souls, who, though saved, are still in need of purification. Our prayers and sacrifices assist them in this process of purification as a means used by God to communicate purifying grace to them. After all, He is the vine, we are the branches so that He produces his fruits of grace through us.

The practice of praying for the dead actually predates Christianity. In 2 Maccabees 12: 41-45, Judas offers prayers and sacrifices for his fallen comrades to make “atonement for the dead that they might be absolved from their sin.” Some argue that the books of the Maccabees are not inspired scripture. Leaving that argument aside for now, we can at least look at them as historical books detailing accepted pious practices of God’s people some 300 years before Christ.

If that is the only place in the Bible where we find any reference to purgatory, many Protestant Christians argue, then that is a weak support for such a practice. Fortunately, we know as Catholics that all of our doctrines are indeed found in the Word of God, as is the doctrine of Purgatory. Hence what follows is a biblical understanding of the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory.

The book of Genesis recounts for us the far reaching repercussions of Adam and Eve’s disobedience in the Garden. This sin, we find, brought about four consequences which I will summarize here (Gen 3: 16-24):

First, their sin brings about disharmony between persons. God tells Eve that both her relationship to her husband and children will now be characterized by pain and mistrust (Gen 3:16). Further, God has to make garments for man and woman because now, as the text implies, they feel shame (Gen 3:21).

Second, their sin brings about disharmony between man and creation. God tells Adam that he will produce the fruit of the earth with toil and difficulty (Gen 3: 17). Even the ground itself is cursed because of their sin (Gen 3: 17).

Third, their sin brings about disharmony between man and himself. He no longer has spiritual control over his body; thus, his body returns to the dust of the ground (Gen 3: 19). Adam and Eve are no longer able to receive everlasting life (Gen 3: 22).

Lastly and most importantly, sin brings disharmony between God and man. This consequence results in mistrust and fear of God (Gen 3: 10), and, worse, spiritual death. Without God, neither physical nor spiritual life can be sustained (Gen 3: 19, 24).

The first three disharmonies mentioned above are called ‘Temporal punishments due to sin.’ Temporal refers to things pertaining to this world. The last disharmony, the disharmony with God, is called eternal punishment, because it refers to things pertaining to the eternal world with God.

All four of these disharmonies are healed by Christ. The only healing we experience fully in this life, however, is from eternal punishment–or disharmony with God. That’s why Christ is the One Mediator between God and man.

It should be clear that we don’t experience a full healing from the temporal disharmonies/punishments as Christians, because we still struggle. We experience suffering, illness, catastrophes, and even death. Yet, Christ heals these problems, too, it’s just that we don’t experience the full healing in the temporal sphere until He returns.

Until then, we are called to struggle for His Kingdom. As St. Paul puts it, “But we have this treasure (the healing grace of salvation) in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying around in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.” (2 Cor 7-10)

To overcome these temporal disharmonies, we are called to cooperate with Christ’s power in grace so as to bring about the healing with Him in these areas. This is why we are called to pray, fast, and alms give so as to forgive our neighbor’s sins and be forgiven, and to receive the reward promised by our heavenly Father that we will once again regain temporal peace/harmony on earth and in heaven (Mt 6:5-23).

What happens if we die and are reconciled to God (the eternal punishment for sin), but have not entirely cooperated with grace to overcome the temporal punishments for sin? St. Paul gives us the answer in 1 Cor 3: 12-16. He says that after death, our works will be tested “as though by fire, and the fire will test what kind of work we have done,” and we will suffer loss, though we will still be saved (1 Cor 3:13-15).

This is a very clear passage regarding the purification (which we call purgatory) that takes place after death. This fire purifies us from our temporal disharmonies mentioned above, if we die without having them entirely purified in this life.

Read the rest here.

As Through Fire

Catholic Answers: Is purgatory a physical place?

Catholic Answers: Is purgatory a physical place?

Purified

The Memory of the Dead

Pope Benedict reflects upon death on All Souls Day

The following comes from the CNA:

On All Souls Day, Pope Benedict XVI reflected upon death and the hope that Christian faith brings to it.

“As human beings, we have a natural fear of death and we rebel against its apparent finality,” Pope Benedict said to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the weekly general audience.

“Faith teaches us that the fear of death is lightened by a great hope, the hope of eternity, which gives our lives their fullest meaning. The God who is love offers us the promise of eternal life through the death and resurrection of His Son.”

Therefore, said the Pope, “in Christ, death no longer appears as an abyss of emptiness, but rather a path to life which will never end.”

In the Catholic Church, the month of November is dedicated to praying for the dead. Today priests around the world are given special permission to say three Masses – one for the Pope, one for the dead and one for a personal intention. It is also customary to visit family graves on this day. In some Spanish speaking countries – such as Mexico – this has evolved into a pious national festival known as the “Day of the Dead.”

The Pope said that a visit to the cemetery “to pray for loved ones who have left us” is a good reminder of the “Communion of Saints” and that there is a “close link between we who still walk upon the earth and our countless brothers and sisters who have already reached eternity.”

And yet many of us still fear death, observed the Pope, giving three reasons why this is the case. He pointed to fear of the unknown, the apparent destruction of “all that was beautiful and great” in our lifetime, and also a fear of judgement, in particularly for those actions that “with skill, we often remove or attempt to remove from our consciousness.”

The Pope said that modern society often tries to approach death using the “criteria of scientific experimentalism,” so that the “great question of death must be answered not with faith, but with testable, empirical knowledge.”

But this approach, he cautioned, can end up in a form of spiritualism where, in an attempt to have contact with the world beyond death, we almost imagine “a reality” that is “a copy of the present.”

This worldview reduces man to “a horizontal dimension” and causes life to lose “its deeper meaning.”

The life of a person is understandable, Pope Benedict said, “only if there is a love that overcomes all isolation, even that of death.” The practical impact of this is that “only those who can recognize a great hope in death, can also live a life based on hope.”

The Pope then reminded pilgrims of the numerous occasions where Christ confirmed the reality of life after death, including upon the Cross on Calvary when he “addressed the criminal crucified on his right,” with the words, “Truly I tell you, with me today you will be in Paradise.”

“Christ is the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in him will never die,” Pope Benedict said in conclusion.

Before imparting his apostolic blessing, Pope Benedict also prayed that the economic meeting of the G-20 Head of State or Government in Cannes, France, over the next two days “will help to overcome the difficulties that, worldwide, impede the promotion of an authentically human and integral development.”

The Pope rounded off his public duties for the Solemnity of All Souls with a 6 p.m. visit to the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica, where he prayed at the tombs of his papal predecessors who are buried there.