Devotion to the Souls in Purgatory
From:
“Purgatory” by Fr. Faber
If
Heaven and earth are full of the glory of God, so also is that most
melancholy, yet most interesting land, where the prisoners of hope
are detained by their Savior’s loving justice from the Beatific
Vision; and if we can advance the interests of Jesus on earth and in
Heaven, I may also venture to say that we can do still more in
Purgatory. And what I am endeavoring to show you in this treatise is
how you may help God by prayer and the practices of devotion,
whatever your occupation and calling may be; and all these
prac-tices apply especially to Purgatory. For although some
theologians say that in spite of the Holy Souls placing no obstacle
in the way, still the effect of prayer for them is not infallible,
nevertheless it is much more certain than the effect of prayer for
the conversion of sinners upon earth, where it is so often frustrated
by their perversity and evil dispositions. Anyhow, what I have
wanted to show has been this: that each of us, without aiming beyond
our grace, without austerities for which we have not courage, without
supernatural gifts to which we lay no claim, may by simple
affectionateness and the practices of sound Catholic devotion, do
great things—things so great that they seem incredible—for the
glory of God, the interests of Jesus and the good of souls.
Pray
for Sinners or the Holy Souls?
I
should therefore be leaving my subject very incomplete if I did not
consider at some length devotion to the Holy Souls in Purgatory; and
I will treat, not so much of particular practices of it, which are
to be found in the ordinary manuals, as of the spirit of the devotion
itself.
Rosignoli,
in his Wonders
of God in Purgatory (Opere
1:710), which he wrote at the request of Blessed Sebastian Valfré of
the Turin Oratory, relates from the Dominican annals an interesting
dispute between two good friars as to the respective merits of
devotion for the conversion of sin-ners and devotion for the Holy
Souls.
Bro.
Bertrando was the great advocate of poor sinners, constantly said
Mass for them, and offered up all his prayers and penances to obtain
for them the grace of conversion. “Sinners,” he said, “without
grace, are in a state of perdition. Evil spirits are continually
laying snares for them, to deprive them of the Beatific Vision and to
carry them off to eternal torments. Our Blessed Lord came down from
Heaven and died a most painful death for them. What can be a higher
work than to imitate Him and to cooperate with Him in the salvation
of souls? When a soul is lost, the price of its redemption is lost
also. Now the souls in Purgatory are safe. They are sure of their
eternal salvation. It is most true that they are plunged into a sea
of sorrows, but they are sure to come out at last. They are the
friends of God, whereas sinners are His enemies, and to be God’s
enemy is the greatest misery in creation.”
Bro.
Benedetto was an equally enthusias-tic advocate of the suffering
souls. He offered all his free Masses for them, as well as his
prayers and penances. Sinners, he said, were bound with the chains of
their own will. They could leave off sinning if they pleased. The
yoke was of their own choosing, whereas the dead were tied hand and
foot against their own will in the most atrocious sufferings.
“Now
come, dear Bro. Bertrando, tell me—suppose there were two beggars,
one well and strong, who could use his hands and work if he liked,
but chose to suffer poverty rather than part with the sweets of
idleness; and the other, sick and maimed and helpless, who in his
piteous condition could do nothing but supplicate help with cries and
tears—which of the two would deserve compassion the most,
especially if the sick one was suffering the most intolerable
agonies? Now this is just the case between sinners and the Holy
Souls. These last are suffering an excruciating martyrdom, and they
have no means of help-ing themselves. It is true they have deserved
the-se pains for their sins, but they are now already cleansed for
those sins. They must have returned to the grace of God before they
died, else they would not have been saved. They are now most dear,
inexpressibly dear, to God; and surely chari-ty, well ordered, must
follow the wise love of the Divine Will and love most what He loves
most.”
Bro.
Bertrando, however, would not give way, though he did not quite see a
satisfactory answer to his friend’s objection. But the night
fol-lowing, he had an apparition which it seems so convinced him that
from that time he changed his practice, and offered up all his
Masses, prayers and penances for the Holy Souls. It would appear as
if the authority of St. Thomas might be quoted on the side of Bro.
Benedetto, as he says, “Prayer for the dead is more acceptable than
for the liv-ing, for the dead are in the greatest need of it and
cannot help themselves, as the living can” (Suppl. 3. Part, q. 71,
art. 5 ad 3).
St.
Teresa of Avila
How
acceptable this devotion is to Almighty God, and how He vouchsafes
to seem, as it were, impatient for the deliverance of the souls, and
yet to leave it to our charity, is taught us on the unimpeachable
authority of St. Teresa. In the Book of her Foundations,
she
tells us that D. Ber-nardino di Mendoza gave her a house, garden and
vineyard for a convent at Valladolid. Two months after this, and
before the foundation was effected, he was suddenly taken ill and
lost the power of speech, so that he could not make a Confession,
though he gave many signs of contrition. “He died,” says St.
Teresa, “very shortly, and far from the place where I then was. But
Our Lord spoke to me and told me that he was saved, though he had run
a great risk, for that He had had mercy upon him because of the gift
he had given for the convent of His Blessed Mother; but that his soul
would not be freed from Purgatory until the first Mass was said in
the new house. I felt so deeply the pains this soul was suffering
that, although I was very desirous of accomplishing the founda-tion
of Toledo, I left it at once for Valladolid. Praying one day at
Medino del Campo, Our Lord told me to make haste, for that soul was
suffering grievously. On this I started at once, though I was not
well prepared for it, and arrived at Val-ladolid on St. Lawrence’s
day.”
She
then goes on to relate that, as she received Communion at the first
Mass said in the house, her benefactor’s soul appeared to her all
glorious, and afterward entered Heaven. She did not expect this, for
as she observes, “Although it had been revealed to me that this
would happen at the first Mass, I thought it must mean the first Mass
where the Blessed Sacrament would be reserved there.”
We
might multiply almost indefinitely the revelations of the Saints
which go to prove the special favor with which our Blessed Lord
regards this devotion wherein His interests are so nearly and dearly
engaged. But it is time now to get a clear view of our subject.
World
of Sense, World of Spirit
There
are, as we all know, two worlds, the world of sense and the world of
spirit. We live in the world of sense, surrounded by the world of
spirit, and as Christians we have hourly, and very real,
communications with that world. Now, it is a mere fragment of the
Church which is the world of sense. In these days the Church
Triumphant in Heaven, collecting its fresh multitudes in every age,
and constantly beautifying itself with new Saints, must necessarily
far exceed the limits of the Church Militant, which does not embrace
even a majority of the inhabitants of earth. Nor is it unlikely, but
most likely, that the Church Suffer-ing in Purgatory must far exceed
the Church Mili-tant in extent, as it surpasses it in beauty.
Toward
those countless hosts who are lost, we have no duties; they have
fallen away from us. We hardly know the name of one who is there, for
many have thought that Solomon was saved, some have gone so far as to
regard the words in the Acts of the Apostles about Judas as not
infallibly decisive [cf. Acts
1:16
ff], and there is not quite a consent even against Saul. We are cut
off from them; all is blackness and darkness about them; we have no
relations with them.
The
Power God Gives us over the Dead
But
by the doctrine of the Communion of the Saints and of the unity of
Christ’s Mystical Body, we have most intimate relations both of
duty and affection with the Church Triumphant and Suffering, and
Catholic devotion furnishes us with many appointed and approved ways
of dis-charging these duties toward them. Of these I shall speak
hereafter. For the present it is enough to say that God has given us
such power over the dead that they seem, as I have said before, to
depend almost more on earth than on Heaven; and surely [the fact]
that He has given us this power, and supernatural methods of
exercising it, is not the least touching proof that His Blessed
Majesty has contrived all things for love. Can we not conceive the
joy of the Blessed in Heaven, looking
down from the bosom of God and the calmness of their eternal repose
upon this scene of dimness, disquietude, doubt and fear, and
rejoicing in the plentitude of their charity, in their vast power
with the Sacred Heart of Jesus to obtain grace and blessing day and
night for the poor dwellers on earth? It does not distract them from
God, it does not interfere with the Vision, or make it waver and grow
misty; it does not trouble their glory or their peace. On the
contrary, it is with them as with our Guardian Angels; the
affectionate ministries of their chari-ty increase their own
accidental glory.
The
same joy in its measure may be ours even upon earth. If we are fully
possessed with this Catholic devotion for the Holy Souls, we shall
never be without the grateful consciousness of the immense powers
which Jesus has given us on their behalf. We are never so like Him,
or so dearly imitate His tender offices, as when we are devoutly
exercising these powers. We are humbled excessively by becoming the
benefactors of those beautiful souls who are so immeasurably our
superiors, as Joseph was said to have learned humility by commanding
Jesus.
While
we are helping the Holy Souls, we love Jesus with a love beyond
words, a love that almost makes us afraid, yet with what a delightful
fear! Because in this devotion it is His hands we are moving, as we
would move the unskillful hands of a child. Dearest Lord, that He
should let us do these things! That He should let us do with His
satisfactions what we will, and sprinkle His Precious Blood as if it
were so much water from the nearest well! That we should limit the
efficacy of His unbloody Sacrifice, and name souls to Him, and expect
Him to obey us, and that He should do so! Beautiful was the
help-lessness of His blessed Infancy; beautiful is His helplessness
in His most dear Sacrament; beautiful is the helplessness which, for
the love of us, He mostly wills to be with regard to His dear spouses
in Purgatory, whose entrance into glory His Heart is so impatiently
awaiting! Oh, what thoughts, what feelings, what love should be ours
as we, like choirs of terrestrial angels, gaze down on the wide,
silent, sinless kingdom of suffering, and then, with our own
venturous touch, wave the sceptered hand of Jesus over its broad
regions, all richly dropping with the balsam of His saving Blood!
Two
Views of Purgatory
There
have already been two views of Purgatory prevailing in the Church,
not contradictory the one of the other, but rather expressive of the
mind and devotion of those who have embraced them.
One
is the view met with in by far the greater number of the lives and
revelations of Italian and Spanish Saints, the works of the Germans
of the Middle Ages, and the popular delineations of Purgatory in
Belgium, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico and elsewhere. The other is the
view which has been made popular by St. Francis de Sales, though he
drew it originally from his favorite treatise on Purgatory by St.
Catherine of Genoa, and it is also borne out by many of the
revelations of Sister Francesca of Pampeluna, a Theresian nun,
published with a long and able censura by Bro. Giuseppe Bonaventura
Ponze, a Dominican professor at Saragossa. And each of these two
views, though neither denies the other, has its own peculiar spirit
of devotion.
Other
Benefits of This Devotion
IT
is not saying too much to call devotion to the Holy Souls a kind of
center in which all Catholic devotions meet and which satisfies more
than any other single devotion our duties in that way; because it is
a devotion all of live, and of disinterested love. If we cast an eye
over the chief Catholic devotions, we shall see the truth of this.
Take the devotion of St. Ignatius to the glory of God. This, if I may
dare to use such an expression of Him, was the special and favorite
devotion of Jesus.
Now,
Purgatory is simply a field white for the harvest of God’s glory.
Not a prayer can be said for the Holy Souls but God is at once
glorified, both by the faith and the charity of the mere prayer. Not
an alleviation, however trifling, can befall any one of the souls but
He is forthwith glorified by the honor of His Son’s Precious Blood,
and the approach of the souls to bliss. Not a soul is delivered from
its trial but God is immensely glorified. He crowns His own gifts in
that dear soul. The Cross of Christ has triumphed. The decree of
predestination is vic-toriously accomplished, and there is a new
wor-shiper in the courts of Heaven. Moreover, God’s glory, His
sweetest glory, the glory of His live, is sooner or later infallible
in Purgatory because there is no sin there, nor possibility of sin.
It is only a question of time. All that is gained is real gain. All
that is reaped is true wheat, without chaff or stubble, or any such
thing.
Devotion
to the Holy Souls Honors The Sacred Humanity of Jesus
Again,
what devotion is justly more dear to Christians than the devotion to
the Sacred Humanity of Jesus? It is rather a family of various and
beautiful devotions than a devotion by itself. Yet see how they are
all, as it were, ful-filled, affectionately fulfilled, in devotion to
the Holy Souls. The quicker the souls are liberated from Purgatory,
the more is the beautiful harvest of His blessed Passion multiplied
and accelerated. An early harvest is a blessing, as well as a
plenti-ful one; for all delay of a soul’s ingress into the praise
of Heaven is an eternal and irremediable loss of honor and glory to
the Sacred Humanity of Jesus.
How
strangely things sound in the language of the sanctuary! Yet, so it
is. Can the Sa-cred Humanity be honored more than by the adorable
Sacrifice of the Mass? And here is our chief action upon Purgatory.
Faith in His Sacraments as used for the dead is a pleasing homage to
Jesus; and the same may be said of faith in indulgences and
privileged altars and the like. The powers of the Church all flow
from His Sacred Humanity and are a perpetual praise and
thank-offering to it. So, again, this devotion honors Him by
imitating His zeal for souls. For this zeal is a badge of His people,
and an inheritance from Him.
Our
Lady, the Angels, Patron Saints, Founders
Devotion
to our dearest Mother is equally comprehended in this devotion to the
Holy Souls, whether we look at her as the Mother of Jesus, and so
sharing the honors of His Sacred Humanity, or as Mother of Mercy, and
so specially wor-shipped by works of mercy, or, lastly, as in a
particular sense the Queen of Purgatory, and so hav-ing all manner of
dear interests to be promoted in the welfare and deliverance of those
suffering souls.
Next
to this we may rank devotion to the holy Angels, and this also is
satisfied in devotion to the Holy Souls. For it keeps filling the
vacant thrones in the angelic choirs, those unsightly gaps which the
fall of Lucifer and one third of the heavenly host occasioned. It
multiplies the companions of the blessed spirits. They may be
sup-posed also to look with an especial interest on that part of the
Church which lies in Purgatory, because it is already crowned with
their own dear gift and ornament of final perseverance, and yet it
has not entered at once into its inheritance as they did. Many of
them also have a tender per-sonal interest in Purgatory. Thousands,
perhaps millions of them, are guardians to those souls, and their
office is not over yet. Thousands have clients there who were
specially devoted to them in life. Will St. Raphael, who was so
faithful to Tobias, be less faithful to his clients there? Whole
choirs are interested about others [in Purgatory], either because
they are finally to be aggregated to that choir, or because in
[their] lifetime they had a special devotion to it. Marie Denise, of
the Visitation, used to congratulate her Angel every day on the grace
he had received to stand when so many around him were falling. It
was, as I have said before, the only thing she could know for certain
of his past life. Could he neglect her if by the Will of God she went
to Purgatory? Again, St. Michael, as Prince of Purgatory and our
Lady’s regent, in fulfillment of that dear office attributed to him
by the Church in the Mass for the dead, takes as homage to himself
all charity to the Holy Souls; and if it be true that a zealous heart
is al-ways a proof of a grateful one, that bold and magnificent
spirit will recompense us one day in his own princely style, and
perhaps within the limits of that his special jurisdiction.
Neither
is devotion to the Saints without its interests in this devotion for
the dead. It fills them with the delights of charity as it swells
their numbers and beautifies their ranks and orders. Numberless
Patron Saints are personally interested in multitudes of souls. The
affectionate relations between their clients and themselves not only
subsists, but a deeper tenderness has entered into it because of the
fearful suffering, and a livelier interest because of the
accomplished victory. They see in the Holy Souls their own handiwork,
the fruit of their example, the answer to their prayers, the success
of their patronage, the beautiful and finished crown of their
affection-ate intercession.
And
all this applies with peculiar force to the Founders of Orders and
Congregations. Ah, those Saints, those founders, are the children of
the Sacred Heart! They have been conceived in its inmost cavities;
they have been suckled with its choicest Blood, softer than milk, and
more cheer-ing than the wine of Engaddi’s peerless grape; their
charity has caught the trick of its compression and dilation. Who
then can tell how Founders yearn over their children in those
cleansing fires? Those souls honored them through life; they lived in
their Father’s and Founder’s house; his voice was ever in their
ears; his feasts there were days of song and joy and spiritual
sunshine; his relics were their shield, his rule their second gospel;
his sayings and doings were ever on their lips; his dress and livery
were dear to them as the garment of a king to his Eastern favorite.
He was with them all day long; they loved him with a venturous love;
they praised him till men smiled at their family pride; they feared
him as one the darkening of whose eye upon their souls was a worse
calamity than fire, or sword, or pestilence; and when they came to
die, his name, and no other, except the names of Jesus and Mary,
could so well soothe the troubled mind, so drive away the besetting
demons, and so calm the starts and frets and catching which, if they
impair not the perfection of our patience, take away at least from
death its joy-inspiring gracefulness. What wonder their founder
should love them as he beholds them bounding immaculate and
beautiful, the gems of his Order, the glory of his Rule, in the
chastening fires of God!
Our
Charity for the Poor Souls Benefits Our Own Souls
But
there is another peculiarity in this devotion for the dead. It does
not rest in words and feelings, nor does it merely lead to action
indirectly and at last. It is action in itself, and thus it is a
substantial devotion. It speaks, and a deed is done; it loves, and a
pain is lessened; it sacrifices, and a soul is delivered. Nothing can
be more solid. We might almost dare to compare it, in its poor
measure, to the efficacious voice of God, which works what it says,
and effects what it utters and wills, and a creation comes.
The
royal devotion of the Church is the works of mercy; and see how they
are all satisfied in this devotion for the dead! It feeds the hungry
souls with Jesus, the Bread of Angels. It gives them to drink, in
their incomparable thirst, His Precious Blood. It clothes the naked
with a robe of glory. It visits the sick with mighty powers to heal,
and at the least consoles them by the visit. It frees the captives
with a heavenly and eternal freedom, from a bondage dreader far than
death. It takes in the strangers, and Heaven is the hos-pice
[lodging] into which it receives them. It buries the dead in the
bosom of Jesus in everlasting rest.
Oh,
when the last doom shall come, and our dearest Lord shall ask those
seven questions of His judicial process, those interrogatories of the
works of mercy, how happy will that man be—and it may be the
poorest beggar among us, who never gave an alms because he has had to
live on alms himself—who shall hear his own defense sweetly and
eloquently taken up by crowds of blessed souls to whom he has done
all things while they waited in their prison-house of hope! Three
times a day St. Francis de Sales put himself in the presence of God
as before his judge and tried to judge himself in his Savior’s way.
Let us but do that, and we shall become so many servitors of Michael,
so many guardian angels of that beautiful but melancholy land of
suffering and expectant souls.
