Thank you and may God Bless You!
December
2015
Advent
Month of
Holy Souls
Petition to Mary for the Suffering Souls
O Immaculate Mother, Queen of Heaven, hear the cries of your suffering children in purgatory and intercede for them at the throne of the Almight. Behold in them, O Mother most faithful, the image of your Divine Son Who offered Himself in their behalf. Recall His bitter passion and death, and see in them His very sufferings. We feel confident, then, O Mother of Mercy, that you will obtain their liberation; so that they, in union with you and the choir of Heaven, may contemplate the Beatific Vision in heaven forever. Amen.
The Eternal Rest Prayer
V. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.
R. And let perpetual light shine upon them.
And may their souls, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
"De Profundis" (Psalm 130)
The 130th Psalm has traditionally been recited for the Souls in Purgatory
Out of the depths I cry to Thee, O Lord!
Lord, hear my voice! Let Thy ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications!
If Thou, O Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I hope;
My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.
And He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
What is an indulgence?
The word "indulgence" says it all - indulgences are a special heavenly treasure which the Church grants us to repay the debt we owe God for our sins and heal the damage done to our souls by sin.
God has allowed the Church to attach indulgences to certain actions or prayers, so that when we perform these actions or pray these prayers, we can receive the indulgence.
Although indulgences cannot be applied to the living (they have to get their own indulgences!), we can help the Souls in Purgatory to reach Heaven sooner by applying the indulgences we receive, to them, to help pay their debt to God.
Why do we need indulgences?
You may be thinking, "But I already went to confession, and God forgave my sins! Why do I still owe a "debt" to God?"
Frank Sheed, the well-known English Catholic preacher and publisher, put the answer this way: A sin is like pounding a nail into a piece of wood. When you confess your sins, and God forgives you, it's like pulling the nail out of the wood. But the hole remains, and has to be filled in. We have hurt our souls, and now we have to fix the damage.
Because of Original Sin (Adam's and Eve's sin of disobedience in the Garden of Eve), human beings find it easier to sin than to do good. Each sin wounds our souls by making it harder for us to resist committing the same sin next time. Even after we have repented, we have to overcome this tendency by penance. The saints understood this very well; they often mortified themselves with large or small penances to keep in control of their passions.
However, since we can't see the damage sin does to our souls, we often aren't sorry enough for our sins, and we forget to pray and do penance for them. Because of this, God has to cleanse our souls, either in this life, through trials, or in the next, in Purgatory. So God, through the Church, provides us with an "incentive" to prayer and penance: indulgences. When we perform an action or say a prayer to which the Church has attached an indulgence (i.e. praying before the Blessed Sacrament, saying the Rosary, etc.), the Church uses the treasury of Jesus' merits to "pay" part or all of our debt to God and purify our souls for us, provided we have the intention of gaining the indulgence.
One of the nuns who belonged to St. Teresa of Avila's order realized the importance of indulgences, and never lost an opportunity to gain them. When she died, St. Teresa was greatly surprised to see this nun's soul rise straight to Heaven, bypassing Purgatory! Since this nun had seemed to be quite ordinary, St. Teresa asked Jesus the reason why she had gone straight to Heaven. Jesus answered that because of all the indulgences this sister had faithfully obtained, she had completely paid back her many debts to God, so that her soul was spotless at the moment of death!
[Courtesy of Catholic Youth Networking]