Virgo Potens

Month of the The Holy Souls in Purgatory ~ November 27th ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ 27th Day ~ The Duration of Purgatory 1. Purgatory will continue until the day of judgment. There will be some there still, who have been expiating their sins in dreadful torments for long years, perhaps for centuries. We read, in the revelations of the saints, of men being condemned to suffer the torment of fire as long as the world shall last. The Church, in sanctioning Masses in perpetuity, favors this opinion. At all events, fifty, or one hundred, or one thousand years will be the extent of the time that some will have to endure the penalty of sins committed during their life. Shall not I have to expect a long purgatory? (continued)

A PRAYER for DECEASED PARENTS O God, Who hast commanded us to honor our father and our mother; in Thy mercy have pity on the souls of my father and my mother (or, the soul of my father, or, the soul of my mother), and forgive them their trespasses (or, forgive him his trespasses, or, forgive her her trespasses); and make me to see them (or, him, or, her) again in the joy of everlasting brightness. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen. (The Roman Missal) An indulgence of 3 years. A plenary indulgence under the usual conditions, if the devout recitation of this prayer be continued every day for a month (S. P. Ap., Sept. 12, 1935). ~ The Raccolta (1943)

2 of 2 26th Day ~ The Retributions of Purgatory 2. Those who have chosen to follow their own will instead of the will of God, who have been proud and ambitious, and rebellious against God, will have far worse things to suffer. The God whom they have forgotten will in His turn forget them; and in the agony of their remorse they will lament the folly and the sin that have left them in the blackness of darkness. If without self-will there be no hell.it is also true that with out self-will there would be no purgatory. 3. Those who have neglected to help the holy souls during life will be neglected in their turn. Somehow others will forget to pray for them,or if Masses and prayers are offered for them, God will transfer the main benefit of these to others. Every one who goes to purgatory will lament his want of generosity to others while he had a chance of helping them. Slow indeed will be the release of those who did little or nothing for the release of others. Try to anticipate those punishments in kind by (1) mortification, (2) submission, (3) charity to others. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the The Holy Souls in Purgatory ~ November 26th ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ 26th Day ~ The Retributions of Purgatory 1. God's way is to punish in kind. This law holds in purgatory as in most other penalties that God inflicts. Those who have pampered their bodies will suffer an exceeding great physical torment. Each sinful indulgence of the body will add to the fierceness of the scorching flames. The intemperate and glutton will suffer a parching thirst and gnawing hunger; the luxurious will be plunged into a cauldron as it were of boiling metal, and endure an agony, one moment of which will more than out-balance all the delights of earth. Have I reason to fear in this respect? (continued)

2 of 2 25th Day ~ The Allotment of Suffrages in Purgatory 2. The very prayers and Masses that wili avail us will be in great measure the result of what we do now to please God. If we help others now, we shall then have many to help us; if we give alms liberally, God will take care that we receive spiritual alms. A rich man who has been niggardly during life, but leaves a large sum of money for Masses to be said for him, will indeed derive some benefit from them, but it may be that God will transfer the great proportion of the satisfaction to some poor man who has been generous and charitable to others during life. The rich man may wait for long years, and the poor man, who had no money to leave, may be delivered at once. Learn then to be generous now. 3. The satisfactory value of every Mass, though it is in itself infinite, is not infinite as applied to the individual. It is limited by the will of God and the dispositions of man. God looks upon the merits of His Son and accepts them for that soul in proportion to its conformity to the likeness of Christ before its death. We must seek to be humble and meek of heart as Christ was, if His merits are to avail us then. Pray for more grace and love now. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the The Holy Souls in Purgatory ~ November 25th ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ 25th Day ~ The Allotment of Suffrages in Purgatory 1. Everything done to help any of the holy souls brings some sort of relief to the soul for whom it is offered. But the amount of relief we do not know; it depends on the will of God and the merits of the individual. A Mass offered for one person may deliver him altogether; for another it may have the effect merely of a drop of water to cool his tongue in the burning flames, or of a breath of cool air amid the furnace of fire. On our life now will depend our speedy relief and deliverance from purgatory still more than on the prayers offered for us then. (continued)

2 of 2 24th Day ~ How to shorten our Purgatory 2. Another certain way of shortening our purgatory is devotion to the holy Mother of God. She, the Mother of mercy and compassion, has a special compassion for the suffering souls, and she, the most grateful of all the beings that God has ever created, will be speedy to relieve and to deliver those who were devout to her upon earth. Each prayer we say, each aspiration we make, each little invocation we repeat in her honor, will gain for us help when help will be sorely needed. Cannot you do something more in honor of Mary? 3. We can also pay part of the debt due to God by means of indulgenced prayers. To certain prayers and good works the Church attaches the remission of a certain amount of suffering: and she is most generous in the amount of debt that she gives us an opportunity of paying off before we die. How we shall rejoice over each such prayer when we come to experience the deliverance it has gained for us! Ask of God that, if you have to pass through purgatory, at least your time there may be short. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the The Holy Souls in Purgatory ~ November 24th ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ 24th Day ~ How to shorten our Purgatory 1. Most of us cannot hope to escape altogether from the cleansing fires, but we all desire to render our sojourn there as short as possible. There are many means of doing this. All the means already mentioned for escaping altogether will help to abridge our time of waiting; especially compassion for the holy souls. They will not when they attain to the vision of God forget those who have done anything to help them. Yet how little we do! And how bitterly we shall one day regret that we have not done more! (continued)

2 of 2 23rd Day ~ Other Means of avoiding Purgatory 2. We may also hope to avoid purgatory if we prayGod to give us our purgatory in this life. It requires some courage to do so, as, if God hears our prayer, we must expect to suffer greatly before we die, and perhaps to spend our lives in intense pain. How small will be the price paid in comparison with the advantage gained! All the sufferings of this life are small compared with the sufferings after death; and moreover here we can merit, we can go on increasing our eternal reward, but not in purgatory. 3. Purity of intention in all our actions is another of the most efficacious means of attaining the same end. Any one who does all his actions purely for God's sake will have nothing for the searching fire to lay hold of. It is self that has to be burnt out of us; self-will, self-love, self-indulgence. He who is rid of these may hope to go straight to heaven, Pray that by one or other of these means you may avoid separation from God after your death. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Ista est summa sapientia per contemptum mundi tendere ad regna celesta This is the highest wisdom: through contempt of the world, to strive for the kingdom of heaven. (Thomas à Kempis) Month of the The Holy Souls in Purgatory ~ November 23rd ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ 23rd Day ~ Other Means of avoiding Purgatory 1. A great devotion to the Sacred Passion of Christ is one of the surest methods of escaping the penalty due to our sins. He is always touched by any compassion shown Him in His sacred sufferings. He is said to have revealed to some saint that He would remit the temporal punishment due after death to any one who for fifteen years should say every day seven Paters, seven Aves, and one Gloria in honor of His Sacred Passion. It seems very likely that such perseverance in honoring Him in what He suffered for us would exempt from purgatory altogether. What do I do in this respect? (continued)

2 of 2 22nd Day ~ How to avoid Purgatory 2. A spirit of great generosity to the poor for Christ's sake. God is always generous to those who deal generously with others, and almsgiving carries with it wonderful rewards. It seems as if there was an allusion to purgatory in the words of Holy Scripture that alms deliver from sin, and will not suffer the soul to go into darkness; and in the precept, Give alms of thy goods, and never turn away thy face from any poor man, so shall not the face of the Lord be turned away from thee. Am I really generous to the poor? 3. A spirit of great compassion to the suffering souls who are now in purgatory. If we desire to escape purgatory, we must help to pay the debt of others. We must aid many on the road to heaven, if we desire to travel the same road without being detained on the way. Here, too, God will deal with us as we have dealt with others. What do I do for the holy souls? Pray God to teach you how to avoid purgatory. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the The Holy Souls in Purgatory ~ November 22nd ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ 22nd Day ~ How to avoid Purgatory 1. There are few who might not avoid purgatory if they were only willing to adopt the requisite means. These means are, a spirit of charity to others, and of self-denying charity. Charity shall hide a multitude of sins, and it will hide them in such a way that they shall be entirely blotted out, leaving behind them no debt of punishment still due. OurLord has promised that what measure we mete out to others, the same shall be measured to us again. If we mete out to others a perfect charity, God will mete out to us a complete remission of our sins in the particular judgment without a trace of penalties to be suffered in the flames of purgatory. (continued)

2 of 2 21st Day ~ The Alliviations of Purgatory 2. Our Lady, too, comes also with the same merciful design, especially on a Saturday, on her great feasts, and above all, on the Feast of the Assumption, when she releases not a few holy souls every year, and carries them with her to heaven. What a delight it must be to them to be thus comforted by the holy Mother of God! How they must rejoice in having gained this privilege by their devotion to her while they were yet alive ! 3. The angels, too, are often sent by God to assuage the pains of the suffering souls. Our Lord does not forget the angel who consoled Him during His Sacred Agony, when He took upon Himself the intolerable weight of the sins of the whole world, and He knows what it is to be suffering for sin that has no hold on the soul, but nevertheless drags it down, like some heavy weight attached to it by the divine justice. Hence there are angels appointed to comfort the holy souls, to refresh them amid the devouring flames. Ask your guardian angel never to let you fall into sin, that so you may not need his help after life is done. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the The Holy Souls in Purgatory ~ November 21st ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ 21st Day ~ The Alliviations of Purgatory 1. Our Lord does not forget the souls that He loves. As at the time of His Death He visited limbo, so He from time to time manifests Himself to the holy souls in purgatory, to comfort and cheer them. What a day of joy must it be for the holy souls when their Lord and King vouchsafes, if it be but for a moment, to illumine the dark prison-house with the light of His divine presence! How they must sigh after Him when He departs! for what joy is there like the joy that comes of the presence of Jesus? (continued)

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2 of 2 20th Day ~ The Happiness of Purgatory 2. Happiness consists in union with God. If the soul is united to God by supernatural charity, beneath every kind of sorrow and misery there is an underlying joy. Now the holy souls are perfect in their charity. They have made an act of fervent charity at their judgment, and the habit of charity is in them as strong as ever. Hence in spite of all their sufferings they are intensely happy, and cry out, "I know that my Redeemer liveth." 3. Happiness is not incompatible with intense suffering. A man may be light-hearted while he is shrieking with physical pain; he may be light-hearted even when separated from one whom he loves better than all the world beside. He is happy by reason of his internal dispositions, and in spite of the bitterness of the separation or the fierceness of the physical pain. So it is with most holy souls. Their dispositions are perfect, their will is God's. They are full of hope and love; how can they fail to be happy? Pray for an unceasing union with God by charity. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Foi + Charité La porte du Ciel sera ouverte a l’ame chretienne qui se sera polie par la Charite . ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Faith + Charity The gateway of Heaven will be opened to the Christian soul that has been polished by Charity.  Month of the The Holy Souls in Purgatory ~ November 20th ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ 20th Day ~ The Happiness of Purgatory 1. The happiness of purgatory is a happiness of prospect, not of actual enjoyment. It is in spe and not in re, hoped for, not already possessed. But the hope is something more than hope, it is a certain expectation which the holy souls know cannot be disappointed. This is their support and strength, their joy and consolation, amid their unspeakable anguish. They can look forward to the long years of eternal bliss when they will repose int he bosom of God. O happy prospect, to us always uncertain, so certain to those holy souls! (continued)

2 of 2 19th Day ~ Our Friends and Acquaintances 2. There is one class in purgatory whom we are to help. In the course of our lives we have done much harm and little good. The harm we have done has had an evil influence on others; perhaps we have led them into sin by our bad example We might have done so much by the holiness of our lives to make them love God, and we have done so little! Will there not be many whose time in purgatory will be much longer than it would have been if I had only lived up to a higher standard? 3. There are also many in purgatory who have commended themselves to our prayers or been commended to us after their death ; we have promised to pray for them, yet we have done littleornothingforthem. Howunkindthey mustthinkustohaveforgottenthem! Inour thoughtlessness we have lost an opportunity of charity that would have won for us their grate ful thanks to all eternity. Examine yourself as to whether you owe help to any in purgatory by reason of either (1) your bad example, (2) your neglect of duty to them when alive, (3) your neglect of your promise to help them after death. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Exaudi, Domine, vocem meam qua clamavi ad te: miserere mei, et exaudi me. ++++ (Ps. 26) Hear, O Lord, my voice, with which I have cried to thee: have mercy on me and hear me. (Ps. 26, 7) Month of the The Holy Souls in Purgatory ~ November 19th ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ 19th Day ~ Our Friends and Acquaintances 1. Of all those with whom we have been connected by some tie of friendship or affection, of companionship, or common occupation, or business, how many there must be who are now in purgatory! Most of them have some sort of claim on us. Some have been entrusted to our care; others have been influenced by our example; others have claims on our gratitude; others have in some way helped us on our way to heaven. To all these we should seek to hold out a hand in the midst of their time of suffering. (continued)