"The holy souls suffering in the prison of Purgatory are incapable of helping themselves. Out of the depths of torturing flame they call to us: — 'Have pity on us!' We have it in our power to help these suffering friends of God."
The doctrine of Purgatory is not given to us merely to be believed. It is given to us to be acted upon. The souls detained in the purifying fire cannot help themselves. They cannot merit, they cannot gain indulgences, they cannot shorten by a single moment their own suffering. Everything depends on us — on the members of the Church still living on earth, still in the time of merit, still able to offer on their behalf the great treasury of suffrages that God, in His mercy, has placed in our hands.
These suffrages — Masses, prayers, indulgences, works of penance and charity — are not merely pious gestures. They are acts of supernatural charity that reach the souls in Purgatory with real, tangible effect. The Council of Trent defines this with the full weight of the Church's infallible authority. The saints who practised these devotions saw the results with their own eyes.
Here, drawn from the full tradition of Catholic teaching and from the great approved spiritual writers of the Church, is what we can do — and what each offering does.
I. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
The Mass is, without any qualification, the supreme and most powerful suffrage for the Holy Souls. This is the universal, constant, and infallible teaching of the Church.
The Council of Trent declares that the Sacrifice of the Mass is the "principal" means by which the souls in Purgatory are helped. The Council of Florence says the same. Saint Augustine taught it. Every Father of the Church who addressed the question of praying for the dead pointed, above all, to the Sacrifice of the altar.
Why? Because at Mass, the infinite merits of Calvary are made present. The Blood of Christ — which is the only price capable of redeeming a soul — is offered to the Father. And that offering can be applied, by the Church's intention, directly to the relief and liberation of the souls in Purgatory.
Fr. Paul O'Sullivan says it plainly: "The Mass is by far the most powerful means of helping the Holy Souls. Nothing can be compared to it. One Mass said for a soul in Purgatory may do for it what years of lesser prayers could not accomplish."
Saint Teresa of Avila saw, to her astonishment, a Religious who had led a very ordinary life ascend almost immediately to Heaven after death — with barely any Purgatory at all. When she asked Our Lord the reason, He told her it was because during life, this Religious had been "most zealous in gaining all the indulgences possible" and had "discharged almost the whole of her debt before her death."
What to do:
- Have Masses offered for your departed loved ones — this is the most powerful thing you can do for them
- Attend Mass yourself with the explicit intention of offering it for the Holy Souls
- Once a year, offer a Mass for each of your deceased family members — choosing their feast day if possible
- Offer Masses for the souls who have no one to pray for them
II. The Holy Rosary
After the Mass, the prayers that help the Holy Souls most powerfully are the Rosary and the Way of the Cross — both richly indulgenced by the Church, both beloved of the saints as weapons of mercy for the dead.
The evidence of the Rosary's power for the Holy Souls is given to us in the most concrete possible form by the example of Saint John Massias, the Dominican lay brother of Lima. Through his Rosaries — offered day after day, year after year, for the dead — Saint John Massias released from Purgatory more than one million four hundred thousand souls. This figure was inserted by the Church in the bull of his beatification. It is not legend. It is Catholic history.
Fr. O'Sullivan gives us a practice that any Catholic can adopt, however poor or busy: "The recital of the Rosary (with its great indulgences) and making the Way of the Cross (which is also richly indulgenced) are excellent means of helping the Holy Souls."
What to do:
- Pray one decade, one Mystery, or a full Rosary daily for the Holy Souls
- Make the Way of the Cross once a week for the Holy Souls
- Pray the short ejaculation "Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them" frequently throughout the day — this prayer itself gains indulgences that can be applied to the dead
III. Indulgences
An indulgence is not a permission to sin, nor a pardon from guilt — it is the remission, outside the Sacrament of Penance, of some or all of the temporal punishment due to sin already forgiven. The Church draws on the inexhaustible Treasury of Merit of Christ and the saints, and through the power of the keys given to Peter, applies that treasury to the faithful.
Indulgences can be applied to the Holy Souls — and this application is one of the most powerful and ancient forms of charity toward the dead.
The Council of Trent confirmed that indulgences are "most salutary for Christian people" and commanded their use to be retained in the Church. Their use for the Holy Souls was described by Saint Teresa of Avila's extraordinary vision — the soul who reached Heaven almost immediately because she had been diligent all her life in gaining every indulgence within her reach.
There are two kinds of indulgence:
- Partial indulgence — remits some of the temporal punishment due to sin
- Plenary indulgence — remits all of the temporal punishment due to sin, provided the usual conditions are met (Confession, Holy Communion, prayer for the Pope's intentions, and detachment from all sin)
How to gain indulgences for the Holy Souls:
- Pray the Rosary devoutly — a plenary indulgence is available under the usual conditions
- Make the Way of the Cross — a plenary indulgence is available
- Use a properly blessed article of devotion (Crucifix, Rosary, scapulars, medals) — partial indulgences
- Visit the Blessed Sacrament — partial indulgences
- Read Sacred Scripture for at least fifteen minutes — partial indulgence
- On All Souls Day (2 November), the Church makes available a plenary indulgence for the souls in Purgatory, which can be gained as often as one visits a church or cemetery on that day
- Throughout the month of November, make every effort to gain and apply indulgences for the dead
"It is a good practice to form the intention every morning of gaining all the indulgences possible on that day." — Purgatory and Suffrages for the Dead (purgatorysouls.blogspot.com)
IV. Works of Penance and Sacrifice
Every voluntary act of mortification — every fast, every abstinence from something we desire, every discomfort accepted freely in union with the Passion of Our Lord — can be offered for the Holy Souls. These are the "works of satisfaction" that the Church has always recognised as one of the great suffrages for the dead.
The souls in Purgatory are paying the debt of sins for which they did insufficient penance during life. We can pay some of that debt for them — from the outside, as it were — through our own voluntary suffering offered on their behalf. This is the Communion of Saints in action: the members of Christ's Body supporting one another, even across the boundary of death.
Fr. O'Sullivan suggests practical forms anyone can adopt: "Let us offer many little sacrifices for the Holy Souls during the day. These should be as hidden as possible and offered to God with love. One example is that we could abstain from eating or drinking something which we like."
Small things. Hidden things. Offered with love. These are the arrows of mercy that fly into Purgatory every day from the hands of faithful Catholics who remember.
V. The Heroic Act of Charity
The Heroic Act of Charity is one of the most extraordinary acts a Catholic can perform for the Holy Souls. It consists in the total and unreserved offering to God — for the benefit of the souls in Purgatory — of all the satisfactory value of one's own good works during life, and all the suffrages that will be offered for one after death.
In other words, the soul that makes the Heroic Act says to God: "Everything I suffer, everything I sacrifice, everything that will be offered for me when I die — I give it all, entirely and without reserve, to the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Keep nothing back for me."
It is an act of heroic generosity. And the teaching of the Church is that God repays it with His own generosity — that the soul which gives everything to the dead will be provided for by God Himself from the Treasury of the Church.
The Heroic Act can be made privately, in prayer before God. Many saints and spiritual directors have encouraged its use as one of the most powerful expressions of devotion to the Holy Souls.
VI. The Brown Scapular and Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Our Lady is called, in the tradition of the Church, the Queen of Purgatory — because she has a special maternal authority over the souls detained there and a special desire to bring them swiftly to her Son.
The Sabbatine Privilege, associated with the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, promises through Our Lady's intercession a special assistance to those who die clothed in the Scapular, observe chastity according to their state in life, and recite the prescribed prayers. This privilege has been upheld and encouraged by the Church for centuries.
Wear the Scapular. Live the devotion it pledges — a life given to Mary, and through her to Christ. And pray for those you love who wore it before you, that Our Lady may come to them swiftly in Purgatory and lead them home.
VII. The Prayer of Saint Gertrude
Our Lord revealed to Saint Gertrude the Great that this prayer, said with devotion and love, would release a great multitude of souls from Purgatory each time it was prayed. The faithful have repeated it for seven centuries.
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with all the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the Universal Church, for those in my own home and within my family. Amen.
Pray it now. Pray it daily. Pray it for the souls who have no one else to pray for them.
What the Holy Souls Will Do for You
Never think that devotion to the Holy Souls is charity without return. The souls in Purgatory are already, in a certain sense, saints — certain of Heaven, burning with God's love, incapable of sin, pure in their charity. They pray for us with a power and purity of intercession that no soul still weighed down by earthly imperfection can match.
Saint Catherine of Bologna testified that she obtained through the intercession of the Holy Souls "many favours which she had not obtained through the intercession of the Saints in Heaven."
And those souls who are released from Purgatory through our prayers — who fly to Heaven because we remembered them — they do not forget us. They stand before God and before Our Lady, mentioning our names, interceding for our needs, repaying with the currency of Heaven the small coins of charity we spent on earth.
"Day 9: Joy does not cause the souls in Heaven to forget. On the contrary, joy makes them more alive to memory. The soul that has entered into bliss does not for a second forget the generous friends on earth who helped him reach God and glory. Now a saint in Heaven, he uses to the full his power of intercession. He prays God to be merciful and generous to the generous. By name he mentions to Christ and to Mary those who mentioned his name when he was helpless to help himself." — The Novena for the Holy Souls in Purgatory (purgatorysouls.blogspot.com)
Pray for them today. They will pray for you forever.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine. Et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen.
