A sick person, prevented from sleeping by pain, spent a night counting the beats of his clock. That night seemed endless to him. Time passes with the same speed for everyone; but the more one suffers, the slower this passage seems. This is why the poor souls in purgatory find minutes as long as months, and hours longer than years.
One day, a religious appeared, after his death, to one of his brothers and revealed to him that three days spent in purgatory had seemed longer to him than a thousand years. Another, having been there for three hours, was convinced he had suffered there for one hundred and fifty years. A man, who despised the torment of purgatory, suddenly saw two handsome young men appear before him, who hurled him into that place of torment. After a quarter of an hour of suffering, he cried out:
"Take me out! Take me out! I have been suffering here for years!"
Thus, the poor souls in purgatory count their hours of torment, each of which seems as long as hundreds of years, so great are their pains. And how many do they count, alas! How can we remain insensitive to so much misfortune! Let us therefore pray for them as much as possible and with fervor. How happy we will be to have done so, and to be relieved, in our turn, when we are in their place!
Can we reasonably doubt it? Children often commit faults which they regard as slight, and which they no longer think about. However young they may be, they will nevertheless be condemned to atone for them in purgatory, if they have not done penance for them on earth. Did not St. Augustine write that a three-year-old child was damned? In Carthage, Africa, around the year 195, a little boy of seven named Dinocrates died of a cancer he had on his cheek, which was horrible to see. His sister, named Perpetua, older than him, was arrested and thrown into prison because she refused to adore idols.
From the depths of her dungeon, she prayed for her little brother, in case he needed help. One night, as she continued these prayers with great fervor before being delivered to the wild beasts, she had a heavenly vision. She seemed to see her little brother Dinocrates, with many other people, in a dark place. His face was pale, his eyes on fire, and his cheek still covered with the cancer that had killed him. By the most expressive signs, he tried to make her understand that he was suffering horribly from fire and thirst. There was, indeed, a large basin full of water beside him, but its edges were too high for him to drink. Saint Perpetua, touched by his torments, prayed much for him and with all the fervor she was capable of.
A few days later, she had a more consoling vision. Her young brother, dressed in white, had a luminous body, his face shining with freshness and health; she then understood that her prayers had been answered and that Dinocrates was delivered from purgatory. It is this saint herself who recounted these two visions, which are read in the acts of her martyrdom, which occurred around the year 203. If children who die in the flower of youth thus go to suffer in purgatory, what torments must we not expect, we who multiply our iniquities over so many years?
Let us therefore redouble our piety, penances, and communions; let us attend Mass as often as possible and for the rest of our lives. Furthermore, let us relieve the souls in purgatory with all our power, so that they may effectively help us and promptly snatch us from the terrible fires of purgatory. Blessed John Massias, a lay brother of the Order of Saint Dominic, had a great devotion to the souls in purgatory. Often he spent the night praying for them before an image of the Most Holy Virgin.
These poor souls appeared to him in great numbers, begging him to have pity on their sufferings:
"Servant of God," they said to him, "remember us. Ah! Do not forget us before God; deliver us from the tortures we endure."
"What can I do, blessed souls?" he sometimes replied; "What can a miserable sinner like me do?"
Then, they begged him to offer to God for them his numerous prayers, his fasts, his penances, especially the communions he received and the Masses he attended. The blessed one then redoubled his good works and prayers. Twenty times a day, he ran to the church to implore the mercy of Our Lord for them. He almost killed himself with all the penances he could imagine, in order to suffer in their place and shorten their purgatory. These poor souls showed themselves grateful for what he did for them. When they had obtained their deliverance from God, before entering into glory, they came to thank him and assure him of their happiness.
Their joy was his sweetest reward; on those days, he was happy. But others rushed to claim his intercession and he began again for them with admirable courage. At the moment of his death, his confessor obliged him to say how many of these poor souls he had delivered. He confessed that their number amounted to one million four hundred thousand. What a procession for this good lay brother when he ascended to heaven! What a beautiful crown must have been the reward of so much charity! Let us imitate the devotion of this pious brother towards the souls in purgatory. We will be magnificently rewarded for it in this life and the next.
Above all, if we have a long purgatory to undergo, they will then repay us a hundredfold for all that we have done for them. With what ineffable happiness we will receive their assistance when the terrible fires of expiation devour us! Saint Peter Damian, having lost his father and mother at a young age, was entrusted to one of his brothers, who treated him in the harshest manner, not blushing to let him lack everything, even proper clothing. One day it happened that this holy child found a silver coin on his way. He thought he had found a treasure and was overjoyed. What was he going to use it for? The great poverty in which he found himself suggested many projects; but, after much reflection, he decided to take it to a priest, so that he might offer the holy sacrifice of the Mass for the souls in purgatory.
These holy souls were not slow to reward him. Upon leaving the church, he met another of his brothers, of a better nature, who took him in, took great care of him, and had him study; so that, subsequently, this holy child became a priest, bishop, cardinal, and above all a great saint. This is what this pious child merited, for such a great act of charity in favor of the souls in purgatory. Let us forgive all the evil done to us. Let us deprive ourselves, even of necessities, in favor of the souls in purgatory, like St. Peter Damian, and we too will have the happiness of being rewarded beyond all our hopes, in this life and especially in the next.
Saint Augustine was accustomed to say:
"I pray for the deceased, so that, when they have arrived at eternal glory, they may themselves pray for me."
Saint Bridget affirms, in her revelations, that she heard a voice rise from the midst of the flames of purgatory, saying:
"May the reward be given to all those who relieve us in our miseries."
Another, stronger voice cried out:
"O my God and my Lord, use Your ineffable power; reward a hundredfold all the living who come to our aid by their suffrages and raise us up to the light of Your divinity."
The same saint reports that she heard an angel cry out:
"Blessed in the world is he who, by his prayers and good works, comes to the aid of the poor suffering Souls."
It was Saint Odilo, abbot of Cluny in the 11th century, who instituted the Feast of All Souls on November 2nd. The establishment of this solemnity is recounted thus: A French pilgrim returning from Jerusalem was cast onto the coast of Sicily by a storm. A hermit, who lived in the rocks of this island, asked him if he knew the monastery of Cluny and Abbot Odilo.
"I often hear," he said, "the demons blaspheme against the pious persons who, by their prayers, alms, communions, Masses, etc., deliver the Souls from the torments they suffer in the other life; but they curse especially Odilo and his religious. When you arrive in France, I beg you to exhort this holy abbot and his religious to redouble their charity for the suffering Souls of purgatory."
We read in the life of Sister Catherine of Saint Augustine that in the same place where this servant of the Lord lived, there dwelt a woman named Mary, who, from her early youth, had led a life of debauchery. Age did not correct her; so much so that the people of the place, disgusted by her disorders, decided to chase her from the town and relegate her to a cave in the rocks. It was there that she died shortly after, without the sacraments, and deprived of all human help. Such a death did not seem to merit the honors of burial; also, no other ceremony was performed for the corpse of this woman than to bury it in the fields, like that of an animal.
Sister Catherine, who had the pious custom of particularly recommending to God the people of her acquaintance who passed to another life, did not think of the old sinner, believing her damned, according to everyone's opinion. It had already been four years since this woman died, when one day, the servant of God being in prayer, a soul from purgatory appeared to her and spoke these words:
"Sister Catherine, what misfortune is mine! You pray for all who die; it is only my poor soul that you have not taken pity on."
"And who are you?" asked the servant of God.
"I am," replied the soul from purgatory, "that poor Mary who died abandoned in the cave."
"What! You are saved!" cried Catherine in astonishment.
"Yes," replied the soul, "I am, by the mercy of the Blessed Virgin. In my last moments, abandoned by everyone, and seeing myself stained with sins, I addressed the Mother of God, and I said to her from the bottom of my heart:
O You, the refuge of those who are forsaken, have pity on me, who am abandoned by the whole world; You are my only hope, come to my aid! I did not pray in vain. It is to the intercession of Mary that I owe having escaped hell by an act of true contrition. This Queen of Mercy also obtained for me the grace that the duration of my purgatory be shortened. I only need a few more Masses to be delivered; have them said for me, and I promise you that once in heaven, I will not cease to pray for you to God and His Most Holy Mother."
Sister Catherine immediately had the Masses celebrated, and a few days later, this soul, shining like the sun, appeared to her again, expressing its gratitude:
"I thank you, Catherine. Paradise is finally open to me and I am going there to celebrate the mercies of my God and pray for you."
Also read | Spreading Religious Instruction in All Classes of Society
This account should prevent us from despairing of the salvation even of the greatest sinners. It should also invite us to pray for all the deceased, even for those who have led a very guilty life. Even if we were to pray for the deceased who had been condemned to hell, our prayers would not be useless, nor less meritorious.
In concluding the reading of so many marvelous accounts, let us make a good resolution to always be very devoted to the souls in purgatory, let us be faithful to this throughout our lives, and we will be very abundantly rewarded here below and in eternity.
Source: Livre d'or des âmes du purgatoire – M.J.S Benoit de J, Priest – 1925