Saint Catherine of Genoa was a mystic with a most extraordinary love for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. She visited purgatory herself and wrote a book called, 'A treatise on Purgatory' I read it years ago in the monastery and found a lot of it rather grim and sad. Still I suppose its not the most cheerful subject in the world. I was surprised to see the whole book online and am starting to read it again for November for the month of the Holy Souls. One good thing about this book it certainly encourages you to pray for them as the descriptions of the sufferings in purgatory are so sad: http://www.cfpeople.org/Apologetics/page51a013.html
Saint Catherine reminds me of two early stories about Padre Pio and the Holy Souls, back in the time when they first started to visit him , to ask for his prayers. Down in the Church in the Friary in Gan Giovanni the candles were being kicked over. Padre Pio investigated and found it was the soul of a former novice who was causing the disturbances discovered it was the soul of a deceased novice who was in purgatory for a certain laxity in keeping the rules. He was trying to get attention of folks so he could be prayed for Apparently this is by far the most common cause of ghosts, souls allowed to return to seek prayer. The second story was of an old man who knocked at the door of the Friary. When Padre Pio answered the old man explained he had been an inmate at a nearby old people's home and had died as a result of smoking in bad, when his badding had went alight. He begged Padre Pio's prayers. This is an interesting case because it is clear that the soul was very careful of not frightening Padre Pio, so he knocks the door as an ordinary person might. I think this shows that at this early stage Padre Pio was not used to such visitations . Its reassuring that the Holy Souls do not want to give us souls here below a nervous breakdown!! :lol: :lol: Later on there were said to be queues of holy Souls waiting for Padre Pio's prayers!! I was talking to my friend Sadie at work about her Pastor Jack Mc Connell. Pastor jack is in charge of The Metropolitan Cathedral near my home in North belfast which some say is the largest Evangelical Church in Western Europe. I mentioned to Sadie that I had read about Pastor jack and considered him a very , holy man. Sadie I am afraid was repulsed by this. Born Again Christians I am afraid are often not at all happy with the notion of holiness..of the idea of a prayer journey to God in whch we grow into the likeness of Christ. For them its often an all or nothing decision, we give ourselves to Christ or we do not, its all black and white. Thus talk to them about a place like Purgatory is incomprehensible to them , whch makes me very sad. For if they do not believe in purgatory how, then can they pray for the Holy Souls who are stuck down there? The Abbot of my Monastery one time visited the home of a good friend of the Monastery , a Protestant who had just died. He said how sad he felt for everyone there. They sat around wringing their hands, feeling sorry about things but no one prayed for the dead man's soul for in Protestant teaching he was either/or, in heaven or in hell. Thus there was no more works of charity to be performed for him. The greatest work of charity we can perform for the dead, of course being to pray for their poor souls. But right down from the earliest days of the CHurch folks prayed for the dead and were visited by them: The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity "[T]hat very night, this was shown to me in a vision: I [Perpetua] saw Dinocrates going out from a gloomy place, where also there were several others, and he was parched and very thirsty, with a filthy countenance and pallid color, and the wound on his face which he had when he died. This Dinocrates had been my brother after the flesh, seven years of age, who died miserably with disease. . . . For him I had made my prayer, and between him and me there was a large interval, so that neither of us could approach to the other . . . and knew that my brother was in suffering. But I trusted that my prayer would bring help to his suffering; and I prayed for him every day until we passed over into the prison of the camp, for we were to fight in the camp-show. Then . . . I made my prayer for my brother day and night, groaning and weeping that he might be granted to me. Then, on the day on which we remained in fetters, this was shown to me: I saw that the place which I had formerly observed to be in gloom was now bright; and Dinocrates, with a clean body well clad, was finding refreshment. . . . [And] he went away from the water to play joyously, after the manner of children, and I awoke. Then I understood that he was translated from the place of punishment" (The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity 2:3–4 [A.D. 202]). ...and right after the death of Jesus we are told that, 'The dead arose and appeared to many', and in fact one of Christs first missions after his death on calvery was to visit the Holy Souls.
