Such a wonderful month with the Holy Souls. I feel them all around me. A joyful and abiding presence. We pray for them. They pray for us. Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,
This take on Purgatory is so different I never heard anything quite like it before. But Polish mysticism/spirituality can be like that. It is very,very different than would we might expect from say Italy or Spain or France. It is kinda more in your face, take no nonsense. St Faustina was a bit like that. Or Pope St John Paul. Like the Poles themselves. No nonsense. Kinda nice, But different.
As today is St. Mechtilde's Feast Day, here is her prayer based on the Our Father for the souls in Purgatory, which she received from Our Lord during a vision. Whenever Saint Mechtilde (a mystic nun 1241 -1298) recited this prayer, she saw legions of souls from Purgatory ascend to Heaven: OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN, I beseech You, O Heavenly Father, pardon the Souls in Purgatory, for they did not love You sufficiently, nor render to You all the honor which is Your due, due to You their Lord and Father, Who, by pure grace, have adopted them as Your children. By their sins, rather, have they driven You from their souls, where You none the less wished always to live. In reparation for these faults, I offer You the love and veneration which Your Incarnate Son showed You all during His earthly life, and I offer all the acts of penance and satisfaction which He performed and by which He effaced and atoned for the sins of men. HALLOWED BE THY NAME; I beg You, O Father Most Good, pardon the Souls in Purgatory, for they did not honor, always and fittingly, Your Holy Name, but often they took It in vain and proved unworthy of the name “Christian”, by their lives of sin. In reparation for their faults, I offer to You all the honor which Your Well-Beloved Son rendered to Your Name by His words and deeds. THY KINGDOM COME; I pray You, Father Most Good, pardon the Souls in Purgatory, for they did not always seek or adore Your Kingdom with enough fervor and diligence; this Kingdom, the only place where true rest and peace reign. In reparation for their omissions, through indifference to do what is good, I offer You the Most Holy Desire of Your Son, by which He wished that they also might become heirs of His Kingdom. THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN; I pray You, Father Most Good, pardon the Souls in Purgatory, for they did not always submit their will to Your Will. In reparation for their disobedience, I offer You the perfect conformity of the Heart, full of love, of Your Divine Son with Your Holy Will and the most profound submission which He showed in obeying You unto death on the Cross. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD; I pray You, Father Most Good, pardon the Souls in Purgatory, for they did not always receive the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist with enough desire, but often without contemplation, or love, or even unworthily, or they neglected to receive It. In reparation for these faults, I offer You the outstanding Holiness and the great contemplation of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Divine Son, addressed to You in favor of His enemies when He was on the Cross. FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US; I pray You, Father Most Good, pardon the Souls in Purgatory, all the faults of which they have been guilty through succumbing to the Seven deadly Sins and also in not having wished either to love or pardon their enemies. In reparation for these faults, I offer You the out-standing Holiness and the great contemplation of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Divine Son, addressed to You in favor of His enemies when he was on the Cross. AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION; I pray You, Father Most Good, pardon the Souls in Purgatory, because too often they did not resist the pitfalls of the devil and the flesh, but they followed the Enemy of all goodness. In reparation for all these sins, in thought, word, and deed, I offer You the glorious victory which Our Lord won against the world, as well as His Most Holy Life, His Work and Sorrows, His Suffering and His Most Cruel Death. BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL; and from all punishments through the Infinite Merits of Your Well-Beloved Son and lead us, as well as the Souls in Purgatory, into Your Kingdom of eternal glory. Amen.
Thank you for this prayer. It got me thinking that perhaps as each of us prays it, we remember all the people from the forum who have passed on. My favorite part of MOG is that we pray for each other and to pray for the souls of members who have gone to their rest and may be in Purgatory, would be a gift to them and eventually to us once they are in Heaven. Peace
Last night my thoughts and prayers turned to a good friend called Henry who died , I suppose about five years ago. Henry was a lovely person, always laughing and joking. Very fit, he could walk on his hands and did a lot of cycling and running, very sociable, everybody seemed to know him as which was shown at his funeral were a large crowd of people turned up. He was badly hit when his wife died, fairly young after his children had all grown up and left home. He had one of those marriages where she was not only a spouse but a best friend to him. She was his world. His daughter approached him and asked him to cover a loan she wanted to take out to cover a place she wanted to start as a fast food carry out. It failed leaving Henry ruined, loosing even his house. He committed suicide shortly thereafter. Lovely and sad to remember him last night and pray for his poor soul.
I have always had a devotion to the souls in purgatory and sometimes they are top of the mind and I pray and sacrifice so much on their behalf and other times, like everyone I am sure, I am a bit cold in my devotion but even then they are always there. I too have had visits on 2 occasions that I have shared probably several times on here in the past but too lazy to dig right now for those in the search haha. Any way, I saw something yesterday regarding the St. Gertrude prayer that I did not know to be accurate and that is that, historically there is no reference to that prayer and the promises held within the prayer from Jesus, but there is allusion to pieces of it in her experiences. Anyone else know more on this topic? I have always done the St. Gertrude prayer and though I never expected 1000 souls to be delivered from each prayer recited but did have great hope and trust in the will of God to maybe deliver some? Thoughts? Here is where I heard this. I actually really enjoy this guy's channel too if you have never seen it.
I don't think I would get too tied down with exact numbers. But maybe that shows a lack of Faith on my part. I recall when I was younger I would have expected exactly 100.
I am more wondering if the promise was ever even made to St. Gertrude and the prayer was legit from the start.
I remember the St Gertrude prayer was in the little Pieta book...I have never doubted it mainly because my granny and Mom used to say it. There are promises to the St Michael chaplet....the Rosary etc... I don't doubt any of them. If my prayers saved only one soul or gave them relief in some way, I would be OK.
You know it never occurred to me to doubt it either. I just took for granted it was true. But I am sure God looking down from heaven will bless such innocence and give a great reward anyway, But in the books about St Gertrude in the monastery I suppose their would have been foot notes giving references. Maybe. Even with Padre Pio who only died fairly recently people tell stories and we have to take on Faith that they are true. But again I suppose it would be hard to get through life without a certain trust. Priests often tell stories from the pulpit. I just always assume they are true. It never occurred to me to ever question.
I thought of someone I knew many, many years ago and whose name I cannot even recall. But I prayed for them. It reminds me of little snowflake that falls on the window of our house in a dark winters night and clings there. Such a passing, touching thing.
