Help the Holy Souls

HOW YOU CAN HELP THE SOULS IN PURGATORY

How You can Help the Souls in Purgatory

There are many ways you may help the Poor Souls in Purgatory, and in turn help yourself while you are living on this earth. We can bring others closer to God through prayer, sacrifice, good example, good advice and Catholic action. St. James the Apostle gives a method of avoiding or lessening our stay in Purgatory. He says, “He who saves a soul saves his own and satisfies for a multitude of sins.”

Spread Devotion

• Be a true friend to the Poor Souls by telling others about the Friends of the Poor Souls and ask them to become a Prayer Warrior.

• Make or give chaplets, rosaries and scapulars on behalf of the Poor Souls to missions and Catholic churches.

• If you are around children or teach Catechism, instruct them how to pray the rosary or Chaplet of Our Lady of Sorrows, enroll in and wear the scapular, and to pray for the living and the dead. Children love to be asked to lead a decade, so have them take turns.

• Pray the rosary or Chaplet of Our Lady of Sorrows together in groups or as a family.

• The soul who during life has honored and studied the Wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ and has offered them to the Eternal Father for the souls in Purgatory, will be accompanied at the moment of death by the Holy Virgin and the angels; and Our Lord on the Cross all brilliant will receive and crown them.

• Following is the Promise of Jesus to Sister Mary Martha Chambon in favor of souls:

‘When you offer My Holy Wounds for sinners you must not forget to do so for the souls in Purgatory, as there are but few who think of their relief. The Holy Wounds are the treasure of treasures for the souls in Purgatory.”

Enroll in the Golden Book

Living and deceased relatives and friends may be enrolled in the Golden Book. Members who join the Friends of the Poor Souls apostolate are asked to send us the names of their living and deceased friends and relatives. The names are enrolled in the Golden Book and when the prayer warriors say their prayers, they remember to “pray for all those enrolled in the Golden Book.” Imagine hundreds of people praying for your deceased husband, wife, child, parent, friend or neighbor. Masses are also offered for all the living who are enrolled in the Golden Book.

Prayer and Sacrifice

Have Masses said

The Sacrifice of the Mass is the same as the Sacrifice on the Cross. The Holy Mass is the daily renewal of the Sacrifices of Calvary. Jesus Christ offers Himself on our altars by the ministry of priests, under the appearance of bread and wine, to apply to our souls the merits of His Passion and Death. As the Redemption of man is the greatest even in history, so the Sacrifice of the Mass is the most marvelous thing in the world. Jesus, Our Lord and Savior, is the High Priest and the Victim, offering Himself to his Eternal Father with all the riches of His Divinity, and with all the splendors of His Sacred Humanity. The Holy Mass is the most sacred, solemn, and sublime act of religious worship that we can perform.

The Imitation of Christ says, “When a priest celebrates the Mass he honors God, he rejoices the angels, he edifies the Church, he obtains blessings for the living, rest for the dead and makes himself a partaker of all that is good. All this is the fruit of one single Mass.“

What is more Profitable and Meritorious--to have Masses Celebrated
for Ourselves during Life, or after Death?

Many Catholics are solicitous to have a number of Masses celebrated after their death for the repose of their souls. For this purpose they save money and devise a portion of their estate in their last will and testament. This is good and praise worthy, and persons intending this should by no means be dissuaded from doing so; yet it is more profitable and meritorious to have these Masses celebrated during life.

St. Leonard of Port Maurice exhorts us most earnestly to have Masses celebrated for ourselves during our life-time rather than after our death; and he declares that one Mass before our death is much more profitable to us than many after it. He gives the following reasons:

First, if we have a Mass said for us during our life-time, we are the cause of its celebration and can assist at it, which latter is impossible after our death.

Second, if a Mass is celebrated for us during our life-time, and we are perhaps in the state of sin, we may hope to receive from God's mercy, in virtue of this Mass, the grace to perceive our sinful state, to be moved to true contrition, and to reconcile ourselves with God by a sincere confession. True, God is not obliged to grant us this grace; for whosoever remains consciously in the state of mortal sin, is not capable of gaining supernatural merit. But as God is infinitely merciful, He usually grants to sinners who perform a good action the grace of true contrition for their sins. This grace of Holy Mass cannot be obtained after death. For if we die in a state of sin, even thousands of Masses would not transfer us into the state of grace; we remain forever enemies of God and children of wrath.

Third, Holy Mass can obtain for us the grace of a happy death, because in virtue of its being offered for us God will assist us with special aid to triumph over the enemy of our souls in that decisive hour.

Fourth, if Masses are said for us before our death, their merit will accrue to us after it, and we shall thereby either be preserved entirely from Purgatory, or our punishment will be mitigated and lessened. By every Holy Mass we pay to God a great part of our indebtedness; and if we hear it with special devotion we moreover blot out many venial sins, so that we may reasonably hope to escape a great part of our punishment after death. But if we defer these Masses until after our death, we shall be obliged to wait for their celebration in case we are in Purgatory, and this waiting is most distressing and painful. Hence it is better that the benefits accruing to us from Holy Mass be obtained in advance, than to wait for them in the torments of Purgatory.

Offer masses now for the intentions of your loved ones while they are still living, especially on the date of their baptism and the date of their birth. They may not understand now but one day they will be grateful for the generosity you are showing their soul.

-HAVE MASSES OFFERED FOR THEM.
-MAKE THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS.
-RECITE THE ROSARY.
-OFFER UP ALL YOUR PAINS AND SUFFERING FOR THE RELIEF OF THE HOLY SOULS.