Prayer.
Release, O Lord, etc., etc.
Twelfth Day.
Tradition excludes every doubt, even the least shadow of doubt, as to the existence of purgatory. We have testimony from a whole army of renowned writers of the Church: Sts. Augustine, Chrysostom, Epiphanius, Jerome, Cyril, Gregory, up to Tertullian who lived in the second century. The tradition is contained not only in the writings of the Holy Fathers, but also in the practice of the Church reaching down to the apostolic age, according [pg 449] to which prayers and sacrifices were at all times offered up to God for the souls of the departed. Tertullian speaks of the sacrifices for the dead as of an apostolic tradition, and St. John Damascene says, in his sermon on the dead: “The apostles and disciples of our divine Saviour, who had seen the eternal Word with their own eyes, and had converted the multitudes of the living world, taught that in the awful, immaculate and life-giving mysteries of the Eucharist, remembrance should be made of those who died in the Lord.” In confirmation of it he alleges the testimony of St. John Chrysostom in these words: “That John, who on account of his eloquence was called the golden-mouthed, teaches that not inconsiderately or accidentally was it ordained by those wise disciples of God and transmitted to the Church, that the priest should offer prayers for the dead in the celebration of the awful divine mysteries.”
Prayer.
Release, O Lord, etc., etc.
Thirteenth Day.
We will now hear from the great St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. I am quoting from his treatise on the care for the dead. Mark how beautifully he writes: “We read in the book of Machabees that there were sacrifices offered up for the dead, but even if there had been no mention made of the subject in the pages of the Old Testament, the authority of the Church would be sufficient as manifested in her practice, according to which the priest at the altar makes commemoration of the faithful departed.” [pg 450] By her funeral rites, offices and commemorations of the dead, as well as her ancient Ordos, the Catholic Church has at all times clearly and definitely testified to, and declared her belief in, the existence of purgatory. Further, she has solemnly declared it an article of faith in several Councils—as, for instance, in the General Council of Trent, which defines that there is a purgatory, and that the faithful can come to the assistance of the souls suffering therein by their prayers, and oblations of the most holy sacrifice of the Mass. And it even threatens with excommunication from the Church all those who maintain that every penitent sinner, having received justification, is forgiven as to his guilt and eternal punishment in such a way that there remains no temporal punishment to be expiated in purgatory.