Prayer.
Release, O Lord, etc., etc.
Fourteenth Day.
What a touching proof we have of the faith in the intercession of the living for the dead, in the story of the life of St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine! As her son stood by the bedside of his dying mother, and with difficulty tried to restrain his tears, Monica said to him: “Only one thing I beg of thee; remember me always at the altar of God, wherever thou dost chance to be.” St. Augustine, therefore, often offered up the holy sacrifice for his mother, and in his “Confessions” he entreats God in the following touching prayer: “O God, grant that all Thy servants, who are my brothers and to [pg 451] whom I have dedicated this book, grant that all who read these prayers may, in their prayers before Thy altar, think of Thy handmaid, my dearest mother, and pray for her in loving remembrance.” When St. Paul says that at the mention of the sacred name of Jesus every knee shall bend in heaven, on earth and under the earth, by this last expression “under the earth,” according to the general opinion of the Holy Fathers of the Church, he pointed to that temporal, intermediate place, wherein imperfect souls must abide until they are purified from all stain of sin, but even yet, while still there, are united in common adoration with the saints who are in the full enjoyment of heaven, as well as with all the Christians of the Church Militant on earth. But St. Paul teaches us no less by example to offer up prayers and petitions to God almighty for the souls of those who have died in the Lord.
Prayer.
Release, O Lord, etc., etc.
Fifteenth Day.
We may, without great difficulty, infer the existence of purgatory from the truths known by faith. Our faith teaches us that in the Sacrament of Penance our sins are forgiven, together with the eternal punishment due to them. The temporal punishment due to them is not always forgiven, however, and consequently it remains to be endured either in this world or in the next. Call to mind the examples of David, Moses, Peter and Mary Magdalene. They were all forgiven their sins and the [pg 452] eternal punishment due to them, and yet how much did those dear servants of God bewail their offences during their whole lives and expiate the temporal punishment due to them! Again there is another argument and ground on which our reason demands the existence of a purgatory. It may be that a soul just departed this life is free from all mortal sin—even free from all temporal punishment due to grievous sin, but perhaps not free from certain light and venial sins, which, though not destroying the grace of God in the soul, still darken and stain its full splendor. It may be that all those venial sins are atoned for and wiped away by the patiently borne agony of death, but how often it happens that the Christian is suddenly surprised by death in different forms, and when least expecting it. It would be contrary to God's mercy and justice to cast that soul into hell, or to receive it at once into heaven.