Prayer.
Release, O Lord, etc., etc.
Twentieth Day.
In this valley of tears the sighs of holy persons are full of pain and sorrow, of pining after God and heaven. How painful must have been this burning love and yearning desire in such souls as St. Paul's, St. Augustine's and St. Teresa's! Yet what was their suffering compared to the consuming fire of yearning in the souls of purgatory? For, however much we may pine after God, our only good, still while on earth we have many things that comfort us and deaden our pain. The very burden of our body, the distracting events of life, the possibility of great age, or larger store of merit, all these things are so many means of comfort to us. But the poor souls in purgatory have none of these consolations; there is nothing to assuage their pain of yearning and unfulfilled [pg 457] desire. More than the panting hart do they thirst after the fountain of eternal light and life. This unspeakable thirst is, in their case, all pure pain, unmingled with any soothing alloy. Oh, what a burning sea of sorrow those poor souls are plunged into! Flames within, flames without, flames all around them! Were it not that God's omnipotent hand upheld them, their spirit would almost be consumed by those flames of fire. As you have noticed I have left you to draw from the proofs, as also from the description of the flames of purgatory, your own pious deductions and resolutions. But now I ask is there a doctrine in the Church which calls for more serious and pious consideration than this belief in purgatory, for your own spiritual benefit, and then for the help you can afford those whom God's justice has condemned there?
Prayer.
Release, O Lord, etc., etc.
Twenty-first Day.
It has always been a doctrine of the Church, no less than a practice, that by our prayers and good works we can help the souls in purgatory. For the Church not only taught the doctrine, but from the earliest times encouraged the faithful to offer up the holy sacrifice for them. It was at the great Council of Trent that the doctrine became an article of faith. We are united to them in the communion of saints. This community is like the members of one body. As in the body all the members help each other, so in the communion of saints all have a share in the [pg 458] common goods, as the Psalmist says, “I am a partaker with all them that fear Thee.” If Christ could make vicarious atonement to His heavenly Father for our sins, and the eternal punishment due to them, then, also, the members of the community founded by Him can, through His power and merits, assist and make satisfaction for one another as regards the temporal punishment due to their sins. So that, as the Apostle says, the abundance of one may supply the want of the other, so that there may be an equality. The souls in purgatory, then, since they are souls departed in the love of God, belong with us to that great brotherhood, the communion of saints. So we can come to their assistance, and by our efforts help to discharge the debt they are still owing to God's justice. Or united to them by the bonds of love, we form as it were one person. We pass the value of our good works to them, and our heavenly Father looks upon the price we pay for them as if paid by themselves.