An Ursiline of Sligo - Stories about Purgatory & What They Reveal (with Supplemental Reading: What Will Hell Be Like?) [Illustrated]

Nihil Obstat:	Richard A. OGorman, O.S.A. Censor Deputatus
Imprimatur:	Francis Archbishop of Westminster September 14, 1904

First published in 1904, by R. & T. Washbourne, 1, 2 & 4 Paternoster Row, London, and Benziger Bros., New York, Cincinnati and Chicago, under the title Forget-Me-Nots from Many Gardens, or Thirty Days Devotion to the Holy Souls . Retypeset, retitled and republished in 2005 by TAN Books, an Imprint of Saint Benedict Press, LLC.

ISBN: 978-0-89555-799-5

Cover illustration: Detail of stained-glass window Assumption of Our Lady . Photo copyright 1992 Alan Brown. Used by arrangement with Al Brown Photo, 3597 N. Roberts Rd., Bardstown, Kentucky 40004.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

TAN Books
An Imprint of Saint Benedict Press, LLC
Charlotte, North Carolina
2012

REST ETERNAL GRANT THEM, LORD!

Take we up the touching burden of

November plaints,

Pleading for the Holy Souls,

Gods yet uncrowned Saints.

Still unpaid to our departed

is the debt we owe;

Still unransomed, some are pining,

sore oppressed with woe.

Friends we loved and vowed to cherish

call us in their need:

Prove we now our love was real,

true in word and deed.

Rest eternal grant them, Lord!

full often let us pray

Requiem aternam dona eis, Domine!

REQUIEM AETERNAM

Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen.

ETERNAL REST

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.

CONTENTS

FIRST DAY

A DAY OF FERVENT PRAYER THAT MANY SOULS IN PURGATORY MAY BE ADMITTED TO THE JOYS OF PARADISE

A LL SAINTSAll Souls! It was well done to place thus close together these two beautiful solemnities. There is a fitness, too, in this season of the fall of the leaf for such a commemoration of the departed. The flowers and green leaves of May, the yellow harvests and the warm glow of August, would be out of place upon All Souls Day. Better to sing this universal Requiem when Nature herself has laid aside the garments of her gladness, when the warm blood of youth is no longer coursing through the earths veins, when the very sunshine seems chill and sad, and the wind through the naked branches is a dirge. But at whatever period they come, All Saints Day [November 1] and All Souls Day [November 2] should come together. And they come together, though one might be tempted, in all reverence, to wish that the order of their coming were reversed. If the commemoration of All Souls came first, we might hope that the suffrages of all the Church Militant on that day, joined with the prayers of all the Church Triumphant, might avail much to the relief of the Suffering Church; might procure the discharge of many, perhaps, among the patient victims detained in that prison house of mercy, and so increase the hosts of those honored in the Festival of All Saints. Or is it only by a tender afterthought, as it were, that the Church, having rejoiced in the glory of those of her children who have secured their crown in Heaven, turns with affectionate compassion to those others who are not yet there , though they are no longer here , whose earthly fight is over, but whose heavenly happiness is not yet attained? Would that all who are gone were gone to join that multitude which no man can number, thronging the Courts of Heaven! But so many disappoint the yearnings of the Heart of Jesus. So many live and die as if Jesus had not lived and died for them. And even of those who die in the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, how few are found with the perfect sheen of Heaven upon them! How few are pure enough, at once, after closing their eyes upon this sinful world, to open them to the full piercing light of glory, to meet, without shrinking, the all-discerning Eye of the God of Infinite Purity! And we are living under that same Eye, and we are laboring for that Heaven which the Saints have not earned too dearly, and for which the Holy Souls are not undergoing too severe a preparation. Have we worked and prayed during the past year as if we believed this?

These and other general lessons are urged upon us by the twin feasts with which November opensif, indeed, the 2nd of November can be called a feasta more eager longing for the society of the blessed in Heaven, a deeper horror for sin, a keener thirst for the glory of God and for the increase of grace and merit in our own souls, and a more intense reverence for the majesty and holiness of God thus wonderful in His Saints, and thus rigid in the purification of the Holy Souls.

But there is for each of these solemnities one peculiar object having its counterpart amongst the objects of the other. As All Saints Day may well be supposed to offer compensation to such of the blessed as have no special festival during the year, so the suffrages of All Souls Day supply what is wanting in the individual charity of the faithful, and may be devoted chiefly to the most neglected of the Holy Soulsthose who have no friends to pray for them. No doubt there are many such: some with no loving hearts to cherish their memoryand even the most loving hearts cannot keep up a practical remembrance of the departed during many years of our short lifetime. The Purgatory of many souls may last very many lifetimes. One who is hardly there now, for he ended a very holy life by a very holy death, said on his deathbed: Eternity is so long that I think Purgatory must be long, too. You must help me, then, with prayers. Even in religion we are apt to forget our deceased brothers, relying too much on their having died religious.

Before the month closes which is opening now, may our hearts have grown more pleasing to the Heart of Jesus and the Heart of Marymore dear to them because more like to them; and, as all belongs to Jesus, let us give to Mary a mothers share in all the days of our lives, especially in these two sacred days which invite us to love and honor her as Queen of All Saints and Compassionate Mother of the Suffering Souls.

Ah! turn to Jesus, Mother! turn,

And call Him by His tenderest names.

Pray for the holy souls that burn

This hour amid the cleansing flames.

REV. MATTHEW RUSSELL, S.J.

On one occasion as the community over which St. Gertrude presided recited the Great Psalter for the souls of the faithful departed, the Saint prepared herself for Holy Communion, and prayed for these souls with great fervor. She then asked Our Lord why this Psalter was so acceptable to Him, and why it obtained such great relief for the souls, since the immense number of psalms which were recited and the long prayers after each caused more weariness than devotion. Our Lord replied: The desire which I have for the deliverance of the souls makes it acceptable to Me; even as a prince who had been obliged to imprison one of his nobles to whom he was much attached, and was compelled by his justice to refuse him pardon, would most thankfully avail himself of the intercession and satisfaction of others to release his friend, thus do I act toward those whom I have redeemed by My death and Precious Blood, rejoicing in the opportunity of releasing them from their pains and bringing them to eternal joys. But, continued the Saint, is the labor of those who recite this Psalter acceptable to Thee? He replied: My love renders it most agreeable to Me; and if a soul is released thereby, I accept it as if I had been Myself delivered from captivity, and I will assuredly reward this act at a fitting time according to the abundance of My mercy. Then she inquired: How many souls are released by these prayers? He answered: The number is proportioned to the zeal and fervour of those who pray for them. He added: My love urges Me to release a great number of souls for the prayers of each religious.