Prayers and Purgatory

I remember when my brother was dying from cancer last June, and I took him to what would be his last Mass. I picked him up from the hospital, and helped him get dressed into his best clothes. Since he was affiliated with the SSPX, that was the Mass we went to. As sick as he was, he knelt throughout the whole Mass, never once choosing to sit, even though it was very painful for him to kneel. During Holy Communion, he had tears in his eyes, and I know it was because he was overwhelmed at the reality of being able to receive Jesus; to be surrounded by His heavenly presence as angels sang His praises.

Later, when we got back to the hospital, he was extremely exhausted, and he sat on the edge of his bed with his head in his hands. He said to me,"So I'm dying." I said yes, and told him it was a great grace from God to know that he was dying, and thus he would be able to prepare for his death spiritually. He told me that he wasn't afraid to die, but he said he was afraid of purgatory. He was well schooled in Catholicism, and he knew that the punishments of purgatory are much worse than anything we can possibly suffer here on earth. I assured him that our family would have Gregorian Masses said for his soul, and we did.

It was then that I formed the habit of praying for the Holy Souls at the end of every Rosary decade. Right after the Fatima prayer, I pray the Eternal Rest prayer for my brother's soul, and for those in purgatory. This way I am praying for the holy souls many times in a day. We all have a duty to pray for the suffering souls, and it is a spiritual work of mercy to do so. I pray specifically for family members, for those I knew in my lifetime, for those who are most forgotten in the deepest depths of purgatory, for those who are closest to entering heaven, and for those who may be suffering the torments of Purgatory because of things that I have done or caused them to do.