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By Aleteia Any prayer for the souls in Purgatory is sure to be heard, but there are certain special devotions that have developed through the centuries for these beloved members of the Church. There is a prayer that St. Gertrude received from Our Lord: Eternal Father, I offer You the most precious blood of thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, for those in my own home, and in my family. Amen. Besides St. Gertrude’s Prayer for the Souls in Purgatory there are other distinct methods of reaching out to help the Faithful Departed. There is this Chaplet of the Holy Souls. And there is a Rosary for the Holy Souls, which is a bit more detailed and can be used to offer prayers for everyone from our parents, grandparents, and children, down to those who suffered heart attacks, died suddenly in car accidents, or even those who died without receiving the Last Rites of the Church. How to Pray the Rosary for the Holy Souls: Begin with this prayer Let us pray: May the prayer of Your suppliant people, we beseech You, O Lord, benefit the souls of Your departed servants and handmaids, that You both deliver them from all their sins and make them partakers of Your redemption. Amen. Sign of the Cross + V. O Lord, open my lips.R. And I shall praise your name. V. O God, come to my aid.R. O Lord, make haste to help me. V. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.R. As it was in the beginning… Now We Pray for Specific Souls in Purgatory: O Jesus, You suffered and died that all mankind might be saved and brought to eternal happiness. Hear our pleas for further mercy on the souls of: (Mention by name each soul; choose all those you wish to pray for: parents, grandparents or spouse, brothers and sisters and other near relatives, teachers, priests, convicts, cancer patients, and on and on, including those who have wronged you and those who were your enemies.) Response to each name is: Jesus, have mercy! Using your rosary, begin as customary with the Apostles’ Creed. Pray the decades of the Sorrowful Mysteries: After the decade we pray: Lord, Jesus Christ, through Your five Holy Wounds and through all of Your Sacred Blood that You shed, we ask You to have mercy on the Holy Souls in Purgatory, and in particular on our parents, spouses, relatives, spiritual guides and benefactors. Complete the healing of their purification and let them enjoy and participate fully in Your Salvation. Amen. After the customary concluding prayers (Hail Holy Queen or Memorare), add this modified traditional prayer for the departed: Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them with your Saints forever more, because You are gracious. May the divine assistance remain always with us. And may the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
Based on the testimony of “I Was in Hell: My Illumination of Conscience“ Fabienne’s testimony is powerful. It shows the boundless sadness that takes hold of a life lived apart from God. But even more, it reveals the spiritual source of this ill-being that only an experience of Divine Mercy and Love allows us to know. What surge of light and sweetness penetrates one’s soul when it lets itself be touched by mercy and enters the life of the sacraments! We should never forget the sadness of our contemporaries who live far from God. A Christian can think with a certain levity that those who give in to their disordered passions or build their life upon uncertain and obscure beliefs can be happy. The truth is quite different. They carry within themselves a profound sadness, and in the flow of their life, they are prey to the power of the evil spirits that manipulate their freedom. The joy they display comes from their survival instinct. It is artificial but does not reveal itself as such until light enters their heart. Nothing is more powerful than the testimony of somebody who entered into the light after having known such darkness. A single gaze upon the Sacred Heart (this painting where Jesus points to the wound of His Heart, from which rays burst out) and the life of Fabienne, thirsting for love and chained to her passions, takes a flip. Jesus leads her to the source of liberation and healing that are the sacraments of Confession and of the Eucharist. Oh, if we could listen to this testimony! We could understand what liberations and illuminations the Sacrament of Reconciliation brings about. As a priest, I saw hundreds of lives turn from darkness to light in one single confession. That does not exclude that you need time to progressively consent to not returning to the slavery of sin that reactivates our links to the evil spirits. Those who share in the ill-being of Fabienne’s previous life will discover here the hidden face of many practices that they deemed innocent. It is not necessarily, the practices in themselves that are bad but, being deprived of a real relationship with God, they are built into a false religion. There are many gates through which the evil spirits take possession of the soul, and thus mistrust progressively ties it up by removing its freedom. We must always have mistrust of practices which we do not clearly know what is manifested through them. We rightfully label them as occult practices, in the sense that they serve as a cover. In reality, behind these “covers”, are spirits with evil intentions, hiding and working. Impersonal forces do not exist. God is a Person – light, sweetness, and tenderness. He has a face. Every face that hides itself is suspected of putting on a suspicious grin. We can only invite people who will read these lines to mistrust any relation with the spirits, hiding behind the facade of religious practice. What is actually hidden behind the spirits or the dead that speak through the voice of mediums? What mediation do these so-called mediums practice? The testimony of Fabienne expresses that to us. Often, behind these false manifestations of the dead that speak to the living, there are hidden evil spirits. In the long or short term, these “consultations” bring out that which Fabienne expressed very well for having lived it out: an evil being which carries with it an unbearable confusion for the soul. These evil spirits weave links that progressively limit freedom. This testimony reaches each one of us by showing the hidden face not only of our sins, but also of these troubling practices that invade our society and substitute themselves for the true religion. They promise the abatement of the ill-being that gnaws at our heart, wounded and thirsting for love, but they immerse us into an indefinable ill-being. The more we seek to free ourselves, the more we feel bound and prey to sadness. When the Mercy of Jesus entered the heart of Fabienne, she, in fact, discovered the flip side of the decor. First of all, she acknowledged her own responsibility – very important and very present in this testimony – and then the role of the evil spirits that sought to take her freedom and creep into her soul so as to possess her nearly totally. She became conscious of the ignorance in which she found herself and began to taste true freedom, the light that enlightens the heart and especially the infinite tenderness of God. In the great love of Jesus,−Father Jean Eudes Doctor of Theology My Illumination of Conscience— The peace of Jesus be with you! Beloved brothers and sisters, I come to witness today that Christ brought me back to life! My parents had me baptized a few days after my birth. I followed all the catechism classes, and I made my First Communion. My mother, a holy woman, taught me to pray every night. However, after my First Communion, I no longer attended the Catholic Church until 1996, when Jesus came to save me. I was 32 years old. I will tell you a bit about the life that I led all those years, far from Jesus. Searching for Love As soon as I turned 15, my life took a reversal. I began to smoke, frequented filthy bars, participated in card readings, practiced numerology, and wrote to astrologers. When I finished my studies in school, I spent all the weekends in discotheques, smoking hashish and drinking alcohol. I wore miniskirts and designer clothes. Without guilty feelings, I frolicked with the men I met. I was searching for Love with a capital L. Satan kept me bound and prevented me from turning towards the love of Christ. He blinded me with what men could give me: pleasure of the flesh, money, wellbeing, and the world. I was under his hellish bindings. I needed somebody to take much care of me….
It is likely that this litany was used at the monastery of Clonsast around the year 725 and was later translated into Latin. Here below is an English translation of the original Irish from the 8th century. O GREAT Mary, [pray for us]Mary, greatest of Marys,Most great of women,Queen of the angels,Mistress of the heavens,Woman full and replete with the grace of the Holy Spirit,Blessed and most blessed,Mother of eternal glory,Mother of the heavenly and earthly Church,Mother of love and indulgence,Mother of the golden light,Honor of the sky,Harbinger of peace.Gate of heaven,Golden casket, Couch of love and mercy,Temple of the Divinity,Beauty of virgins,Mistress of the tribes,Fountain of the gardens,Cleansing of sins,Washing of souls,Mother of orphans,Breast of the infants,Refuge of the wretched,Star of the sea,Handmaid of God,Mother of Christ,Abode of the Godhead,Graceful as the dove,Serene like the moon,Resplendent like the sun,Destruction of Eve s disgrace,Regeneration of life,Perfection of women,Chief of the virgins,Garden enclosed,Fountain sealed,Mother of God, Perpetual Virgin,Holy Virgin,Prudent Virgin,Serene Virgin,Chaste Virgin,Temple of the Living God,Throne of the Eternal King,Sanctuary of the Holy Spirit,Virgin of the root of Jesse,Cedar of Mount Lebanon,Cypress of Mount Sion,Crimson rose in the land of Jacob,Fruitful like the olive,Blooming like the palm,Glorious son-bearer,Light of Nazareth,Glory of Jerusalem,Beauty of the world,Noblest born of the Christian people,Queen of life,Ladder of Heaven, Hear the petition of the poor; spurn not the wounds and the groans of the miserable. Let our devotion and our sighs be carried through thee to the presence of the Creator, for we are not ourselves worthy of being heard because of our evil deserts. O powerful Mistress of heaven and earth, wipe out our trespasses and our sins. Destroy our wickedness and depravity. Raise the fallen, the debilitated, and the fettered. Loose the condemned. Repair through thyself the transgressions of our immorality and our vices. Bestow upon us through thyself the blossoms and ornaments of good actions and virtues. Appease for us the Judge by thy prayers and thy supplications. Allow us not, for mercy s sake, to be carried off from thee among the spoils of our enemies. Allow not our souls to be condemned, but take us to thyself for ever under thy protection. We, moreover, beseech and pray thee, holy Mary, to obtain, through thy potent supplication, before thy only Son, that is, Jesus Christ, the son of the living God, that God may defend us from all straits and temptations. Obtain also for us from the God of Creation the forgiveness and remission of all our sinsand trespasses, and that we may receive from Him further, through thy intercession, the everlasting habitation of the heavenly kingdom, through all eternity, in the presence of the saints and the saintly virgins of the world; which may we deserve, may we enjoy, for ever and ever. Amen.
3PM HOUR OF MERCY PRAYER V: You expired Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. All: O Fountain of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty Yourself out upon us. V: O Blood and Water which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of Mercy for us, All: I trust in You. V: Mary, Mother of Mercy and our Mother, All: Pray for us. V: Saint Faustina and Saint John Paul II All: Pray for us. (3x) — ACT OF ENTRUSTMENT OF THE DESTINY OF THE WORLD — All: O God, merciful Father, Who has revealed Your love in Your Son, Jesus Christ, and has poured it out upon us in the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. We entrust to You today the destiny of the world and of every man and woman. Bend down to us sinners, heal our weaknesses, conquer all evil, and grant that all the inhabitants of the earth may experience Your mercy. May they always find the source of hope in You, the Triune God. Eternal Father, for the sake of the sorrowful Passion, and the Resurrection of Your Son, have mercy on us and on the whole world. Amen. (Saint John Paul II entrusted the destiny of the world to the Divine Mercy on August 17, 2002 in Kraków Łagiewniki) — PRAYER FOR THE GRACE TO BE MERCIFUL TO OTHERS — (Diary 163) V: O Most Holy Trinity! As many times as I breathe, as many times as my heart beats, as many times as my blood pulsates through my body, so many thousand times do I want to glorify Your mercy. All: I want to be completely transformed into Your mercy and to be Your living reflection, O Lord. May the greatest of all divine attributes, that of Your unfathomable mercy, pass through my heart and soul to my neighbor. V: Help me, O Lord, that my eyes may be merciful, so that I may never suspect or judge from appearances, but look for what is beautiful in my neighbors’ souls and come to their rescue. All: Help me, that my ears may be merciful, so that I may give heed to my neighbors’ needs and not be indifferent to their pains and moanings. V: Help me, O Lord, that my tongue may be merciful, so that I should never speak negatively of my neighbor, but have a word of comfort and forgiveness for all. All: Help me, O Lord, that my hands may be merciful and filled with good deeds, so that I may do only good to my neighbors and take upon myself the more difficult and toilsome tasks. V: Help me, that my feet may be merciful, so that I may hurry to assist my neighbor, overcoming my own fatigue and weariness. My true rest is in the service of my neighbor. All: Help me, O Lord, that my heart may be merciful so that I myself may feel all the sufferings of my neighbor. I will refuse my heart to no one. I will be sincere even with those who, I know, will abuse my kindness. And I will lock myself up in the most merciful Heart of Jesus. I will bear my own suffering in silence. May Your mercy, O Lord, rest upon me. V: You Yourself command me to exercise the three degrees of mercy. The first: the act of mercy, of whatever kind. The second: the word of mercy — if I cannot carry out a work of mercy, I will assist by my words. The third: prayer — if I cannot show mercy by deeds or words, I can always do so by prayer. My prayer reaches out even there where I cannot reach out physically. All: O my Jesus, transform me into Yourself, for You can do all things. Amen. — PRAYER FOR PRIESTS — All: O Jesus, I pray for your faithful and fervent priests; for your unfaithful and tepid priests; for your priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields; for your tempted priests; for your lonely and desolate priests; for your young priests; for your dying priests; for the souls of your priests in Purgatory. But above all, I recommend to you the priests dearest to me: the priest who baptized me; the priests who’ve absolved me from my sins; the priests at whose Masses I’ve assisted and who’ve given me Your Body and Blood in Holy Communion; the priests who’ve taught and instructed me; all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way. O Jesus, keep them all close to your heart, and bless them abundantly in time and eternity. Amen — LITANY — Lord, have mercy on us; Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us; Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us: Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us; Christ, graciously hear us. God, the Father of heaven, have mercy on us. God, the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us. God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us. Holy Trinity, One God, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, Spare us, O Lord, Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, Graciously hear us, O Lord, Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, Have mercy on us. I fly to Your mercy, Compassionate God, Who alone are good. Although my misery is great and my offenses are many, I trust in Your mercy because You are the God of Mercy, and it has never been heard of in all ages, nor do heaven or earth remember, that a soul trusting in Your mercy has been disappointed. (Diary 247) With complete trust, let us bring our prayers before the Lord. Let’s take a moment of silence and offer…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5TGfisOKMM Jesus asked that the Feast of the Divine Mercy be preceded by a Novena to the Divine Mercy which would begin on Good Friday. He gave St. Faustina an intention to pray for on each day of the Novena, saving for the last day the most difficult intention of all, the lukewarm and indifferent of whom He said: “These souls cause Me more suffering than any others; it was from such souls that My soul felt the most revulsion in the Garden of Olives. It was on their account that I said: ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass Me by.’ The last hope of salvation for them is to flee to My Mercy.” In her diary, St. Faustina wrote that Jesus told her: “On each day of the novena you will bring to My heart a different group of souls and you will immerse them in this ocean of My mercy … On each day you will beg My Father, on the strength of My passion, for the graces for these souls.” The different souls prayed for on each day of the novena are: First Day “Today bring to Me all mankind, especially all sinners, and immerse them in the ocean of My mercy. In this way you will console Me in the bitter grief into which the loss of souls plunges Me.” Most Merciful Jesus, whose very nature it is to have compassion on us and to forgive us, do not look upon our sins but upon our trust which we place in Your infinite goodness. Receive us all into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart, and never let us escape from It. We beg this of You by Your love which unites You to the Father and the Holy Spirit. Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon all mankind and especially upon poor sinners, all enfolded in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion show us Your mercy, that we may praise the omnipotence of Your mercy for ever and ever. Amen. Second Day “Today bring to Me the Souls of Priests and Religious, and immerse them in My unfathomable mercy. It was they who gave me strength to endure My bitter Passion. Through them as through channels My mercy flows out upon mankind.” Most Merciful Jesus, from whom comes all that is good, increase Your grace in men and women consecrated to Your service,* that they may perform worthy works of mercy; and that all who see them may glorify the Father of Mercy who is in heaven. Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon the company of chosen ones in Your vineyard — upon the souls of priests and religious; and endow them with the strength of Your blessing. For the love of the Heart of Your Son in which they are enfolded, impart to them Your power and light, that they may be able to guide others in the way of salvation and with one voice sing praise to Your boundless mercy for ages without end. Amen. * In the original text, Saint Faustina uses the pronoun “us” since she was offering this prayer as a consecrated religious sister. The wording adapted here is intended to make the prayer suitable for universal use. Third Day “Today bring to Me all Devout and Faithful Souls, and immerse them in the ocean of My mercy. These souls brought me consolation on the Way of the Cross. They were a drop of consolation in the midst of an ocean of bitterness.” Most Merciful Jesus, from the treasury of Your mercy, You impart Your graces in great abundance to each and all. Receive us into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart and never let us escape from It. We beg this grace of You by that most wondrous love for the heavenly Father with which Your Heart burns so fiercely. Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon faithful souls, as upon the inheritance of Your Son. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, grant them Your blessing and surround them with Your constant protection. Thus may they never fail in love or lose the treasure of the holy faith, but rather, with all the hosts of Angels and Saints, may they glorify Your boundless mercy for endless ages. Amen. Fourth Day “Today bring to Me those who do not believe in God and those who do not know Me, I was thinking also of them during My bitter Passion, and their future zeal comforted My Heart. Immerse them in the ocean of My mercy.” Most compassionate Jesus, You are the Light of the whole world. Receive into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart the souls of those who do not believe in God and of those who as yet do not know You. Let the rays of Your grace enlighten them that they, too, together with us, may extol Your wonderful mercy; and do not let them escape from the abode which is Your Most Compassionate Heart. Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon the souls of those who do not believe in You, and of those who as yet do not know You, but who are enclosed in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. Draw them to the light of the Gospel. These souls do not know what great happiness it is to love You. Grant that they, too, may extol the generosity of Your mercy for endless ages. Amen. *Our Lord’s original words here were “the pagans.” Since the pontificate of Pope John XXIII, the Church has seen fit to replace this term with clearer and more appropriate terminology. Fifth Day “Today bring to Me the Souls of those who have separated themselves from My Church*, and immerse them in the ocean of My mercy. During My bitter Passion they tore at My Body and Heart, that is, My Church. As they return to unity with the Church My wounds heal and…
We are excited to be sharing the full video version of The 24 Hours of the Passion by Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta. This will be aired on Holy Thursday beginning at 8am EST to 6pm EST. Please join us in this powerful Holy Week meditation of the sorrowful Passion of Our Lord, as it was experienced by Him and Our Lady on an hour by hour basis. https://youtu.be/vpO15C5Pyjg
Brothers and sisters, I have asked the Holy Spirit that, by His Mercy—although I amunworthy of such great attributes— that He and Our Blessed Mother may guide me at all times to be able to offer our beloved Lord thesedays of prayer and meditation, in union with His Most Holy Heart, contemplating His Sorrowful Passion and meditating on each sacrifice ofHis and of Our Mother. And asking that everything we contemplate leave a mark in our hearts, in our being and in our journey, not only during this Holy Week, but that it marks the beginning of a total and definitive change for the restof our life. We all have a “before” and an “after”. May these pages help us in this “after” of our life, in which we recognize the Lord as “My Lord and Savior.” Your sister in the Lord: Luz de María DOWNLOAD BELOW Powered By EmbedPress Powered By EmbedPress