Meditation for November 5, Purgatory

When Eugenie Smet was seven years old, she was running mer­rily with some other little girls in her father's garden, when she stopped abruptly and said, as if struck by a sudden idea which nailed her to the spot: "Do you know what I am thinking about? If one among us were detained in a prison of fire, and the rest of us could deliver her by a single word, would we not say this word immediately? Well, many souls are held in the fire of Purgatory; God Himself, who punishes them justly, is waiting for us to de­liver them by a little prayer and we will not do it."

The Church has just introduced the cause of Eugenie Smet's beatification. As Mother Mary of Providence, encouraged by the saintly Cure of Ars, she founded the Institute of the "Auxiliaries of the Souls in Purgatory," whose motto is: "To pray, to love, to suffer for the liberation of those who are expiating in the dwelling of purification."

I should be zealous in this devotion, for it is not a private devo­tion at all, but a thoroughly catholic program.

Pray for the souls in Purgatory; they can do nothing for themselves.

Love to offer now and then the thousand and one actions of the day; the multiple beatings of my heart, for the deliverance of the Poor Souls from Purgatory.

Suffer for them, above all, when a more cutting renunciation presents itself; accept it in the spirit of charity and of mercy; through the merits of this sacrifice, heaven will be opened more quickly for these suffering souls, or their pain will be lessened, for the greater glory of God.

"And you, O Holy Souls in Purgatory, whom I have been able to help fraternally, help me in your turn. Teach me to refuse God nothing since you know so well to what a Purgatory a refusal of grace can lead."

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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)