As we may do much good by a prudent zeal for the living, we can still more
benefit the souls in purgatory by the application of the merits of the
precious blood. Those souls are already in the hands of God, undergoing a
purification to fit them to enter heaven. They can do nothing for
themselves; they must patiently endure the just punishment that is meted
out to them. But the Church teaches us that we can help them, and we are
encouraged to use the means which God has placed in our hands. Those who
are in purgatory will surely go to heaven, but we can shorten their
purification by prayer. Our supplications for the souls in purgatory may
be even more productive of good than praying for the living, for these may
resist the goodness of God and render themselves unworthy of further
graces, while the souls in purgatory, being the friends of God, will
readily receive the benefit of our prayers. Purgatory is an effect of sin,
and sin and its effects are effaced by the blood of Christ. The Apostle
has said that Jesus loved us, and has given His blood to wash us.
Prayer.
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the precious blood, etc., etc.
Twenty‐eighth Day.
The sacred wounds of Our Lord are those abundant springs from which flow
the kindness and charity of God. Many saints have had revelations and
visions of this in their ecstatic prayers. St. Gertrude saw streams of
blood issuing from the wounds of Our Lord and flowing like rivers through
the Church, rendering her fruitful in many heroic virtues. How can we have
any merit unless we receive it from Our Lord? for without Him we can do
nothing. To do something meritorious, then, we should have recourse to Our
Lord in prayer. Our prayers would fall to the ground and be without
result, unless helped by the pleading of the precious blood; our works of
mortification would be useless, our penance vain attempts for forgiveness,
unless the precious blood made them efficacious. As the sun gives light to
the world, enlightening and fructifying it, so the precious blood shines
on our actions and makes them glow with a supernatural merit. There are
some virtues which we may practise to a certain degree, but how imperfect
are the best intentions, without God’s love as a motive.
Prayer.
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the precious blood, etc., etc.
Twenty‐ninth Day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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