Release, O Lord, etc., etc. Thirteenth Day. We will now hear from the great St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. I am quoting from his treatise on the care for the dead. Mark how beautifully he writes: “We read in the book of Machabees that there were sacrifices offered up for the dead, but even if there had been no mention made of the subject in the pages of the Old Testament, the authority of the Church would be sufficient as manifested in her practice, according to which the priest at the altar makes commemoration of the faithful departed.” By her funeral rites, offices and commemorations of the dead, as well as her ancient Ordos, the Catholic Church has at all times clearly and definitely testified to, and declared her belief in, the existence of purgatory. Further, she has solemnly declared it an article of faith in several Councils—as, for instance, in the General Council of Trent, which defines that there is a purgatory, and that the faithful can come to the assistance of the souls suffering therein by their prayers, and oblations of the most holy sacrifice of the Mass. And it even threatens with excommunication from the Church all those who maintain that every penitent sinner, having received justification, is forgiven as to his guilt and eternal punishment in such a way that there remains no temporal punishment to be expiated in purgatory. Prayer. Release, O Lord, etc., etc. Fourteenth Day. What a touching proof we have of the faith in the intercession of the living for the dead, in the story of the life of St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine! As her son stood by the bedside of his dying mother, and with difficulty tried to restrain his tears, Monica said to him: “Only one thing I beg of thee; remember me always at the altar of God, wherever thou dost chance to be.” St. Augustine, therefore, often offered up the holy sacrifice for his mother, and in his “Confessions” he entreats God in the following touching prayer: “O God, grant that all Thy servants, who are my brothers and to whom I have dedicated this book, grant that all who read these prayers may, in their prayers before Thy altar, think of Thy handmaid, my dearest mother, and pray for her in loving remembrance.” When St. Paul says that at the mention of the sacred name of Jesus every knee shall bend in heaven, on earth and under the earth, by this last expression “under the earth,” according to the general opinion of the Holy Fathers of the Church, he pointed to that temporal, intermediate place, wherein imperfect souls must abide until they are purified from all stain of sin, but even yet, while still there, are united in common adoration with the saints who are in the full enjoyment of heaven, as well as with all the Christians of the Church Militant on earth. But St. Paul teaches us no less by example to offer up prayers and petitions to God almighty for the souls of those who have died in the Lord. Prayer. Release, O Lord, etc., etc. Fifteenth Day.