Pray For Us

By Marcy Stenstrom

      While I was in high school, my hometown small Catholic parish had acquired an older priest from another area parish. This man was stoic and his sermons and mass resonated with fire and brimstone. I can’t remember that I ever saw him smile or laugh other than through sarcasm. Every confession and penance was the same, “Pray for the lost souls in purgatory.” In my naiveté, I closed the confessional door behind me and went to my pew to pray, but not for souls in purgatory. “Yeah, right!” I said to myself. Several years later, I’m married and have a family. I went to our chapel for Eucharistic adoration one night and noticed a thin book about purgatory on the aisle chair. I picked it up and began reading, as I truly wanted some answers about the spiritual life after the physical death. My eyes were finally opened and I became a believer of the soul’s purification.

      It is first necessary to understand that we are the only of God’s creatures to have both a physical body and a spiritual soul. All other living things are merely physical and angels are purely spiritual but we are both. Therefore we experience a death of the body but the soul cannot be destroyed. As far as purgatory, it is a necessary purification process of the soul before it can enter heaven and see the face of God. This information is given to us in several places in the Bible. In 2 Maccabees, Judas of Maccabeus finds fallen solders who died in sin and took up a collection for a sin offering. “For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.” (2 Macc 12:44-45, Ignatius Holy Bible) The Catechism of the Catholic Church also provides some insight to us. “From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead: Let us help and commemorate them. If Job’s sons were purified by their father’s sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them.” (1032 CCC)

      Additionally, Jesus appeared to St. Gertrude the Great and gave her a prayer that would release 1,000 souls from purgatory each time it is said. “Eternal Father, I offer Thee 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, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.” (www.catholic.org/saints/)

     I realized once the truth set me straight that I needed to pray for those who may not have others praying for them. It is easy to pray for those we love but the act of faith in Christ comes from praying for those we don’t. The priest whom I spoke of passed away just a few years after my confessional experience with him. The parish was glad to receive a new priest. But I found myself praying for his soul so that he would be purified to see the God that he served the best he could. When I am called to this end, I hope that others will pray for me and my purification.