All Souls Day | iPray with the Gospel

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus … uttered a loud cry, and breathed his last … And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen … And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, “Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him.”

Mark 15:33-39, 16:1-6

November is traditionally an especially important month to pray for those in Purgatory. Many visit the graves of the departed today. It’s only normal: If you saw a boy being carried away by the current of a river and drowning, and you could save him by just stretching out your hand and grabbing him, wouldn’t you help? As long as he lived he would always remember what you had done for him; and you could be sure that he would always be happy to help you in any way he could. Well, the Holy Souls in Purgatory are in a river of suffering right now and you can definitely help them to get out of there with your prayer. Like the boy in the river, they can’t do anything for themselves. They suffer and pray an awful lot but can’t offer those prayers for themselves. Only we and the saints in Heaven can pray for them and help them to get into Paradise. If we do this, the Holy Souls will be tremendously grateful. They will remember for all eternity that it was our prayers that helped them to enter Heaven. And here on earth we will feel their powerful intercession. This is a win–win situation: we pray for them, they pray for us.

One day St Padre Pio had an apparition of a Holy Soul in Purgatory asking for prayers to go to Paradise. St Padre Pio promised to offer the Mass on the following day for him. When that soul heard that he had to wait he cried: “Cruel!” Then he wept and disappeared. “That complaint,” said St Pio, “produced in me a wound to the heart that I have felt and I will feel my whole life. In fact I would have been able to immediately send that soul to Heaven but I condemned him to remain another night in the flames of Purgatory.” Mary, Mother of the Holy Souls, use my prayers and sacrifices to help your children get into Heaven.