H e l p i n g S o u l s To H e av e n

A couple of years ago, I met a diocesanpriest who, like myself, has a deep devotionfor the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Throughconversation, I learned that among ourmutually esteemed prayers is the Prayer ofSt. Gertrude for the Holy Souls. Thisprayer is one of the most powerful prayerswe can say for the Poor Souls. Our Lordtold St. Gertrude the Great that this prayerwould release 1,000 souls from purgatoryeach time it is said. This prayer was laterextended to include the souls of all the living, especially poor sinners, to alleviate theindebtedness of sin accrued to them duringtheir lives.

The Prayer of St. Gertrude is as follows:

Eternal Father, I offer You the most precious Blood of Your Divine Son, Jesus,in union with all the Masses saidthroughout the world today, for all theHoly Souls in Purgatory, for sinnerseverywhere, for sinners in the UniversalChurch, those within my own home andwithin my own family. Amen.

This prayer fits right in with the messageof Divine Mercy as revealed to St. Faustinaby our Lord. In Paragraph 1784 of her Diary,she writes:

Today, in the course of a long conversa-tion, the Lord said to me, How verymuch I desire the salvation of souls! Mydearest secretary, write that I want topour out My divine life into humansouls and sanctify them, if only theywere willing to accept My grace. Thegreatest sinners would achieve greatsanctity, if only they would trust in Mymercy. The very inner depths of Mybeing are filled to overflowing withmercy, and it is being poured out upon

all I have created. My delight is to act ina human soul and to fill it with Mymercy and to justify it. My kingdom onearth is My life in the human soul.Write, My secretary, that I Myself amthe spiritual guide of souls — and Iguide them indirectly through the priest,and lead each one to sanctity by a roadknown to Me alone.

Along with the Lord revealing to St.Faustina His great desire to save soulsthrough His mercy, He confirmed to herthe great efficacy of prayers like that ofSt. Gertrude. In Paragraph 1783, St.Faustina writes:

When I immersed myself in prayer andunited myself with all the Masses thatwere being celebrated all over the world atthat time, I implored God, for the sake ofall these Holy Masses, to have mercy onthe world and especially poor sinners whowere dying at that moment. At the sameinstant, I received an interior answer fromGod that a thousand souls had receivedgrace through the prayerful mediation Ihad offered to God. We do not know thenumber of souls that is ours to save

through our prayers and sacrifices;therefore, let us always pray for sinners.

I have often wondered about the extraor-dinary promise attached to such prayers. Imean the promise that 1,000 souls will bereleased from purgatory every time it is said.I’ve thought about how often I say the St.Gertrude Prayer throughout the day. If I saythe prayer just five times every day for a yearthat would be 1,825,000 souls, and I oftensay the prayer more than five times a day. I’vealso thought of all those throughout theworld who are saying the same prayer, that’sa lot of souls being released.

Further, I’ve thought about all theProtestants who do not believe in purgatory,all the Hindus and Buddhists who thinktheir ancestors are being reincarnated untilthey reach a state of perfection, and allthose countless souls down through theages who never had the Word of Godpreached to them. None of them are prayingfor their ancestors to be freed from thepurifying fires of purgatory. That wouldadd up to a lot of souls that I hadn’tthought of before. These are souls whomight be waiting a long time if we don’t

Dear Members,

VOLUME 2, NUMBER 4 †††† APRIL 2011www.PrayForSouls.org

Continued on reverse �

ForSakeHeaven’s

Discover how St. Gertrude and St. Faustina were kindred sisters in praying for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

remember them in our prayers and sacrifices,because their descendants are not evenaware that they are in need of such prayers.

This understanding of the importance ofprayer for the dead, especially poor sinners, isconfirmed in chapter 12 of the Second Bookof Maccabees, verses 39-46.

On the following day, since the task hadnow become urgent, Judas and his menwent to gather up the bodies of the slainand bury them with their kinsmen in theirancestral tombs. But under the tunic ofeach of the dead, they found amuletssacred to the idols of Jamnia, which thelaw forbids the Jews to wear. So it wasclear to all that this was why these menhad been slain. They all therefore praisedthe ways of the Lord, the just judge whobrings to light the things that are hidden.Turning to supplication, they prayed thatthe sinful deed might be fully blotted out.The noble Judas warned the soldiers tokeep themselves free from sin, for theyhad seen with their own eyes what hadhappened because of the sin of those whohad fallen. He then took up a collectionamong all his soldiers, amounting to two

thousand silver drachmas, which he sentto Jerusalem to provide for an expiatorysacrifice. In doing this he acted in a veryexcellent and noble way, inasmuch as hehad the resurrection of the dead in view;for if he were not expecting the fallen torise again, it would have been useless andfoolish to pray for them in death. But if hedid this with a view to the splendid rewardthat awaits those who had gone to rest ingodliness, it was a holy and pious thought.Thus he made atonement for the deadthat they might be freed from this sin.

Here, we see the Jews in the time of theMaccabees offering up an atonement for the sin of their dead, with hope in the resurrection for their fallen comrades whohad practiced idolatry, because they hadfought on the side of the Lord. Even thoughGod had brought death upon these soldiersas punishment for their sin, Judas and hismen trusted in the mercy of the Lord andoffered up a sacrifice that the fallen mightbe released from the temporal punishmentdue to sin and be made glorious in the resurrection of the dead.

Even more so, then, let us pray continu-

ously the St. Gertrude Prayer. Let us offer upmany other prayers and sacrifices for thecountless souls in need of our prayers in ourown family, our own Church, and even moreso for the souls down through the ages of allthose who would be otherwise forgotten.

I usually offer the St. Gertrude Prayerwhenever I say one of the Hours of theDivine Office, as it is a bookmark in myBrievary. (We’ve enclosed a card with theprayer in this month’s newsletter,) You couldmake a copy of the prayer and put it on thesteering wheel of your car or on your bath-room mirror. Make it something you seeevery day, to remind you to constantly prayfor the release of the Poor Souls. But pleaseread the prayer before you turn the ignitionkey or lather up for a shave, I wouldn't wantmy advice to lead to an accident.

Let us make a point to share thesethoughts with at least one person today.May God bless us all!

Sincerely in The Divine Mercy and Mary Immaculate,

Very Rev. Dan Cambra, MIC

Holy Souls Sodality • P.O. Box 716, Stockbridge, MA 01262 • www.PrayForSouls.org

1-800-671-2020 • Brought to you by the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception

For Heaven’s Sake • Helping S ouls To Heaven April 201 1

Pray the Divine Mercy Novena.It starts on Good Friday, April 22. Theeighth day of the novena, on April 29, isfor the sake of all the souls in purgatory.

Plenary Indulgence: On DivineMercy Sunday, May 1, you can obtaingraces for yourself (see Diary St.Faustina, 699) and offer the gift ofthe plenary indulgence, which theChurch grants, for a soul in purgatory.To gain the indulgence, you must be completely detached from sin,go to confession, attend Mass and receive Holy Communion, and prayfor the intentions of the Holy Fathershortly before, during, or after DivineMercy Sunday.

Recite the St. Gertrude Prayer asoften as possible throughout the day.

Colleen Daniel says she has prayed for the Holy Soulssince she was a small child.

“I have been praying for the Holy Souls for manyyears,“ Colleen said.“I say St. Gertrude’s Prayer 10 timesa day. I’m always striving to have a great number of soulsreleased, and I always pray for the souls who have beenthere the longest.”

Colleen says she had a very difficult childhood thatincluded a lot of abuse, but she still feels called to pray forher family.

“I have prayers said every day for my father who is stillalive and for my mother who is now deceased,” she said.

“These are the parents God gave me, and He must have given them to me for a reason.”Further, Colleen prays for her brothers.

She also feels called to pray for others who have caused evil in this world.“During prayer, I was told to pray for the perpetrators of the Holocaust,” she said.“If I

am called to pray for them, I figure it’s better to do it than not. If they made it to purgatory,they must have repented before their death. And who am I to judge them?”

Colleen also says she prays whenever she passes a cemetery, making it a point to pray forthose who will die that day. Further, she prays when she hears the siren of an ambulance.

“I pray for not only those in need of the ambulance but also the emergency personnelon the ambulance,” she said.“We don’t always know who we are praying for, but theyare all in need of our prayers.”

How I help the Holy SoulsTips for April