Prayer for the Souls in Purgatory

St. Gertrude the Great is invoked for souls in purgatory and for living sinners. Our Lord told St. Gertrude that the following prayer would release 1000 souls from purgatory each time it is said. The prayer was extended to include living sinners as well.

"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."

At Mass this morning, Fr. gave a beautiful sermon reflecting on today's Feast of All Souls.  Fr. explained that at the moment of death the soul goes directly to Our Lord to be judged. During this judgement, the soul is given the gift of "seeing" himself as God sees him.  He is given perfect knowledge of his sins and merits.  When judgement is passed, the soul who is saved is invited into Paradise.  But here's the extraordinary thing that happens: the person himself stays God's hands. Having perfect knowledge of his "self", the soul does not want to enter Heaven until he is perfectly cleansed, completely purified.  He asks God to allow himself to be purified, to be purged of stains and scars of venial and mortal sin, of all dispositions that, although not sinful, were not perfectly good.  And so the soul is invited into Purgatory.  

The soul who is in Purgatory suffers, we all know this.  And there are levels of suffering depending upon the purification needed and asked for.  The last level of suffering is the separation from God. 

Nobody knows how long Purgatory lasts for each soul. But what the Church teaches is that they are unable to move their suffering along.  They cannot pray. They cannot sacrifice or do works of charity that might earn them merit.  They have no bodies with which to do these things.  And so the Church asks us to pray and sacrifice for them.  Fr. went on to say that if a prayer or sacrifice for a certain soul is not necessary because that soul has already entered Heaven, then the merits won by these are given to the soul in Purgatory most in need.  That, of course, is part of the economy of Salvation.

St. Gertrude was chosen by Our Lord to give us this prayer for the souls in Purgatory.  The prayer itself is simple but look closely at the words, "Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today". Our Lord is asking that we meditate on His Passion so that this invocation is not just for the souls in Purgatory but for ourselves as well.  When Padre Pio spoke of the value of this prayer, he remarked, "We have an obligation to empty Purgatory!"  

Can you imagine the fireworks? All those souls racing to God?