“Nicholas, man of God, look at me,” cried a soul to Nicholas of Tolentino. The young Augustinian priest had just begun to fall asleep when the voice surprised and alarmed him. The soul identified himself as Friar Pellegrino of Osimo, who Nicholas knew when that friar was alive.
“I am tormented in these flames,” Pelligrino lamented. “God did not reject my contrition and instead did not destine me to eternal punishment, which I deserved due to my weakness, but to purgatorial punishment, in virtue of His mercy.”
Then he begged Nicholas to “celebrate a Mass of the Dead for me, so that I may be freed from my torments.” But Nicholas could not because he was assigned to say the monastery’s community Mass.
“Then at least come with me … see our suffering … pity these unfortunates who await your help…If you celebrate Mass for us, most of these people will be liberated,” Pelligrino again pleaded. Nicholas was then shown a great sea of souls of all ages, sexes and conditions, stretching across the land.
Nicholas prayed all night. In the morning once the monastery’s prior heard his story, he gave Nicholas permission to immediately say the Masses for the Dead. Seven days later, Pelligrino appeared again — this time, accompanied by a victorious multitude also freed.
After that occurrence in the late 13th century, Nicholas spent his years praying and offering Masses for the souls in purgatory. He freed countless numbers. During one Mass, Jesus appeared, thanked him and showed him the souls his Masses had released.
In 1884 Pope Leo XIII declared St. Nicholas of Tolentino universal patron of the Holy Souls in Purgatory.
Nicholas’s experience wasn’t a one-time event. Nor was it for other saints along the centuries as they, too, heard or saw souls in purgatory pleading for their help.
We may never see or hear a holy soul from purgatory, but we learn what to do from the encounters saints experienced.
Have Masses said for the Holy Souls there. Our family. Friends. Those abandoned. In relation to what Jesus told Faustina, offer up an annoyance without complaining, like standing in a long line in traffic or the supermarket. Pray a Rosary for them. Say short prayers like, “Jesus have mercy on the souls in purgatory.” Remember what we heard as we grew up — “Offer it up for the holy souls in purgatory.”
Take a minute to pray for a forgotten soul in purgatory!
Pietro Perugino, “Saint Nicholas of Tolentino,” 1507
St. Ignatius Loyola included in his Spiritual Exercises a prayer called “the Examen,” which derives from the Latin word for examination. It is a meditation with roots not only in Ignatian spirituality, but also in the spiritual practices of the ancient Stoics. There are many versions of the Examen today, but all have five steps. Here is a simple rendering of some key elements:
Place yourself in God’s presence. Give thanks for God’s great love for you.
Pray for the grace to understand how God is acting in your life.
Review your day — recall specific moments and your feelings at the time.
Reflect on what you did, said, or thought in those instances. Were you drawing closer to God, or further away?
Look toward tomorrow — think of how you might collaborate more effectively with God’s plan. Be specific, and conclude with the “Our Father.”
Some versions of the Examen place a special emphasis on gratitude and feelings. A detailed example of such a meditation is offered by IgnatianSprituality.com.
“God is in it”
The heart of the Examen is the third part: reviewing your day.
“Think of it as a movie playing in your head,” writes James Martin, S.J., in The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything. “Push the play button and run through your day, from start to finish, from your rising in the morning to preparing to go to bed at night. Notice what made you happy, what made you stressed, what confused you, what helped you be more loving. Recall everything: sights, sounds, feelings, tastes, textures, conversations. Thoughts, words, and deeds, as Ignatius says. Each moment offers a window to where God has been in your day.”
And remember that no experience is too trivial for spiritual investigation.
“Nothing in our lives is so insignificant that it doesn’t deserve God’s attention,” notes Jim Manney in A Simple Life-Changing Prayer, a book about the Examen. “In fact, the mundane and the humdrum parts of our lives give depth and texture to our relationships with God. Washing the windows and cooking dinner are as much a part of the relationship as graduation day. If it’s part of our human experience, God is in it.”
Ignatius was emphatic about the Examen. He told the early Jesuits that if they for some reason did no other spiritual exercises, they should do this one. Then as now, the Examen is a spiritual tool for sizing up your days — and planting the seeds for a more purposeful life.
There’s only one door out of purgatory for the Holy Souls there. It opens only into heaven. But here’s the catch: they can’t open it themselves. We have to open it for them. We have the key.
The question is, will we help unlock it for some of them during this month of November, which the Church dedicates to the Holy Souls?
Here’s the beautiful part: The Church hands us not just one key but a whole ring full of them. We can use any number of them to keep unlocking the door for the single-file lineup of souls who are suffering in purgatory.
They’re all waiting to join the saints in heaven on the other side of the door. They can get there a lot quicker if we unlock that door for them. Notice how the Church puts All Souls Day, Nov. 2, right next to Nov. 1, All Saints’ Day?
So, let’s start with some of the main keys the Church gives us to use. Some work every day, and some work only at a certain time or day, like the one that works from Nov. 1-8 specifically for the souls in purgatory. These are listed in the official Manual of Indulgences (Enchiridion Indulgenarium).
Key for Nov. 1-8
Every year on these eight days the Church grants a plenary indulgence that can be applied only to the souls in purgatory. The faithful can receive this indulgence each of the eight days to apply to a particular soul — a parent, spouse, relative, friend, or anyone even unknown.
How to use this key? On each day from Nov. 1-8 a person seeking the plenary indulgence for a soul must (1) “devoutly visit a cemetery and pray, if only mentally, for the departed; (2) on All Souls’ Day (or according to the ordinary, on the Sunday preceding it or following it…) devoutly visit a church or an oratory and recite an Our Father and the Creed.”
There are a couple of other requirements that have to be fulfilled, too, which apply to any plenary indulgence. More on this detail a bit later, since it will also apply to other keys.
Just in case, for these same dates, there is a key that is a partial indulgence (for example, maybe a person isn’t able to fulfill all the requirements for a plenary indulgence). Again, for these Nov. 1-8 days, it can be applied only to souls in purgatory and granted for (1) devoutly visiting a cemetery and at least mentally praying for the dead; (2) devoutly reciting lauds or vespers from the Office of the Dead or the prayer, “Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.”
But don’t stop with only these eight days. You have all month to gain indulgences (more on requirements in a moment) to apply to the holy souls sending out their SOS’s (Stop Our Suffering). And you can help them every day of the year too, with other keys.
Mighty Keys for Every Day
These are most accessible, handy keys with a plenary indulgence attached (with the usual conditions) since they will readily open that door. These four can gain that plenary indulgence “each day of the year,” but “no more than once a day.”
Eucharistic Adoration. “Visit the Blessed Sacrament for adoration lasting at least a half hour.”
Praying the Rosary. “Devoutly recite the Marian Rosary in a church or oratory, or in a family, a religious community, or an association of the faithful, and in general when several of the faithful gather for some honest purpose…”
Reading or listening to Sacred Scriptures. “Read the Sacred Scriptures as spiritual reading, from a text approved by a competent authority, and with the reverence due to the divine word, for at least a half an hour; if the time is less, the indulgence will be partial.” Or listen to it being read.
Pious exercise of the Way of the Cross. Walk them in church or where legitimately erected.
You choose who the indulgence applies to: either yourself — you cannot give it to another living person — or to a holy soul in purgatory. Remember them this November, and throughout the rest of the year too.
Keys to the Indulgence
We went over the specific requirement for the Nov. 1-8 plenary indulgence, and then for a plenary indulgence that can be gained on any day of the year, one per day, though any of the main four listed.
Here’s a quick refresher of the standard requirements every plenary indulgence must fulfill to become plenary which wipes away all temporal punishment due to sin. Just think of the number of holy souls you help out of purgatory, and in turn what friends they will become helping you get to heaven.
To gain a plenary indulgence you must:
Be baptized and in the state of grace, at least at the time the indulgenced work is done.
Have “the interior disposition of complete detachment from sin, even venial sin.” Otherwise, the indulgence becomes partial, not plenary.
And fulfill these three conditions:
Sacramentally confess your sins
Receive Holy Communion. (“It is certainly better to receive it while participating in Holy Mass, but for the indulgence only Holy Communion is required”).
Pray for the intentions of the Holy Father. One Our Father and one Hail Mary fully satisfies this.
One sacramental confession suffices for gaining several plenary indulgences, but a separate Holy Communion and separate prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father are required for each plenary indulgence. According to the most recent Church guidelines on the subject, “it is sufficient that these sacred rites and prayers be carried out within several days (about 20) before or after the indulgenced act.”
Of course, you must also:
Perform the prescribed work to which the indulgence is attached.
Have at least a general intention to gain the indulgence. You can’t receive an indulgence unintentionally or by accident.
If any part of the requirements is missing, then the indulgence becomes partial. Heaven determines the degree of the partial indulgence.
Helps the Holy Souls and Ourselves
We’re on the receiving end, too, even when we give away the indulgence, plenary or partial, to the holy souls in purgatory. Here’s how.
When Blessed Pope Paul VI updated the enchiridion in 1967, he said that the “aim in granting them is both to help the faithful expiate the punishment due sins and to urge them to works of piety, penance, and charity.”
Then in a 1999 general audience concentrated on indulgences, St. John Paul II explained how the Church “dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints … as it were through indulgences.”
He said it is “the expression of the Church’s full confidence of being heard by the Father when — in view of Christ’s merits and, by his gift, those of Our Lady and the saints — she asks him to mitigate or cancel the painful aspect of punishment by fostering its medicinal aspect through other channels of grace. In the unfathomable mystery of divine wisdom, this gift of intercession can also benefit the faithful departed, who receive its fruits in a way appropriate to their condition.”
Even though we give the indulgence away to a holy soul, here’s how we’re helped as we aim for that plenary indulgence. St. John Paul II pointed to the requirement “that the spiritual condition for receiving a plenary indulgence is the exclusion ‘of all attachment to sin, even venial sin.’”
“Therefore, it would be a mistake to think that we can receive this gift by simply performing certain outward acts. On the contrary, they are required as the expression and support of our progress in conversion.”
So at the same time we’re helping the holy souls and getting that indulgence key to quickly open the door to heaven for them, we’re progressing in our spiritual life.
Two More Keys
Simply put, attend Mass for the Holy Souls. Have a Mass offered for a departed soul. What could be more exceptional help for them.
Then there is the St. Gertrude Prayer specifically to release souls from purgatory: “Eternal Father I offer you the most precious blood of your divine son Jesus, in union with all the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, sinners in the Universal Church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.”
Once you use these keys and help the holy souls to get through that door in purgatory, they will never forget you. They will become your friends praying for you from heaven — and we certainly can use lots of friends helping us from there.
This article originally appeared Nov. 2, 2017, at the Register.
Joseph Pronechen Joseph Pronechen is staff writer with the National Catholic Register since 2005 and before that a regular correspondent for the paper. His articles have appeared in a number of national publications including Columbiamagazine, Soul, Faith and Family, Catholic Digest, Catholic Exchange, and Marian Helper. His religion features have also appeared in Fairfield County Catholic and in major newspapers. He is the author of Fruits of Fatima — Century of Signs and Wonders. He holds a graduate degree and formerly taught English and courses in film study that he developed at a Catholic high school in Connecticut. Joseph and his wife Mary reside on the East Coast.Show Comments 14
“Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive powerful graces.”
“I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.”
“The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.”
“It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of people from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.”
“The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall not perish.”
“Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just, he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life.”
“Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church.”
“Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plenitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the Saints in Paradise.”
“I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.”
“The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven.”
“You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary.”
“All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.”
“I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death.”
“All who recite the Rosary are my children, and brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ.”
“Devotion of my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.”
Our Lady’s Rosary Makers was founded in 1949 by Brother Sylvan Mattingly, C.F.X. This Xaverian Brother taught people to make rosaries on the premise that they would make rosaries and distribute them freely to missionaries. Our Mission, set forth by our founder, Brother Sylvan, who envisioned a world in which all God’s children, possessing an instrument of peace and comfort, would work to fulfill Our Lady’s requests at Fatima, to pray the Rosary daily, is to provide those in need of a Rosary with one.
OLRM provides low cost materials, resources, and support in the spirit of Br. Sylvan’s mission and vision. We are a member driven, non-profit, Catholic lay apostolate within the Archdiocese of Louisville. Our diverse and active members spread devotion through the Immaculate Heart of Mary by making and sharing the Rosary with the world’s spiritually needy.
OLRM publishes FREE instructions for making rosaries. How to make a rosary instructions are available for cord and wire rosaries. In addition to these two there are some instructions for variations on these methods. Printable, online, and video instructions of making rosaries are offered directly on this site below.You may also order FREE copies in bulk, or a DVD for $8.50, through our Online Rosary Parts Catalog.
OUR HISTORY
Long haunted by the urgency of Mary’s words at Fatima, Brother Sylvan, C.F.X., decided in May 1949 to do something extra for Our Lady. He began to teach children how to make rosaries for the missions.
Inspired by Our Lady’s words, and having seen letters from missionaries around the world, he knew of the great need for rosaries in the mission fields.
He thought: The missionary can teach his people Christianity, he can offer the Mass for his people, but what happens when he’s off caring for others? With a few rosaries arriving he could now leave a symbol of the Faith to his people. Even though they could neither read nor write, they could pray the rosary.
Letters began pouring in from missions all over the world. The need was really greater than anyone had imagined.
Brother made a trip to Denver to teach ten people there. This group grew and spread the word to others as far away as a small town in Minnesota. Inspired people of Detroit started a group which today sends over 100,000 rosaries a year to the missions.
He set up a small office in a basement room at St. Xavier High School in Louisville, Kentucky and named his slow-forming club “Our Lady of Fatima Rosary Making Club.”. An elderly couple donated $25 for a typewriter to communicate with missionaries and club members.
In 1951 Brother asked Father Bertrand Rapp, newly ordained parish priest, to take over the duties as Chaplain to the Club. On a cold winter night in December, after working all day to build a fieldstone “Grotto for Mary”, Brother Sylvan died.
Father Rapp worked tirelessly to continue Brother’s work. Teaching here, arranging for volunteers somewhere else. He spent his vacations in Rosary Club endeavors, unselfishly working for Mary. By 1954 membership had grown to 2,500 adults and many children in schools across the nation.
With growth came the need for more capacity to serve our members. Brother Sylvan had a difficult time raising that first $25 for a typewriter, and with growth, there were more expenses. Thirty-four thousand dollars for a bead mold; twenty thousand for a die to mold the needed crucifixes and centers. Wire had to be bought in half ton lots for maximum economy. Where does all the money come from?
Our Blessed Mother inspires, but she doesn’t make it easy; yet the answer came simply enough. The deficit is made up by the Club making catalog sales to those rosary-makers who wish to make a nice gift rosary for a friend or relative. The profit from these catalog parts help make up the mission loss.
Annual members dues of $2 help pay for our newsletter, Our Lady’s Messenger, with the remainder going into the deficit fund. Invariably when there is need, someone helps with a small donation; sometimes a large one.
Today the club has grown from its humble origins to be the world’s leading mission Rosary apostolate. A new International Rosary Center was built in 1968. Today the center is more than double its original size. OLRM staff work diligently five days a week processing and filling orders for rosary supplies, as well as, connecting members with missionaries and missions in need of rosaries.
The International Rosary Center houses our operations, showroom, and Our Lady’s Chapel – in which we pray our morning rosary. The Blessed Sacrament is present and we have a monthly Mass on the First Saturday in honor of Brother Sylvan and all Club members
When we are overwhelmed with grief, we turn to Mary, Mother of Jesus for help in our suffering. Throughout her life she endured much pain and sorrow and is fully able to empathize with anyone’s personal anguish. She endured the shame of being pregnant and unmarried, being poor, homelessness and having her only son unjustly imprisoned and executed. Most astonishing, Mary knew what was to befall her son yet had to see these events from God’s point of view and have faith that this was all for the good of mankind.
By meditating on the Seven Sorrows of Mary, a devotion from the Middle Ages, which uses scenes from the life of the Virgin Mother as a meditation on accepting the sorrowful part of life with grace.
The Seven Sorrows of Mary are:
1) The Prophecy of Simeon. As a young child, when his parents presented him in the temple, Jesus was met by the holy man Simeon who predicted everything that would happen to him in his address to Mary: “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted – and you yourself a sword will pierce so that thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.” (Luke 2:34-35).
2) The Flight into Egypt. In Bethlehem, after the birth of Christ, Joseph had a vision of an angel warning him of the impending slaughter of any male child under the age of two by King Herod in order to prevent the coming Messiah. The Holy Family had to travel a secretive route to Egypt and remain in that country until Herod died. Mary not only worried for the welfare of her own son but mourn for the murdered children left behind.
3) The Loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple. While on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the 12 year old Jesus vanished from his family. His heartsick parents finally found him three days later, arguing with elders in the temple.
4) The Meeting of Jesus with His Cross. Mary watched helplessly as her son was ridiculed and mocked as he stumbled, carrying the cross he was to be executed on.
5) The Crucifixion. As he was nailed to the cross, most of his disciples ran away. Mary never wavered as she stood at the foot of the cross, witnessing her son’s agony and death.
6) Jesus Taken Down from the Cross. Mary held her dead son’s wound covered body. This, her greatest sorrow is known as the “Pieta”.
7) The Burial of Jesus. As the stone was rolled, closing up his tomb, Mary had to say her final goodbye to her earthly son. Her faith had to be sincerely tested as there was no hint of the resurrection to come. Prayer
Most holy and afflicted Virgin, Queen of Martyrs, you stood beneath the cross, witnessing the agony of your dying son. Look with a mother’s tenderness and pity on me, who kneel before you. I venerate your sorrows and I place my requests with filial confidence in the sanctuary of your wounded heart. Present them, I beseech you, on my behalf to Jesus Christ, through the merits of his own most sacred passion and death, together with your sufferings at the foot of the cross. Through the united efficacy of both, obtain the granting of my petition. To whom shall I have recourse in my wants and miseries if not to you, Mother of Mercy? You have drunk so deeply of the chalice of your son, you can compassionate our sorrows. Holy Mary, your soul was pierced by a sword of sorrow at the sight of the passion of your divine son. Intercede for me and obtain from Jesus (mention your request) if it be for his honor and glory and for my good. Amen.
novena.com 