Some of the practices most beneficial to the souls in Purgatory
2. — The holy sacrifice of the Mass, the august Victim, which is the ransom of the world, offered to its Father for the payment of human debts.
3. — Prayer, fervent prayer, this cry of the heart which is an all-powerful supplication to GOD. Not a few words spoken without attention and without confidence, but a true prayer, entirely thoughtful, entirely ardent, entirely holy. Prayer, assures Our Lord, obtains everything. Ah! if the souls in purgatory could pray for themselves in an effective manner, with what victorious fervor they would do so! However, they are waiting for us to replace them...
4. — Corporal mortification: fasts, deprivations, awkward positions, prolonged work, part of pleasure sacrificed, legitimate satisfaction postponed; even more so, discipline, psalms of penance with arms crossed, etc. We can apply the punishments that GOD sends us to the same intentions, accepting them with resignation and happiness. It is to unite with the sufferings of Jesus, and better atone for the illicit satisfactions which brought punishment on these souls. Oh ! that they would be easily relieved by these little things that the feeling of piety indicates by itself: a less soft diaper, less desirable food, water with one's meal, etc.
5. — Never pass a cemetery without reciting a prayer for the dead. Likewise when meeting a convoy. Likewise for all deaths that we learn of, in whatever way, in conversations, in public documents, etc. These habits are easy to adopt, and, once adopted, they cost nothing...
6. — Pilgrimages to the most revered sanctuaries, mainly of the Blessed Virgin, with bodily fatigue.
7 . — To associate several people together, with the aim of relieving souls from purgatory, and to excite each other to fervor. Have a day marked out each week to examine yourself on this.
8. — Have in your room some object, cross, rosary, image, blessed boxwood, to which you attach the memory of this devotion and which reminds you of it every time you look at it.
9. — Add to the recitation of the rosary a sixth dozen especially for these souls. Several communities do this.
10.— Visit the Blessed Sacrament for them, in the evening especially at the time when the indifference of men leaves Our Lord almost alone in his tabernacles. What would we not obtain if we went, at this moment, to implore his clemency for the souls that his justice punishes!
11 . — There is another practice, very holy, very authorized, which can be called heroic. We mention it with the others, but explaining it a little more fully because it is less known. This practice consists of making a vow to completely abandon to these souls all the satisfying works that one will do during one's life . A vow moreover not obliging me under penalty of sin, and despite this giving right to singular privileges, granted by Pope Benedict XIII on April 23, 1728, confirmed by Pius VI, and by Pius IX on September 30, 1852; — this vow assures the priests who made it the personal privileged altar; — to the faithful a plenary indulgence each time they receive communion; — a plenary indulgence, with deliverance of a soul from purgatory, every Monday of the year, by simply hearing the Holy Mass for this purpose, and then by visiting a church or a public oratory, and praying there for a few moments, the value of five Pater and Ave , for the intentions of the pope. — There is, moreover, no particular formula for this vow; but we could use the following, which expresses its spirit and thought very well:
“In order to contribute to your greater glory, O Lord my God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; in order also to better imitate my sweet Redeemer Jesus; to finally demonstrate my devotion to Mary, mother and comforter of all the suffering faithful..., I promise and vow to cooperate in the deliverance of souls from purgatory who still owe the penalties of their sins to divine justice; — without, however, obliging myself under penalty of any sin. — It is with this intention that I place in the hands of the Queen of saints all my satisfactory works, as well as those which would be applied to me by others during my life, as at my death and after my passage to eternity. Deign, Lord, to accept this offering, inspired by the charity that you came to teach the world. That if all my satisfactory works combined are not enough to pay the debts of the souls that the Mother of mercies wants to deliver, as well as those which remain with me for my own faults, which faults I sincerely hate and detest, I offers, my GOD, with your good pleasure, to make up for it one day in the trials of purgatory, abandoning me entirely in the arms of your tenderness. So be my help faith that saves and hope that consoles! » (This vow was made by Saint Gertrude, Saint Thérèse, Saint Lidwine, Saint Catherine of Siena, the pious Cardinal Ximénez, etc. Our Lord appeared to Saint Gertrude, and told her that, through this, she had been so pleasant, that he absolutely forgave him all his sins.)
12. — Gain in favor of souls as many indulgences as one can, and, in this respect, one can do a lot. We collect here a certain number of prayers to which great privileges are attached; recalling the doctrine of the Church, that when one gains, for example, a hundred days of indulgence for the deceased, this does not mean a hundred days less in purgatory, but “a hundred days of penance that was formerly imposed to sinners,” according to the ancient discipline of the Church.
( Divine Wonders in the Souls of Purgatory , by PG Rossignoli, of the Society of Jesus)
taken from the excellent Catholic blog : le-petit-sacristain.blogspot.com