Seven Things We Can Do In November to Help the Holy Souls in Purgatory

Praying for the Holy Souls in Purgatory is an ancient practice of the Church.

But how do we know if our friends or loved ones are in Purgatory?

The Church teaches that unless a person has a “ST.” (as in Saint) in front of their name (i.e. St. Juan Diego, St. Jose Maria Escriva, etc.) - that is, unless they have been officially canonized by the Church - we should not assume that they are already enjoying the Beatific Vision in Heaven and because of that we should continue to offer our assistance to them to aid them in their journey to full union with God. In other words, we should assume that they are in purgatory.

The Holy Souls in purgatory are traditionally called the “Church Suffering” because they are truly suffering as they are going through this purification process. However, they can do nothing to lessen their own suffering. This is because, at the moment of death, their time for obtaining merit with God was brought to an end. The only way they can advance in this process of purification and reach the glory of Heaven is by the prayers and sacrifices offered on their behalf. 

It is a dogma of the Catholic Faith that those on earth can bring relief to the pains of the souls in purgatory. The Church uses the word “suffrages” to designate the assistance that we give to the Holy Souls. These are prayers, penances, and other acts of piety done with the special intention of consoling them in their suffering.

The souls in purgatory are undergoing purification because they “have not made satisfaction for things they have done or omitted by fruits worthy of penance” (Council of Florence).

In His mercy, God allows the souls on earth (on behalf of the dead) to do what they had not done for themselves while they lived; we complete, for them, the penance that they lacked.

"The work of suffrage that is done for another…is counted as belonging to the person for whom it is done…." (Saint Thomas Aquinas).

This holy exchange is possible because of the power of God’s eternal charity. The bond that unites the Church Militant (the Pilgrim Church) to the Church Suffering is Christ’s love that dwells in all souls in a state of grace. His charity acts as a conduit of spiritual goods between all His members.

To apply our spiritual goods to the Holy Souls, we simply remember them and unite this special intention to our acts of charity.

Here are seven acts of charity that we can offer for them:

1. Mass - The greatest gift the Church possesses is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. Therefore, the most beneficial thing we can do the Faithful Departed is to have Masses offered for the repose of their souls. In addition, we can attend Mass ourselves and offer our Holy Communion for them. 

2. Prayers - There are countless examples of prayers that can be offered for them. Three powerful examples:

• Praying the Stations of the Cross is beneficial for them; it supplies for their lack in being perfectly united to the Passion of Christ during their life.
• The Holy Rosary is very efficacious – Our Lady consoles her children in purgatory and relieves their suffering, just as she does for her children on earth.
• Eucharistic Adoration or a visit to the Blessed Sacrament is very beneficial for them as we lift them up to the Lord in prayer.
• Ease their suffering with a short prayer by St. Gertrude listed and explained here

3. Almsgiving is powerful for the remission of sins, which means that we can offer alms to the poor on behalf of the dead.

4. Fasting is an efficacious sacrfice that we can offer for the holy souls in purgatory. For example, we can choose a day each week and fast from something we enjoy like coffee or sweets and offer it for them. We can choose to take it the next level and eat only bread and water for a day or fast from eating or drinking anything until noon. We can forego a meal out or an amazon purchase and offer that act of self denial for them, in reparation for their sins. 

5. Indulgences - The Church also provides generous indulgences that can be gained for the Holy Souls in purgatory. There are so many to choose from. Indulgences enable us to at least double our gift - our acts of love - for the souls in purgatory. They greatly increase the value of our good works but unfortunately indulgences get a bad rap because of Martin Luther and therefore are, for the most part, completely overlooked and forgotton. That is so unfortunate! We need to form the habit of helping the souls in purgatory by gaining daily, weekly, monthly,  and/or yearly indulgences. This will add so much grace to our poor good works on their behalf. In order to form this habit with confidence we need to understand what indulgences are and what they are not and how to gain them in the most efficacious way. You can learn all of this and more here.

Learn about a special opportunity - 8 days in a row of plenary indulgences - to help the holy souls in purgatory - November 1-8 here.

6. Offer up our suffering and daily difficulties for the souls in purgatory. 

From from Father Jacques Philippe:

"It is beneficial for us to train ourselves not only to put up with difficulties but in a certain sense to choose them. That doesn't mean provoking them! But it means that when they do arise, we accept them with all our hearts, by a positive act of freedom, impelling us to move quickly from disappointment to acquiescence based on trust and love for God and as a sacrifice offered for others. Saint Therese of Lisieux did not like having her work interrupted. Sometimes she was asked to do work requiring quite a lot of concentration. the schedule of the Carmelite community was so intense that she had very little time at her disposal. When she finally found an hour or two to devote to the job she applied herslef in the following spirit: "I choose to be interrupted." If a sister came by to ask her for some little service, instead of coldly sending her away, Therese made the effort to accept the interruption with good grace and offer it up as a sacrifice for souls. And if nobody interrupted her, she consedered that a charming present from her loving God and was very grateful to him. In everything she could do her will, becasue her will was to accept everything with love and offer it for souls. 

"Consider Jesus' words: 'No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.' Here is a paradox. His life wa certainly taken from him: he was put in chains, condemned, led to Calvary, and crucified. But this was a death he freely accepted. In his heart was deep acceptance of what his Father wanted. Jesus remained supremely free in his death, because he made it into an offering of love for God and us. He "offered it up." By his free and loving consent, the life that was taken became a life that was given in love. 

"Our freedom always has this marvelous power to make what is taken from us - by life, events, or other people - into something offered up as a sacrifice for others. Externally there is no visible difference, but internally everything is transfigured: fate into free choice, constraint into love, loss into fruitfulness. Human freedom...does not confer the power to change everything, but it does empower us to give a meaning to everything, even meaningless things; and that is much better. We are not always masters of the unfolding of our lives, but we can always be masters of the meaning we give them. Our freedom can transform any event in our lives into an expression of love, abandonment, trust, hope and offering. The most important and most fruitful acts of our freedom are not those by which we transform the outside world but those by which we change our inner attitude in light of the faith that God can bring good out of everything without exception...Postive things become a reason for gratitude and joy, negative things an opportunity for abandonment, faith and offfering of love for othes."

7. Sacrifice Beads. Using sacrifice beads can help us to make our whole day into a prayer and offering for our loved ones who have died. Sacrifice/Virtue Beads can keep us aware of our union with Christ throughout our day especially when we are experiencing difficulties. It helps us to remain in Him…“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me” (John 15:4). Pull a bead whenever a sacrifice or difficulty presents itself and silently pray a prayer or a Scripture verse for your deceased loved one as you pull it. If you do not have a set of sacrifice beads, then keep your rosary beads handy and use them to count your sacrifices.

Here are some suggestions:

• For starters, you can offer your daily duties according to your state in life (e.g. married, single, student, job, family, etc.), especially the ones you do not enjoy. Do them with all the love, devotion, professionalism and diligence that you are capable of and pull a bead as you offer them to God as a prayer for someone you love who has died.
• After that, you can offer what you: 

1. Do not like (illness, rejection, fear, etc.)
2. Did not choose (stress, exhaustion, etc.)
3. Cannot change (bad weather, traffic, etc.)
4. Don’t understand (confusion about why God is allowing something in your life)

You can pull a bead each time you experience a difficulty as you do your best to accept each difficulty with trust and offer it with love as a prayer of intercession for a deceased friend or loved one.

It might be helpful to make a prayer list and keep it in your pocket or purse with your sacrifice beads. Read your list as often as needed to remind you of the soul in purgatory you are praying for and offering your sacrifices and suffering for.

I offer my whole day, every day for my deceased son and all the Holy Souls in Purgatory – every prayer, work, joy, sorrow and suffering; every difficulty – traffic, weather, rudeness from other people, difficult situations at work, headache, etc. I try to bear each one patiently, do my best and offer each one with love to God for them. 

In short, we can offer any prayer, penance, sacrifice, suffering, or good work to ease the pains of the Holy Souls simply by directing the intention of our action towards them. Jesus who sees our good works and knows the intention of our hearts, will apply it to them.

It's a Win/Win

But not only are we helping them, they can intercede for our needs too and they will if we ask them. There can be a very real exchange of spiritual goods between us and them. 

We pray and offer our good works for them and they pray for our needs; in this way our relationship with them continues but in this new way. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church #958 says that “Our prayer for them is capable not only of helping them, but also of making their intercession for us effective.” The closer they come to God the more their intercessory power increases.

The Communion of Saints is a beautiful thing!