Eucharist and the Holy Souls in Purgatory
By Author Susan Tassone

"O HOLY HOST, YOU THAT BREAKS DOWN THE GATES OF PURGATORY AND OPENS THE DOOR OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN TO THE FAITHFUL!"
--St. Pierre Damien

Pope John Paul II convoked the Year of the Eucharist beginning October 17, 2004 through October, 2005.

At the beginning of the monumental year we can truly benefit and celebrate this great gift Here are some ways we can intensely live the Year of the Eucharist!

The Church Suffering is waiting anxiously for us to help them reach Heaven and join the Church Triumphant! We must remember that the Church Suffering can benefit in a GREAT way during this awesome Year of the Eucharist! This is truly their year, too! We have the power and privilege of giving them Paradise during this Eucharistic Year! Here's how....

The Holy Mass is the most efficacious means to help, to relieve, and to deliver the souls languishing in Purgatory. Why? Because the Most Holy Eucharist is the Source and Summit of our Faith. It is the highest act of worship and the highest form of prayer. It surpasses every prayer. Once during the celebration of Holy Mass in the Church of St. Paul at Tre Fontane near Rome, St. Bernard saw an unending stairway which led up to Heaven. By means of it very many angels ascended and descended, carrying from Purgatory to Paradise souls freed by the Sacrifice of Jesus--a sacrifice renewed by priests on altars all over the world.

We often hear, "Oh, the souls of this or that person is certainly in Heaven." However, their situation is more like the sick man who waited for many weary years at Bethsaida's pool for someone to assist him into the healing waters They are saying, "We have no one to help us. We long for the Precious Blood of Jesus.

St. Jerome, one of the greatest doctors of the Church asserts that as a result of every Mass which is celebrated devoutly, many souls are released from purgatory, and also that the holy souls feel no pain during the celebration of Mass, if the priest prays for them in offering the sacrifice. St. Augustine, too, teaches that the holy souls from whom the priest prays during Holy Mass feel no torment for the duration of the holy sacrifice.

If only this were the first thing to occur to us in connection with our dead, to remember them at God's altar. The Church has always remembered the dead in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and exhorted the faithful to pray for them. Holy Mother Church urges us to pray for the souls in Purgatory. Although they cannot help themselves, these poor souls do have recourse to our prayers. It is said that in time of affliction we know our true friends. But what affliction can be compared to theirs?

As Michael Brown suggests in Afterlife: Begin a life Novena: a Mass offered for each year of your life where you can meditate on a different year each day.During each Mass ask God to send love and blessings where you have failed to love and to bless every person who came anywhere near your presence, from the moment of you conception to the present. Then you can begin the necessary purification here on earth.

Eucharistic Adoration is one of the most powerful forms of prayer in assisting the holy souls reach Heaven. Eucharistic Adoration is "intercessory prayer." The adorer assumes the office of mediators on behalf of mankind by their unceasing prayers, offering up supplications, day and night to God's throne of mercy on behalf of the Church Suffering. From the Sacred Host, streams of alleviating grace flow into the expiatory realms of Purgatory, bringing unspeakable relief to those imprisoned there.

And in a very special way remember our deceased priests and bishops who have brought us the Eucharist year in and year out each day of our life! We tend to "canonize" our clergy and loved ones immediately after their death. Father Faber tells us, "We are apt to leave off too soon praying for our priests and loved ones with an unenlightened esteem for the holiness of their lives, that they are freed from Purgatory much sooner than they really are." Let us offer a very great part of our prayers and sacrifices for the souls of priests, bishops and consecrated religious during this Eucharistic Year. 

Let us be missionaries of the Eucharist for our Holy Souls in Purgatory.

A holy soul in Purgatory said the following: "You the living, can do everything for us, and we can do everything for you, it is an exchange of prayers.

"Christ, 'living bread which came down from Heaven.' is the only one who can satisfy man's hunger at all times and in all parts of the earth. John Paul II

Offered to Medjugorje USA by author Suasan Tassone.

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