Purgatory Explained by the Lives and Legends of the Saints

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Part Two - Purgatory, The Mystery of God's Mercy

"It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins." -2 Machabees 12:46


Chapter 61. Means to Avoid Purgatory - Blessed Margaret Mary and the Suffering Souls - The Novice and her Father - A Soul that had Suffered without Complaint

Among the revelations of Our Lord to Margaret Mary on the subject of Purgatory there is one which shows how particularly severe are the punishments inflicted for faults against Charity. "One day," relates Monseigneur Languet, "Our Lord showed His servant a number of souls deprived of the assistance of the Blessed Virgin and the saints, and even of the visits of their angel guardians; this was," said her Divine Master, "in punishment for their want of union with their superiors, and certain misunderstandings. Many of those souls were destined to remain for a great length of time in horrible flames. The blessed sister recognized also many souls who had lived in religion, and who, on account of their lack of union and charity with their brethren, were deprived of their suffrages and received no alleviations."

If it is true that God punishes thus severely those that have failed in Charity, He will be infinitely merciful towards those who have practiced this virtue so dear to His Heart. But before all things. He says to us by the mouth of His Apostle, Saint Peter, have a constant mutual charity among yourselves, for charity covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8).

Let us hear Monseigneur Languet again in the Life of Margaret Mary. It is Mother Grefiber, he says, who, in the memoir she wrote after the death of the blessed sister, attests the following fact. "I cannot omit the cause of certain particular circumstances which manifest the truth of a revelation made on this occasion to the servant of God. The father of one of the novices was the cause of it. This gentleman had died some time previous, and had been recommended to the prayers of the community. The charity of Sister Margaret, then Mistress of Novices, urged her to pray more especially for him.

"Some days later the novice went to recommend him to her prayers. 'My daughter,' said her holy mistress, 'be perfectly tranquil; your father is rather in a condition to pray for us. Ask your mother what was the most generous action your father performed before his death; this action has obtained for him from God a favorable judgment.'

"The action to which she alluded was unknown to the novice; no one in Paray knew the circumstance of a death which had happened so far away from that town. The novice did not see her mother until long afterwards, on the day of her profession. She then asked what was that generous Christian action which her father had performed before dying. 'When the Holy Viaticum was brought to him,' replied her mother, 'the butcher joined those who accompanied the Blessed Sacrament, and placed himself in a corner of the room. The sick, on perceiving him, called him by his name, told him to approach, and, pressing his hand with a humility uncommon in persons of his rank, asked pardon for some hard words which he had addressed to him from time to time, and desired that all present should be witness of the reparation which he made.' Sister Margaret had learned from God alone what had taken place, and the novice knew by that the consoling truth of what she had told her concerning her father's happy state in the other life." Let us add that God, by this revelation, has shown us once more how Charity covereth a multitude of sins, and will cause us to find Mercy in the day of Justice.

Blessed Margaret Mary received from our Divine Lord another communication relative to Charity. He showed her the soul of a deceased person who had to undergo but a light chastisement, and He told her that among all the good works which this person had performed in the world, He had taken into special consideration certain humiliations to which she had submitted in the world, because she had suffered them in the spirit of charity, not only without murmuring, but even without speaking of them. Our Lord added, that, in recompense. He had given her a mild and favorable judgment.