A prayer to release many souls from Purgatory each time it is said and which was extended to include living sinners as well.
Eternal Father, I offer You the most precious blood of thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, for those in my own home and in my family. Amen.
Saint Gertrude had a deep empathy for the Church suffering, the Holy Souls in Purgatory. At every Holy Communion she beseeched Jesus for His mercy to be bestowed on them. During one Holy Communion she experienced the descent into Purgatory with Our Lord. She heard Him say: "At Holy Communion I will permit thee to draw forth all to whom the fragrance of thy prayers penetrates." After Holy Communion Our Lord customarily delivered more Souls than she had dared to ask for. More
Note: In conformity with the decrees of Pope Urban VIII, the author formally declares that the preternatural or seemingly supernatural facts recorded in this historical narrative rest on purely human authority, and consequently he does not in any way intend to pronounce a final judgment, or to anticipate any future decision of lawful Church authority as to their nature.
Introduction
At the expressed desire of the Directors of the Bulletin "Notre Dame de la Bonne Mort," this pamphlet is published with all the reservations ordered by the Church in the decree of Urban VIII, and as a purely historical document.
It was sent to that periodical by a zealous and devout missionary and is a pious document based on alleged conversations between a nun and a soul in Purgatory. Read online
FOREWARD
"READ ME OR RUE IT"
This title is somewhat startling. Yet, Dear Reader, if you peruse this little book, you will see for yourself how well deserved it is. The book tells us how to save ourselves and how to save others from untold suffering. Some books are good and may be read with profit. Others are better and should be read without fail.
There are, however, books of such sterling worth by reason of the counsels they suggest, the conviction they carry with them, the urge to action they give us that it would be sheer folly not to read them.
Read Me or Rue It belongs to this class. It is for your best interest, Dear Friend, to read it and reread it, to ponder well and deeply on its contents. You will never regret it; rather, great and poignant will be your regret if you fail to study its few but pregnant pages.
HELP, HELP, THEY SUFFER SO MUCH!
I. We can never understand too clearly that every alms, small or great, which we give to the poor we give to God.
He accepts it and rewards it as given to Himself. Therefore, all we do for the Holy Souls, God accepts as done to Himself. It is as if we had relieved or released Him from Purgatory. What a thought! How He will repay us!
II. As there is no hunger, no thirst, no poverty, no need, no pain, no suffering to compare with what the Souls in Purgatory endure, so there is no alms more deserving, none more pleasing to God, none more meritorious for us than the alms, the prayers, the Masses we give to the Holy Souls.
III. It is very possible that some of our own nearest and dearest ones are still suffering the excruciating pains of Purgatory and calling on us piteously for help and relief.
Is it not dreadful that we are so hardened as not to think more about them, that we are so cruel as to deliberately forget them!
For the dear Christ's sake, let us do all, but all, we can for them.
Every Catholic ought to join the Association of the Holy Souls.
Most Pleasing to the Blessed Virgin
While St. Gertrude was bewailing her negligence in that she had never served the Mother of Jesus with due reverence, and was beseeching our Lord to supply her lack of service, she seemed to see the King of Glory arise and present his deific Heart to His Mother, and therewith to make amends for all her negligence. To obtain a like grace, recite the following prayer:
O SWEETEST Jesus, by that love wherewith Thou didst deign to take our flesh of the most pure Virgin and of her to be born, that Thou mightest satisfy the desires of the poor and the wants of the needy,
I beseech Thee that Thou wouldst vouchsafe to make amends to Thy ever- virgin Mother, with Thine Own sweetest Heart, for all the manifold defects which through my own negligence and ingratitude have tainted and marred my service and honour of so gentle and loving a Mother, whose gracious succour has never failed me in any danger or necessity.
Do thou, O most tender Jesus, present to her Thy sweetest Heart, overflowing with ineffable blessedness, in reparation of this my neglect.
Let her see therein all the Divine love whereby Thou didst from all eternity freely elect her to be Thy Mother, didst preserve her from all taint of Original Sin, and incomparably adorn her with all graces and all virtues.
Let her see therein all the tenderness wherewith Thou didst cling to her when she cherished Thee, her Child, in her bosom; all the constant unfailing love with which, during the whole time of Thy sojourn on earth,
Thou, Who art the Ruler of Heaven and of earth, didst obey her as a son his mother and especially in the hour of Thy death, when, as though forgetting Thine Own intolerable anguish, and touched to the heart by her desolation, Thou didst provide for her a guardian and a son.
Let her see therein that love beyond thought with which Thou didst show her how precious she is in Thy sight, when on the day of her most joyous Assumption Thou didst exalt her high above all the choirs of Angels, and crown her Lady and Queen of Heaven and earth.
And thus, O good Jesus, may she be still to me a loving and long-suffering Mother, and both in life and in death my compassionate advocate and most gracious patroness. Amen.
THANKSGIVING FOR THE GRACES BESTOWED ON THE BLESSED VIRGIN
When St. Gertrude had recited this short prayer, she saw in vision the Mother of Divine grace arise and beseech the Blessed Trinity to grant her as large a measure of grace as the heart of man can receive in this life. Then the most glorious Trinity turned towards the Saint, and filled her soul with unutterable grace and benediction.
BLESSED be the ineffable, ever-adorable omnipotence of God the Father; and blessed the wondrous and manifold wisdom of God the Son; and blessed the amazing and most tender goodness of the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete; for that the ever-glorious Trinity hath deigned to decree from eternity, to create in time, and to bestow on us as our most effectual help and succour, the Virgin so full of all grace, in order that He might communicate to her His Own Divine and superabounding beatitude. Amen.
