The Souls in Purgatory NEED Us: A Personal Experience

It is almost November and the feast of All Souls and All Saints. Before I give you all the official Church teaching on the souls in purgatory. I must tell you why this subject is close to my heart. I KNOW  personally, the agony of a soul who is desperate for my prayers. I have learned through personal experience, that souls in purgatory, although they cannot pray for themselves,  press in on the most sensitive of their relatives for prayer.

My Ukrainian grandmother, who had been in Canada for barely 15 years, died accidentally under extreme duress as a young mother of three boys when her husband was at war. Since this occurred in the 1940′s, she was denied a Christian burial in the Catholic church. When my grandfather returned from the war,  the young family left the Catholic Church and my grandfather remarried a Protestant Presbyterian. In turn, I was raised in this church with no knowledge of any Catholic roots until I converted. My father pleaded with me to reconsider; his childhood memories of how the  Church handled immigrants were horrific.
It took years before I understood that the emotional weight I carried like a rock in my chest was not mine but I what I felt was actually my grandmother’s guilt, shame and sense of unforgiven sin in my own emotions.  I heard her negative words interiorly and again the words I heard seemed to condemn ME.  These spiritual, emotional and even physical burdens were simply the only way my grandmother could get my attention. 

After two years of interceding for her, a priest ( who in fact is the official exorcist of my diocese) was finally led by God to give this poor soul absolution in the name of the Church.

Instantly, I mean immediately, I was free and my grandmother was filled with joy as she literally flew into the arms of Christ. I still could burst out into songs of praise every time I think of my grandmother and in thanksgiving for the new joy which replaces the burdens I carried for years.

To use a modern phrase, the  bottom line is that the Holy Souls in Purgatory are not able to pray for themselves or do anything at all to relieve their suffering. Period. The fact alone is enough to call us to pray because they rely on our prayers and efforts to help them.

The truth is we are all connected in the Body of Christ. The communion of saints, of all souls is real, a fact, My grandmother affected me, and I am still  connected to her just as St. Paul tells us in his letters. So I would say that praying for the dead, especially for those we have known, is a not simply a requirement of Christian charity but essential to our own spiritual health and well-being. read more>