‘O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a Fount of Mercy for us, I trust in You’

Saint Faustina’s Visions of Purgatory

In 1925, as a postulant, Sr. Faustina fell ill and while recuperating in Skolimow she asked Our Divine Lord who else she should be praying for. His reply was that on the following night He would let her know for whom she should be praying. She writes in her diary:

“[The next night] I saw my Guardian Angel, who ordered me to follow him. In a moment I was in a misty place full of fire in which there was a great crowd of suffering souls. They were praying fervently, but to no avail, for themselves; only we can come to their aid. The flames, which were burning them, did not touch me at all. My Guardian Angel did not leave me for an instant. I asked these souls what their greatest suffering was. They answered me in one voice that their greatest torment was longing for God. I saw Our Lady visiting the souls in Purgatory. The souls call Her “The Star of the Sea”. She brings them refreshment. I wanted to talk with them some more, but my Guardian Angel beckoned me to leave. We went out of that prison of suffering. [I heard an interior voice which said] ‘My mercy does not want this, but justice demands it. Since that time, I am in closer communion with the suffering souls.’” (Diary, 20)

Is it not significant that this vision of Purgatory was experienced so early in Saint Faustina’s ‘mystical journey with Christ’? Jesus called Saint Faustina His ‘Apostle of My Mercy’, and yet one of her earliest visions should be that of Purgatory. And so there is a link with the Divine Mercy prayers and with Purgatory.

Divine Mercy Prayers for Conversion of Sinners

Saint Faustina writes:

"The Lord said to me, The loss of each soul plunges Me into mortal sadness. You always console Me when you pray for sinners. The prayer most pleasing to Me is prayer for the conversion of sinners. Know, My daughter, that this prayer is always heard and answered." (Diary, 1397)

People who pray for the souls in Purgatory do so for their brothers and sisters in the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church Suffering. We need to be always conscious of our brothers and sisters in the Church Militant too – those of us here on earth.

There's a huge link between praying for the Holy Souls and praying for God's Divine Mercy. When we pray for the Holy Souls we pray them out of Purgatory and into Heaven. When we pray for God's Divine Mercy on sinners we pray for conversion of hearts thus praying souls into Purgatory and away from the gates of hell! Then we can pray them out of Purgatory and into Heaven!

Hardened sinners need the Grace of God to be able to change their hearts. God will never impose His will on anyone but all He needs is the smallest inkling of remorse to open the floodgates of His Mercy. We can provide that tiny inkling through our prayers for conversion of sinners, even at the point of death.

Our Divine Lord promised that the Divine Mercy Chaplet offered up for anyone on their death-bed who is in great need of God's Mercy will be saved. Imagine it, by just taking about 10 minutes a day to recite the Chaplet we can save souls from hell.

He also gave Saint Faustina a lovely short prayer to be recited at three o'clock, as He said Himself - 'the time of My greatest Mercy' - His death upon the cross. Jesus said to her:

“I desire that you know more profoundly the love that burns in My Heart for souls, and you will understand this when you meditate upon my Passion. Call upon My Mercy on behalf of sinners; I desire their salvation. When you say this prayer with a contrite heart, and with faith on behalf of some sinner, I will give him the grace of conversion. This is the prayer:

‘O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a Fount of Mercy for us, I trust in You’”

We all have prayers of intercession, asking God for conversions – for our children, spouse, friends, neighbours, work colleagues etc. The most important focus for our prayers is that we, and our own, will get to Heaven, worldly needs take second place

But there is a larger group of people, too, who needs prayers for conversion – sinners the world over, government leaders who defy the laws of God; decision-makers whose decisions affect the most vulnerable - the poor and the weakest citizens of the world; those in international organisations whose policies adversely affect the poor, the weak the vulnerable and the elderly; those in the world of finance whose economic policies leave devastation in its wake; those in corporate business whose sole purpose is to use people as production units forgetting their dignity as human beings; those in the world of armaments supplies who sell to both sides of conflicts; those in the commercial world whose only purpose is to increase profits at huge human cost; those whose life's work is to destroy God's creatures’ those who justify the destruction of life by 'finding cures', - the list is endless.

While on this earth we will never know the benefits of our prayers, both for conversions and for the Holy Souls. That joy awaits us when we reach Heaven. And not one of our prayers is ever wasted on ‘lost causes’, our Merciful God re-directs them to where they are most needed.

The full article may be read here, in Newletter Issue 2:

http://www.holysoulscrusade.org/index.html

http://www.holysoulscrusade.org/maria-simma1.html