LUISA DESCENDS TO PURGATORY TO SUFFER PAINS IN ORDER TO FREE A SOUL AND RELIEVE A SOUL THERE
FROM THE BOOK OF HEAVEN
V3 – November 28, 1899 – “Here is Purgatory, and many souls are crammed in this fire. You will go to this place to suffer in order to free the souls I choose, and you will do this for love of Me.”
Though trembling a little, immediately I said to Him: ‘Everything for love of You, I am ready, but You must come with me, otherwise, if You leave me, You do not let Yourself be found any more, and then You make me cry quite a bit.’ And He: “If I come with you, what would be your Purgatory? With my presence, those pains would change into joys and contentments for you.” And I: ‘I do not want to go alone, but as we go into that fire, You will remain behind my shoulders, so I will not see You, and I will accept this suffering.’
So I went into that place filled with thick darkness, and He followed me from behind. For fear that He might leave me, I grabbed His hands, holding them tightly upon my shoulders. As I arrived down there… who can describe the pains that those souls suffered? They are certainly unutterable for people clothed with human flesh. But as I entered that fire, it would be destroyed, and the darkness would be dispelled, and many souls would come out, and others would be relieved.
V3 – August 30, 1900 – “…the Queen Mama said to me (Luisa): “Do you want to come to Purgatory to relieve the king (king of Italy) of the horrible pains he is in?” And I: ‘My Mama, as He wants.’ In an instant She took me, and flying She transported me into a place of atrocious torments, all mortal; and that miserable one was there, going from one torment to another. It seemed that for as many souls as had been lost because of him, so many deaths was he supposed to suffer. Then, after I went through several of those torments myself, he was relieved a little bit. Again, the Queen Mama took me away from that place of pains, and I found myself inside myself.
LUISA’S PARENTS AND PURGATORY
V7 – May 9, 1907 – Now, since I do not remember everything distinctly, I will tell of the past, all together and confusedly, starting from where I left when I was praying that He would take my mother to Paradise without her touching Purgatory. Then, on March 19, the day dedicated to Saint Joseph, in the morning, while I was in my usual state, my mother passed from this life into the sphere of eternity; and blessed Jesus, allowing me to see her as He was taking her, told me: “My daughter, the Creator takes his creature.”
At that moment, I felt I was being invested, inside and out, with a fire so alive that I felt my bowels, my stomach and all the rest burning; and if I would have something, it would convert into fire, and I would be forced to bring it up immediately after I had swallowed it. This fire consumed me and kept me alive. Oh, how I understood the devouring fire of Purgatory which, while consuming the soul, gives her life! The fire does the office of food, of water, of death and of life; but I was happy in that state. However, since I had only seen that Jesus had taken her, but He had not showed me where He had taken her, my happiness was not full, and from my very sufferings I would draw concern, since those would be the sufferings of my mother if she was in Purgatory. And seeing blessed Jesus, who in these days has almost never left me, I would cry and say to Him: ‘My sweet love, tell me – where did You take her? I am content that You have taken her away from us, because You keep her with Yourself; but if You do not have her with Yourself, this I do not tolerate, and I will cry so much until You content me.’ And He seemed to enjoy my crying; He would embrace me, He would sustain me, He would dry my tears, and would say to me: “My daughter, do not fear, calm yourself; and once you have calmed yourself I will let you see her, and you will be very pleased. Besides, you can have the certainty that I have contented you from the fire that you feel.”
But I would continue to cry, especially when I would see Him, since I felt in my interior that something was still lacking to the beatitude of my mother; so much so, that the people who surrounded me, who had come because of the death of my mother, in seeing me cry so much, thinking that I was crying because of the death of my mother, were almost scandalized, thinking that I had moved away from the Divine Will, when, more than ever, I was swimming in this sphere of the Divine Will. But I do not appeal to any human tribunal, because it is false – only to the divine, which is full of truth. And good Jesus was not condemning me; on the contrary, He would compassionate me, and in order to sustain me, He would come more often, almost giving me a reason to cry more, because if He would not come, with whom was I to cry to impetrate what I wanted? The people were right because they judged from the outside; and then, after all, since I am so very cattiva [bad], it is no wonder that the others would be scandalized by me.
Then, after quite a few days, as good Jesus came, He told me: “My daughter, be consoled, for I want to tell you and show you where your mother is. Since before and after she passed away, you have suffered continuously that which I earned, did and endured for her good in the course of my life, she partakes in what I did and enjoys my Humanity. Only the Divinity is concealed from her, but It will shortly be unveiled to her as well, and the fire you feel, and your prayers, have served to exempt her from any other pain of senses, which all must have, because my justice, receiving satisfaction from you, could not take it from both.” At that moment, I seemed to see my mother within an immensity which had no boundaries, and in it there were many delights and joys – for as many words, thoughts, sighs, works, sufferings, heartbeats…; in sum, for everything that the Most Holy Humanity of Jesus Christ contained. I understood that It is a second Paradise for the Blessed, and in order to enter the Paradise of the Divinity, all must pass through this Paradise of the Humanity of Christ. Therefore, the fact of having touched no other purgatory had been a most singular privilege for my mother, reserved for very few. However, I understood that even though she was not amid torments, but rather, amid delights, her happiness was not perfect, but almost halved.
… I continue by saying that only about ten days had passed from the death of my mother, when my father fell gravely ill, and the Lord made me understood that he too would die. I gave him to Him as a gift in advance, and I repeated the same pleas which I made for my mother – that He should not let him touch Purgatory. But the Lord showed Himself more reluctant, and would not listen to me. I feared greatly, not for his salvation, because good Jesus had made me a solemn promise almost fifteen years before that, of my family and of those who belong to me, no one would be lost; but I feared very much about Purgatory. I kept praying, but good Jesus would hardly come. Only on the day my father died, that is, after about fifteen days of illness, did blessed Jesus make Himself seen, all benign, clothed in white, as if He were in feast, and He told me: “Today I AM waiting for your father, and for love of you I will let Myself be found, not as a judge, but as a benign father. I will welcome him in my arms.” I insisted about Purgatory, but He did not listen to me, and He disappeared. After my father died, I did not have any new suffering as had happened with my mother, and from this I understood that he had gone to Purgatory. I prayed and prayed again, but Jesus would make Himself seen flashing by, without giving me time; and what’s more, I could not even cry because I had no one with whom to cry, and the One who, alone, could listen to my crying, would run away from me. Adorable judgments of God, in His ways.
Then, after two days of interior pains, while I was seeing blessed Jesus and asking Him about my father, I felt he was behind the shoulders of Jesus Christ, as though bursting into tears and asking for help; and then they disappeared. I was left lacerated in my soul, and I kept praying. Finally, after six days, as I was in my usual state, I found myself outside of myself, inside a church, and there were many purging souls. I was praying to Our Lord that He would at least let my father come inside a church to make his purgatory, because I could see that the souls in the churches receive continuous reliefs from the prayers and Masses that are said, and much more, from the real presence of Jesus in the Sacrament; it seems that that is a continuous refreshment for them. At that moment, I saw my father, venerable in his appearance, and Our Lord let me place him near the Tabernacle. So it seems I was left less lacerated in my interior.
How Luisa (and the souls linked with Luisa) Help the Suffering Souls in Purgatory
V12 – March 28, 1917 – Jesus, as though breathing on me, said: “I Love you”; and it seemed that everyone and everything would receive new life from that ‘I Love you’. I repeated: ‘Jesus, one more word.’ And He: “I could not tell you a more beautiful word than ‘I Love you’. This ‘I Love you’ of Mine fills Heaven and earth. It circulates through the Saints, and they receive New Glory; it descends into the hearts of the pilgrim souls, and some receive grace of conversion, some of sanctification; it penetrates into Purgatory, and pours upon their souls like beneficial dew, and they feel refreshed by it. Even the elements feel invested by new life in fecundating, in growing. All perceive the ‘I love you’ of your Jesus. And do you know when the soul attracts one of my ‘I love you’s’? When, fusing herself in Me, she assumes the divine attitude and, dissolving herself in Me, she does everything I do.”
V12 – May 16, 1917 – Then, I found myself outside of myself. I was in the midst of many souls – they seemed to be purging souls and Saints – who were speaking to me and mentioning one person known to me, who died not too long ago. And they said to me: ‘He feels happy in seeing that there is not a soul who enters Purgatory without carrying the mark of the Hours of the Passion. Surrounded by the cortege of these Hours and helped by them, the souls take a safe place. And there is not a soul who flies into Heaven, without being accompanied by these Hours of the Passion. These Hours make a continuous dew pour down from Heaven to earth, into Purgatory, and even into Heaven.’
On hearing this, I said to myself: ‘Maybe my beloved Jesus, in order to keep the word He had given – that for each word of the Hours of the Passion He would give a soul – is allowing that there be not a saved soul who does not benefit from these Hours.’
Afterwards, I returned into myself, and as I found my sweet Jesus, I asked Him whether that was true. And He: “These Hours are the order of the Universe; they put Heaven and earth in harmony, and restrain Me from sending the world to ruin. I feel my Blood, my wounds, my Love and all I did, being placed in circulation; and they flow over all to save all. As souls do these Hours of the Passion, I feel my Blood, my wounds, my anxieties to save souls, being put in motion, and I feel my own Life being repeated. How could creatures obtain any good if not by means of these Hours? Why do you doubt? This thing is not yours, but mine. You have been the strained and weak instrument.”
V14 – March 10, 1922 – “My daughter, everything that one does in my Will is like Sun that diffuses to all; and as one prays in My Will, offering My Blood, My pains, My wounds, these convert into as many Rays of Light which diffuse to all. They descend rapidly into the deepest prison of Purgatory and turn their pains and darkness into Light…”
V14 – April 21, 1922 – (Jesus Speaking): “…come into My Divine Will together with Me; let us rise between Heaven and earth and adore together the Supreme Majesty. Let us bless It and give It homage for all, so that Heaven and earth may be filled with adorations, homages and blessings, and all may receive their effects.”
So I spent the morning praying together with Jesus in His Will; but – oh, surprise! As we prayed, one was the word, but the Divine Volition diffused it over all created things, and its mark remained on all of them. It brought it into Heaven, and not only did all the Blessed receive its mark, but it was for them cause of new beatitude. It descended to the bottom of the earth, and even into Purgatory, and all received its effects. But who can say how it was to pray with Jesus, and all the effects that it produced?
V22 – July 4, 1927 – I was doing my thanksgiving for I had received Holy Communion, and I was thinking to myself that I wanted to offer It to all and to each inhabitant of Heaven, to each soul in Purgatory, to all the living who are and will be.
V30 – June 29, 1932 – O! how beautiful it is to see the creature who, for as many times as she does her acts in My Volition, so many times makes herself the conqueror of It, and makes It set out for Heaven, for Purgatory, into the midst of terrestrial creatures—wherever she wants.
November 3, 1926
The more the soul has done the Divine Will on earth, the more paths she has formed for herself in order to receive suffrages in Purgatory. The more the soul possesses of the Divine Will, the more value her prayers, works and pains contain.
I continue to live all abandoned in the adorable Will; and while I was praying, I thought to myself: “How I would like to descend into the prisons of the purging souls to release them all, and in the light of the Eternal Will, bring them all to the Celestial Fatherland.”
At that moment, my sweet Jesus, moving in my interior, told me: “My daughter, the more the souls who have passed to the next life have been submitted to My Will, and the more acts they have done in It, the more paths they have formed for themselves in order to receive suffrages from the earth. So, the more they have done My Will, forming for themselves the ways of communication of the goods that are present in the Church and that belong to Me, there is no path formed by them that does not bring, to some a relief, to some a prayer, to some a diminution of pains. The suffrages walk within these royal paths of My Will, to bring to each one the merit, the fruit and the capital that one has formed for oneself in My Will. Therefore, without It, there are no paths and no means in order to receive suffrages. Even though the suffrages and everything that the Church does always descend into Purgatory, they go, however, to those who have formed paths for themselves.
“For the others, who have not done My Will, the paths are closed or do not exist at all; and if these were saved, it is because at least at the point of death they have recognized the supreme dominion of My Will, they have adored It, and have submitted themselves to It—and this last act has rescued them; otherwise, they could not even be saved. For one who has always done My Will, there are no paths to Purgatory—his path goes straight to Heaven. And one who has recognized My Will and has submitted to It, not in everything and always, but in great part, has formed for himself so many paths and receives so much, that Purgatory sends him quickly to Heaven.
“Now, just as the purging souls had to form their paths to be able to receive suffrages, in the same way, the living, in order to send suffrages, must do My Will in order to form their paths, so as to make their suffrages ascend into Purgatory. If they make suffrages, but they are far away from My Will, since the communication with My Will is missing, that alone unites and binds everyone, their suffrages will not find the way in order to ascend, the feet to be able to walk, the strength in order to give relief. They will be suffrages without life, because the true life of My Will is missing, that alone has the virtue of giving life to all goods.
“The more the soul possesses of My Will, the more value her prayers, her works, her pains, contain; and so she can bring more relief to those blessed souls. I measure and give value to everything that the soul can do, according to how much of My Will she possesses. If My Will runs in all of her acts, the measure I take is immense; even more, I never stop measuring, and I put so much value into it, that its weight cannot be calculated. On the other hand, if one does not care much about My Will, the measure is scarce and the value of little importance. And if one does not care at all, as much as the soul may do, I have nothing to measure, nor any value to give. Therefore, if they have no value, how can they bring relief to those souls who, in Purgatory, recognize nothing, nor can they receive anything, but what My Eternal Fiat produces.
“But do you know who can bring all reliefs, the light that purifies, the love that transforms? One who possesses the life of My Will in everything and in whom It dominates triumphantly. This soul has not even need of paths, because by possessing My Will, she has the right to all paths. She can go to all points, because she possesses within herself the royal path of My Will in order to go into that deep prison, to bring them all reliefs and liberations. More so since, in creating man, We gave him Our Will as his special inheritance, and We recognize everything he has done within the boundaries of Our inheritance, with that We endowed him.
“Anything else is not recognized by Us—it is not Our thing, nor can We allow anything to enter Heaven that has not been done by creatures either in Our Will, or at least in order to do It. Since Creation came out of the Eternal Fiat, Our Will, jealous, allows no act to enter the Celestial Fatherland that has not passed through Its Fiat Itself. Oh! If all knew what Will of God means, and how all works, even those that appear to be good, but are empty of It, are works empty of light, empty of value, empty of life; and works without light, without value and without life do not enter into Heaven. Oh! how attentive they would be to do My Will in everything and forever.”
Paragraph 1032 – III. The Final Purification, or Purgatory
“Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.”609 From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God.610 The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead: (958, 1371, 1479) CCC
Proverbs 15:27 – By mercy and faith sins are purged away: and by the fear of the Lord every one declineth from evil.
History of Gregorian Masses
Gregorian Masses derive their name from St. Gregory the Great, the first Benedictine Pope who ruled the Church from the year 590 to 604. Gregorian Masses are offered for thirty (30) consecutive days for the repose of the soul of a particular person.
St. Gregory was the first to have a series of Masses said for a departed soul. The event that started this pious practice took place while he was abbot of St. Andrew’s monastery in Rome, prior to his election to the papacy.
In the fourth book of his Dialogues, St. Gregory relates how one of the monks of his monastery, named Justus, did not keep his vow of poverty very well. When Justus died, St. Gregory feared that the good monk might have to spend a long time in Purgatory because of his failures with regard to poverty. He therefore ordered that the Holy Sacrifice be offered up for Justus for thirty consecutive days without a break. On the thirtieth day, Justus appeared to a brother monk telling him that he was now freed from his sufferings because of the thirty Masses St. Gregory had caused to be said for him.
Pious Custom
Following St. Gregory’s example, Catholic people throughout the ages have continued the pious custom of having thirty Masses said for their departed relatives and friends.
The Sacred Congregation on Indulgences has declared that “the offering of Gregorian Masses has a special efficacy for obtaining from God the speedy deliverance of a suffering soul, and that this is a pious and reasonable belief of the faithful.”
Gregorian Masses may be offered only for the dead. They can be offered only for one particular person. The Masses must be said on thirty consecutive days, and if the series is broken, the priest who assumed the obligation must start all over again.
