HOW TO AVOID PURGATORY By Fr. Paul O’Sullivan O.P.
For those who have not read this little book and to refresh myself, I will be posting the entire book in daily doses. (To read later find in the Purgatory Category).
CHAPTER 7
THE FIFTH MEANS: ASKING GOD
The Fifth Means of avoiding Purgatory is asking God for this grace. Some
wise Catholics have a really great, if simple secret, which is well worth
learning and using for our own benefit.
God promises us in the most solemn and deliberate way (and He cannot fail
to do what He promises) that He will give us everything we ask in prayer,
if it is good for us.
Now two conditions, especially, make prayer infallible, namely perseverance
and faith. God cannot refuse such a prayer.
These Catholics we speak of pray expressly every day of their lives that
God will free them from Purgatory. In every single prayer they say, in
every Mass they hear, in every good act they perform, they have the express
intention of asking God first of all and with all their hearts to deliver
them from Purgatory.
How? That is for God to decide.
It is not easy to see how God can possibly refuse such constant, unceasing
prayer. The fact that such prayers are said daily and many times in the
day, for 20, 30, 50 years, shows that they are said with undoubting faith
and magnificent perseverance.
We exhort all our readers to adopt this practice. The more they know and
think on Purgatory, the more fervently will they make this prayer.
RESOLUTION
Every time we say the Hail Mary let us say with all the fervour of our hearts the words: “Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.
Amen”
