Eighth Day
Instructed by holy and exalted prophets, the people of Israel, from the earliest times, made sacrifices and offerings for the dead, and thereby clearly showed their belief in purgatory. The records of all the past centuries referring to the subject clearly show that not the smallest doubt can be entertained on this point. When the star of the Jewish civilization began to fade, the heroic line of the Machabees gathered all their force once more together, in order to inaugurate a new epoch of power and glory. In the description of their noble and heroic actions we come across the unmistakable proof of their universal tradition and belief. Judas, the mighty hero, having lost a great number of soldiers in battle, did not confine himself to merely giving them an honorable burial. He commanded a collection to be made, and sent the sum to Jerusalem for a sacrifice to be offered for the fallen heroes. Holy Scripture concludes the narrative with the words: “It is therefore a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins”—that is from all temporal punishment due to those sins. This thought is justly called holy, because it springs from a holy source, that of faith and charity. It is called wholesome, in the first place to the poor souls themselves, because it comforts and encourages them in their sufferings, in the next place to those who pray for them, because they increase their own merits thereby, and gain new, faithful friends in heaven.
Prayer.
Release, O Lord, etc., etc.