Twenty-eighth Day
The Catholic doctrine of the intercession of the saints must not be lost sight of in this series of thoughts on the November devotion. In our wants, personal wants, spiritual and temporal, we, true to our Catholic instinct, first address ourselves to our Mother Mary for help. We must not forget her in the matter of the poor souls. Mary’s loving heart is not less loving for the souls in purgatory than it was for the same souls while in life. How can she abandon them? She never abandons a sinner on earth. For a stronger reason she does not forget the souls of the just. Mary loves them still, for her love is eternal. She is the Mother of Him Who said, “I was in prison and ye visited Me;” of Him Who descended into hell. Therefore it is an opinion well worthy of acceptance and respect, founded on trustworthy revelations and authentic declarations, that the Blessed Virgin assists in a most special manner the souls in purgatory. They are souls and are poor, and therefore the Blessed Virgin loves them. They are souls and are suffering; souls are the magnet of Mary’s heart. Priceless is the value of a soul, and no one has better shown it than Our Lord Himself. Satan, by offering Him the whole world, could not prevail upon Him to fall down; but by trying to rob Him of souls he caused Him to bow down even to the earth under the weight of the cross. But, after Jesus, who could better know the value of a soul than Mary, who comes next to Him in the work He did for souls?
Prayer.
Release, O Lord, etc., etc.