𝙎𝙩𝙤𝙥 𝙨𝙖𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜: “𝙈𝙮 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙞�� 𝙖𝙡𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙮 𝙞𝙣 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙣.”
"When a person dies, they do not go straight to heaven, unless they are Saints on Earth. You are doing a great evil to your loved ones, if you don't pray for them. Do not say, my relative is in heaven now! No they are not. If they are Catholic and died with confession they went to Purgatory. It is your obligation to make sure that person receives the last Sacraments, and your obligation if you truly love them, to pray so they may get out of the fires of Purgatory soon. A Holy Mass once a year, it's cruel! Once a month is not any better. Think of your time, how will you like people to pray for you. Remember one second in Purgatory feels like years. Pray and say many Masses for your loved ones. No One goes to heaven not pure.
"I come to tell you that they suffer in Purgatory, that they weep, and that they demand with urgent cries the help of your prayers and your good works. I seem to hear them crying from the depths of those fires which devour them: 'Tell our loved ones, tell our children, tell all our relatives how great the evils are which they are making us suffer. We throw ourselves at their feet to implore the help of their prayers. Ah! Tell them that since we have been separated from them, we have been here burning in the flames!'
- Saint John Vianney
The Church has always taught that nothing impure enters Heaven, and most souls must first be purified in Purgatory. When we assume the dead no longer need our prayers, we may actually be abandoning them in their suffering.
The Holy Souls in Purgatory cannot help themselves anymore, they depend on our prayers, sacrifices, and especially the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. To offer only one Mass a year, or to forget them completely, is a terrible neglect of charity toward those we claim to love.
Saint John Vianney warned that the souls in Purgatory cry out for help: they beg their families, their children, and their friends to pray for them so that they may finally enter Heaven.
If you truly love your departed family members, pray for them, offer Masses for them, and never stop remembering them.
St. John Vianney, pray for us.