Offering Indulgences to the Poor souls in Purgatory
score:6
A soul in purgatory is a soul in purgatory. No where does the Church define that an indulgence for particular soul in purgatory has to be named in order to receive an indulgence when we meet the requirements on their behalf. Thus the faithful may apply an indulgence to a particular member of their family, any soul in purgatory or even for the poorest soul in purgatory.
There are more ways to relieve the sufferings of the souls in purgatory than obtaining an indulgence in order to release them from their pains. Obtaining an indulgence for them is very common, especially during November. I was taught in the seminary that when we pray for a particular soul in purgatory and that that soul is no longer in need of our prayers that God will apply the merits to another soul in need. Prayer is never in vain.
Visit a Cemetery
An indulgence, applicable only to the Souls in Purgatory, is granted to the faithful, who devoutly visit a cemetery and pray for the departed. The indulgence is plenary each day from the 1st to the 8th of November; on other days of the year it is partial. Besides benefiting the Holy Souls, visiting a cemetery is a healthy reminder of our own mortality, realizing that we too will pass from this life to the next. - 5 Ways to pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory
If the faithful can only gain one plenary indulgence for themselves once a day, it stands to reasons that a plenary indulgence for the faithful departed be applied to one soul also. The Church has a long standing tradition of offering Gregorian Masses for the souls in purgatory. These Masses are said for a particular soul (one) in purgatory which at the conclusion of the last Gregorian Mass that soul would be released from their sufferings in purgatory.
Gregorian Masses
During the 6th century, a deceased monk from St. Andrew’s Monastery in Rome (founded by St. Gregory) reportedly appeared to a friend and requested that 30 Masses be said to release his soul from purgatory. After the Masses were completed, the monk appeared again to declare he had entered heaven. Since that time, Catholics have continued the tradition of celebrating 30 consecutive Masses for one person to free his or her soul from purgatory. - Gregorian Masses
How can we obtain in indulgence?
What is a plenary indulgence? It is the remission before God of all the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven. It can be obtained by those properly disposed under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church. The indulgence may be applied to the living or the dead.
The plenary indulgence can be gained according to the following norms:
1) A plenary indulgence can be gained only once a day.
2) After worthily celebrating sacramental confession, each member of the faithful can receive the gift of the plenary indulgence during a suitable time, even daily.
3) The sacrament of penance and the Eucharist must be accompanied by prayer for the intentions of the Roman Pontiff and also by acts of charity and penance.
4) Participation in the Eucharist should take place on the same day as the prescribed works are performed. - How to Gain the Jubilee Indulgence
Upvote:4
The Church documents on this refer to the dead (the souls in purgatory) in general terms. For example:
Pope Paul VI's Apostolic Constitution on Indulgences says:
n.3—Partial as well as plenary indulgences can always be applied to the dead by way of suffrage.
cf. Fr. Hardon's Catholic Dictionary entry for "indulgence."
There is no reason why one cannot expiate for the sins of a specific soul (named or unnamed).
There are several examples of saints applying their sufferings to specific people. For example, from ch. 11 ¶15 of St. Vincent Ferrer: Angel of the Judgment by Fr. Andrew Pradel, O.P.:
[Saints] are not content with sharing the sufferings of their brethren, but joyfully take the whole on themselves. Thus the Seraphic Virgin of Siena [St. Catherine of Siena] took entirely on herself the pains of Purgatory which her father ought to have suffered; thus also did St. Michael-des-Saints of the Order of the Trinity, with God’s permission, undertake a malignant fever from which a friend of his was suffering. The Great Model of Saints gave the first example of this. “Surely He hath borne our infirmities,” says the prophet, “and carried our sorrows.” (Isaias 53:4).
Examples of this from the life of St. Vincent Ferrer are given in ibid. ch. 11.
More post
- 📝 Does 1 Corinthians 9:27 contradict the doctrine of "The Perseverance of the Saints?"
- 📝 What is the Catholic view of water being turned into wine at Cana?
- 📝 Who is the young man mentioned in Mark 14:51?
- 📝 Ruling on eating pork in Christianity as per Bible?
- 📝 Can a mentally ill person who takes medication regularly be a Catholic priest?
- 📝 Does John 14:16 really talk about prophet Muhammad?
- 📝 Is William Barclay a respected theologian in mainstream Christianity?
- 📝 What is the Roman Catholic position on the validity of the marriage between an infertile man and infertile woman?
- 📝 Does Jesus Christ explicitly deny transmigration or explicitly state there's only one birth?
- 📝 Does the Catholic's Trinity doctrine imply that the Unitarian God Multiplied into Three persons by Generating the other Two?
- 📝 What is the significance of adding "fiery" to Ephesians 6:16?
- 📝 What can we infer from the dialogue in Luke 22:70 that Jesus is the son of god?
- 📝 Did original Christian theology that predated the birth of Jesus teach anything similar to the doctrine of the Trinity?
- 📝 Who first compared the Trinity to a musical triad?
- 📝 How many mistresses did Solomon actually have?
- 📝 What are the Biblical and theological problems with theistic evolution?
- 📝 Why did Onesimus return to be a slave?
- 📝 What was the point of the third article of Remonstrance?
- 📝 What is mortal sin? Is agression a mortal sin?
- 📝 What is the concept of kowtow in Christianity?
- 📝 What is the basis for the belief among some Protestants that Christ's teachings do not apply to us today?
- 📝 How can Protestants authoritatively declare something wrong or heretical under Sola Scriptura?
- 📝 Do Anglicans use Latin anymore? If so, how much and for what?
- 📝 Did any Apostolic or Ante-Nicene Fathers believe that Jesus was a created being?
- 📝 What were the motivations of the Council of Trent?
- 📝 What is the biblical defence used by Anglicans to appoint female vicars/bishops?
- 📝 What do Orthodox Christians mean when they talk about the Real Presence in the Eucharist?
- 📝 How do continuationists respond to the 'closed canon' argument against the continuation of special revelations and sign gifts?
- 📝 How did all the animals fit into Noah's ark?
- 📝 Is there any significance to naming Lazarus in this parable?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Offering Indulgences to the Poor souls in Purgatory
- 📝 What is the basis of the teaching that souls in purgatory can intercede for the living?
- 📝 What is the merit of praying for the souls of the faithful in purgatory compared to for the living?
- 📝 Why was Lot "let off the hook" for offering his daughters to be raped?
- 📝 How is the Catholic belief in Purgatory supported?
- 📝 How does one reconcile the sinlessness of Mary with her sin offering in Luke 2:24?
- 📝 A problem with Purgatory: How could Jesus say what he did to the repentant criminal on a cross next to him if Purgatory existed?
- 📝 Were paid indulgences compulsory prior to the Reformation?
- 📝 Are funerals a way to reduce the time of the dead in purgatory
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for classifying the Eucharist as an offering or sacrifice?
- 📝 Why doesn't the Catholic Church give indulgences to everybody, regardless of their works?
- 📝 Why are Jesus' sayings about the poor concentrated in Luke?
- 📝 Were plenary indulgences issued during the crusades, as indicated by Dan Brown?
- 📝 Purgatory for those who are saved outside the Church?
- 📝 Can Requiem Masses be said for the souls of the unbaptized?
- 📝 According to the Catholic Church, does purgatory have a symbol?
- 📝 Does the Catholic Church have any mechanism to improve poor homilists?
- 📝 Are the ancient indulgences still valid, those decreed by the previous Popes?
- 📝 How does Catholicism biblically defend purgatory in a way that upholds the sufficiency of Christ's work?
- 📝 The soul's progression through purgatory
- 📝 Is it true that John Paul II restored the practice of selling indulgences in 2000?
- 📝 In Western communion services, when was the origin of the practice of consistently offering only the bread to the laity?
- 📝 What is the purpose of offering a mass for someone?
- 📝 According to Catholicism, when exactly were the souls of those who died before Christ conducted to heaven?
- 📝 Church Giving to the Poor
- 📝 Was Abel regenerated before the offering according to the Calvinist?
- 📝 Does the Catholic Church believe that we become just souls after we die?
- 📝 The poor you will always have with you
- 📝 Has the Lord handed over the souls of the redeemed to St Michael?
- 📝 How do you interpret the verses where Jesus talks about giving your riches to poor people?