On Purgatory and the Holy Souls – #42

Copy of Purgatory-Holy-Souls_1

[00:00:00]

Introduction and Welcome

Lord have mercy. That was a, that was a long road to temporary right there trying to get this show live streamed. Hello and welcome one and all. Welcome to the Catholic Experience. I am your host, the Catholic Adventurer. Nobody special, ain’t no big deal. Today I’m talking a little bit about Purgatory.

Purgatory. Why am I talking about purgatory? It’s a day after holy salt the uh, it’s a day after all saints day. Well, that’s kind of why I’m talking about it. I’ll explain that in a little bit. This is kind of a special broadcast. Not sure if I’m putting this in my podcast catalog or not. Um, but it’s here.

I’m definitely making it available live and on demand for everyone on my locals. I’m streaming it live to everybody on social media, but you will not be able to get it on demand. So if you’re catching it live. This is the only [00:01:00] time you’re going to be able to catch it unless you join me on locals at Uh catholic experience dot locals dot com now the host is the catholic adventurer But the show is the catholic experience Probably the greatest miscalculation in all of media branding history, but it is what it is The catholic experience is the show.

Supporting the Apostolate

So if you want to join me on locals go to catholic experience dot locals You Speaking of locals and all website stuff, I don’t know if you’ve seen my website at catholicadventurer, not experience, catholicadventurer. com. You’re going to notice, um, some opportunities to drop a tip, a tip. I just want to let you know, those tips don’t make it into my pocket.

Those tips help me to pay the bills. In a sense, I guess they make it into my pocket because if you are helping to pay the bills, then I have to fork over less money to pay the bills associated with, not my house bills, The bills associated with the apostolate if you’re pitching in to pay to help pay those bills I have to [00:02:00] pitch in less money to pay those bills So I guess in a way you’re helping my pocket But really those those uh tips go to pay the expenses associated with operating the apostolate doing the shows Writing the articles stuff like that.

Okay, it doesn’t go into my pocket So if you see an opportunity to drop a tip, please do so a dollar two dollars fifty thousand dollars It’s entirely up to you if you’d also like another way to support my apostolate, to support the work I’m doing here, if you want to support the hardest working man in all of Catholic podcasting, you can become a paid member of my Locals community.

You get a couple of bonus shows, after shows, uh, bonus series that I do, which are only available only, only for, um, Locals members. There we go. So, uh, give it a think and check it out. Again, that’s CatholicExperience. Locals. com And you can sign up to be a free member or you can pay five bucks a month [00:03:00] to be a premium member and you get extra content and stuff.

Again, your subscription to my locals or your tips when you click to, you know, you can tip me on locals or you can tip me on my website. Um, either way, your tips help to support the apostolate. They helped me to pay the bills. Okay, let’s get on with it. Now, why am I doing this? What a weird idea for a show.

You know, it was a all souls day yesterday. And it was also Saturday. Here’s why that’s a problem for me. Usually on Saturdays, I post to social media throughout the day, encouraging people to go to confession. Um, I tell them why confession is important, stuff like that. That’s usually my Saturday routine.

Usually if I post on Saturdays, that’s what I’m talking about. Um, and that’s what I did yesterday. I knew it was All Souls Day because it’s a special, um, feast day for me. Um, but it didn’t occur to me that I should be posting about that. I felt [00:04:00] awful bad about it. I wanted to make up for it last night, but the uh, first half of last night’s live stream, uh, there was no audio.

Fantastic. So i’m doing i’m redoing that part now. Okay. So this is me making up for it.

Understanding Purgatory and Holy Souls Devotion

Let’s talk about purgatory and the holy soul’s devotion. Okay. First let’s talk about the holy soul’s devotion. And I don’t know if there is an actual devotion, like, I’m sure there are novenas and stuff. I don’t think there’s an actual step by step devotion to the Holy Souls in Purgatory like there is, like the Rosary is a set devotion.

Um, Divine Mercy, a set devotion. I don’t know if there’s something like that. If there is, I’m just not aware of it. But a devotion to the Holy Souls is a very traditional Catholic devotion. I shouldn’t. And people have different ways of, [00:05:00] I guess, people have different ways of expressing that devotion or maintaining that devotion, okay?

You might have heard this a million times, offer it up, offer it up, you stub your toe, offer it up. That’s part of the Holy Soul’s devotion, offering up your suffering for the Holy Soul’s in purgatory. Some custom, some cultures have a custom of offering everything for the holy souls. You have a good meal, you offer it up for the holy souls.

I don’t think that really works. I don’t think there’s merit behind that, but it’s a nice gesture. Things like that. But we’ve really lost, um, a devotion to the poor souls in purgatory. And here’s why that’s really sad. You know, back in the day, when there were large Catholic families, If you had a relative who died, there was an army of people praying for them, praying for their repose.

If a relative died, there were lots of cousins and lots of children praying for that relative. [00:06:00] Right? Families had four, five, six kids. Aunts and uncles had four, five, six kids. You know? So there were a lot of people praying for the Holy Souls.

Today, that’s not the case. There are fewer people in a family. That’s number one. Problem number two is everyone has this idea that people automatically go to heaven. It is not true. We do not automatically go to heaven when we die. Even if you’re a really good person, it is not automatic that you go straight to heaven.

It is possible that you can go straight to heaven, but it’s highly unlikely. Highly unlikely. You have to be really, really holy to skip purgatory and go straight to heaven when you die. Okay, it’s, it’s, it’s very unlikely that happens. Ordinarily, if a person dies in a state of grace and they try very hard to live good lives, good lives from the perspective of God, not good lives from the perspective of, you know, Joe Schmo.[00:07:00]

Good lives from the perspective of God, you tried hard to live the gospel, you had faith in Jesus Christ, you tried hard to live the Ten Commandments, and so on. If a person dies in a state of grace, and they tried reasonably hard, they’re not gonna be perfect when they die. That’s a given. They will not have been perfect, but they tried hard.

They made, um, they made, uh, progress in the spiritual life and trying to live a life of holiness. That person is going, probably, we can’t know, we can’t look in Purgatory and peek in and see, they will probably spend some amount of time in Purgatory. It might be a very short amount of time, it might be a little bit longer, and depending on how they live their life, it might be a very long period of time, okay?

Purgatory is almost a given, and I’m saying that as someone who really wants to skip Purgatory. Once I’m done with this life, I don’t want any more suffering. [00:08:00] Please, God, no more suffering, I’ve had enough. Once I die, I want to go straight to heaven, but I’m very well aware that that’ll probably not happen unless I die as a martyr.

Which, I don’t even want to do that, because that’s suffering too. I don’t want to do that. Although it’s probably better to die as a martyr than to suffer in purgatory. But anyway, so we have this idea that people go straight to heaven, and I really wish, I really wish people would stop advancing that false idea.

Priests are famous for this, because priests, who know that people likely do not go straight to heaven, are always canonizing people at their funeral masses. Well, we know Aunt Jane was a lovely woman, and she’s in a better place now. Father, how do you know that? How do you know that? My favorite is when the priest didn’t even know the person who died.

Well, we know Uncle Fred is in a [00:09:00] better place now. You didn’t even know him. I have been to funerals of people. Who, the person who died had a big heart, you know, and really good intentions, but really didn’t live a good life, and there’s the priest who didn’t know this person from Adam because they never went to church, and there’s the priest.

We know he or she is in a better place now. How do you know that? Unbelievable. Because when, when priests say these things, first it comes from a, from a, from authority, right? So people really take it to heart. When priests say these things, it gives this false idea a false catechesis. That heaven is automatic.

It is not automatic. But when people think that heaven is automatic, why should they pray for the holy souls in purgatory? They’re all in heaven now. I run into this problem a lot, and it’s really unfortunate. [00:10:00] I’m gonna tell you a little story. This happened maybe five years ago. I was driving past a cemetery.

Part of my devotion to the holy souls, this is also part of the tradition, but again, there’s no set way of exercising this. You can do it your way. But part of my devotion to the Holy Souls is every time I pass a cemetery, I say a prayer for the dead. Specifically, I pray especially for the people buried in that cemetery.

And if I know the name of the cemetery, I name the cemetery. Let’s say it’s St. Michael’s Cemetery. First, if I’m in a car, I turn off the radio, okay, I make that a little sacrifice. Even if it’s a song that I love, turn off the radio. I bless myself and I, I pray for the holy souls in purgatory, I say especially those buried in this cemetery, or especially those buried here in St.

Michael’s Cemetery. May they rest in [00:11:00] peace, the mercy of God, yadda yadda, amen. And then I say Hail Mary for those souls, I invoke a couple of saints, and I always invoke, um, the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In the sacred heart of Jesus. Bless myself, turn the radio back on and continue. One time I was doing that, and it was, it was, I don’t want to say strange, but it, maybe strange, maybe a little strange.

The cemetery was higher than street level because I guess I was going down a hill, a street level hill. Okay, I wasn’t going down like this, but I was going down, and so the cemetery was about seven feet higher than the street. I’m sure you’ve seen this. Big stone wall, and there’s a cemetery. Okay, and I was at a stoplight.

I’m looking at this cemetery, pretty old cemetery. They’re very tall. They’re tall and ornate headstones. Some of them [00:12:00] have Saints on them. Some of them have angels. Some of the angels look like they’re weeping. Some of them have crucifixes. Some of them have, have, you know, Jesus like this with, you know, with open arms.

And again, mind you, it’s higher than I was. It was about six, seven feet. So really to look at them, you had to look up a little bit and that had an effect that added to the effect. Further, the cemetery was surrounded by a wrought iron fence, okay? Iron bars. Old cemetery. And as I’m sitting there at this stoplight, I’m looking up at these headstones, I said, my prayer for the holy souls.

And I couldn’t help but feel like it almost looks like those headstones are the dead, that they represent the dead. And it’s almost like the headstones are looking down at us in the street from behind these [00:13:00] bars almost as if the head, the, the, the, the souls there are looking down at us from purgatory, from behind these bars.

Asking us to please pray for them. Pray for us. Help us. There’s no one to pray for us. I already had a well seated devotion to the Holy Souls. But that did sort of renew and refresh it. This image of the souls peering down at us, pleading with us, Don’t forget about us. Help us.

Every soul in purgatory is going to heaven eventually. If you, and I say this, most of you watching this know this, um, but there are going to be some people who come across this who may not know it. If you go to purgatory, your next stop is heaven. Maybe in a day, maybe in a thousand years. But your next stop is heaven.[00:14:00]

They’ll get out of purgatory with or without our help. Okay? Because there is a set time, depending on how they died, you know, the way they lived their life, the state in which they died. The state of their soul when they died.

So eventually they’ll, they’ll just have, they’ll have done their time. They’ll have been purified of the sins that they died with. They will have been purified of the damage of sin. Even sins that, that they were forgiven for, like in confession. It still leaves damage, okay? So that damage will be repaired and then they will go to heaven.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the greatest and most efficacious prayer in the world. Okay, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Mass frees souls from purgatory, in general. If you pay for a Mass, and it’s cheap, it depends on where you are, but it’s not hundreds of dollars, it’s like ten to fifty dollars, depending on the parish you’re at.

It’s cheap. If you pay to have a Mass said for somebody, [00:15:00] then that Mass, not just, um, contributes to all of the souls in purgatory, but it contributes in a special way to the person you bought the mask for. The dead relative, the dead friend, whatever. Okay, so that has a tremendous effect in freeing souls from purgatory.

Every mask frees souls from purgatory. But also, our prayers help shorten a person’s stay in purgatory. When you pray for someone specific in purgatory or you pray in general for the holy souls in purgatory, It shortens their stay. So the Holy Souls deeply desire for us to pray for them, to have Masses said for them.

But who is doing that anymore? Almost nobody prays for the souls in Purgatory. You should take a personal, like, poll of people that you know, Catholics that you know. Ask them, do you pray for the souls in Purgatory? If you find one out of ten who do, I will be shocked. If you [00:16:00] find one out of fifty, I will be, maybe not shocked, but surprised.

And who’s paying for these masses? Usually it’s the old people. Older Catholics, like gray hair and, you know, old Catholics in their 60s or 70s, who remember this tradition. What’s going to happen when they’re gone? Do you have a habit of paying for masses? Buying, not buying masses, but having masses said for your relatives and friends who have passed on.

Do you have this custom? Will your children have it? As we proceed through time, fewer and fewer people will even be getting masses for their dead relatives and friends. Those poor, poor souls in purgatory, looking down at us saying, please pray for us. Please don’t forget us. Culturally, throughout the Catholic world, we are forgetting them.

The church is not. The church continues to pray for them. In the mass, and sometimes in personal prayers, priests often [00:17:00] have some kind of, um, some kind of devotion to the Holy Souls. But the church militant, the people in the church, the, the, the, the lay people, us, culturally, we have forgotten them. So it’s really important that we bring that back.

Because remember, the soul that you help free from purgatory is going to be a special friend to you. They will be the ones praying for you in a special way.

One time I was at a cemetery. I was visiting the grave of a relative. And I was offering a rosary. And part of my devotion when I do that is when I leave the cemetery, I stop and I say a special prayer for the holy souls who are buried in that cemetery. A prayer that I, that I, that’s a little bit more special, that I reserve for these moments.

After I was done with that [00:18:00] prayer, This is while I was unemployed. Worst period of my life. It was like suffocating to death without actually dying. Awful experience. And I said to these holy souls, I said straight up, Listen, I’m your friend. I’m always praying for you. I am always praying for you, and I am in dire straits here.

When are you guys gonna pitch in? I literally said that. That was literally my prayer. Almost word for word. I have a job now that’s, like, amazing. Just amazing. I never hate going to work. Even when it’s stressful and busy and whatever, I never hate my job. I have a job that feels like it was tailor made for me.

You know? Maybe the holy souls in purgatory were behind that. Praying for me. You know? The ones that I, who stay, I [00:19:00] shortened. Who stay in purgatory, I shortened. Could you imagine if there’s souls in heaven now? Where, what, what tipped them over the edge, what got them out of the purg, out of purgatory and into heaven was that one prayer I said whenever I said it, because I’m always praying for the holy souls.

Imagine there’s a soul, even one, who’s in heaven saying, I got here because of that prayer, that one prayer, I needed one more prayer, and you tipped me over the edge. Wouldn’t that be amazing? The souls that you pray for in purgatory are going to pray for you someday, and wouldn’t that be great? Because one day you’ll be in purgatory, and you’ll be the one asking, begging, pleading, don’t forget me, don’t forget about me, pray for me.

Let me tell you a little bit about, a little bit more about purgatory, some things, facts that you might not, might not know. Okay, especially some people who stumble on this are not as well catechized as others. So they may not know this, and it’s not their fault. The souls in [00:20:00] purgatory can pray, but they can only pray for us.

The souls in purgatory are called the church, uh, suffering. On earth, we are the church militant. We are in the fight. In purgatory, they are the church suffering. In heaven, they are the church triumphant. Okay? So we’re all still part of the church. Heaven, purgatory, and on earth, we’re all still part of the church.

We are all still brethren. We’re still family, which I think is beautiful. It’s part of the communion of saints. I think it’s, it’s just beautiful to know. Part of the reason why I try to remember my brethren who are in purgatory, you know? So this, this church suffering, the souls in purgatory, cannot pray for themselves.

They can pray for us. I don’t know how, what merit their prayers have, probably some, I guess. But they can pray for us, but they cannot pray for themselves or each other.[00:21:00]

So it’s extra important that we pray for them, because we’re the only ones who can pray for them. I wonder, I wonder if the saints, excuse me, I wonder if the saints in heaven can pray for the souls in purgatory. I think they can. Let me just Google that real quick. Can the souls in heaven pray for the souls in I’m sorry for this break from the action, but let me just check that out real quick.

Yes, the saints in heaven can pray for the souls in purgatory. Okay, that’s according to EWTN. That’s kind of what I thought, but I just wanted to be sure. So the souls in purgatory need our prayers, the prayers of the saints. The saints in heaven and the saints on earth, lowercase s, saints. That’s all of you, all of the baptized.

Okay, St. Paul had a funny way of saying saints and saints. Sometimes when he said saints, he meant the holy, like the truly holy. And sometimes when he said saints, he was talking about all the [00:22:00] baptized. Think of that as lowercase s, saints.

The Importance of Praying for Souls in Purgatory

The baptized, people who are separated, who are set aside by God through their baptism.

Okay, set apart, I should say. Anyway, so the souls in purgatory really need our prayers because they can’t pray for themselves. Attached to that, here’s another fact I want to share with you. There is no forgiveness for sin after death. I’m going to repeat that, and then I’m going to reframe it. There is no forgiveness of sin after death.

There is no forgiveness of sin after death. Once you die, there’s no one more rosary. One more confession. Let me say one more Our Father. Let me say, God, I’m sorry. God, I’m sorry. It has no effect after you die. I won’t get into why. It’s not like God is trying to make, make your punishment deeper. I’m not even going to listen to your prayers.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha It’s not that. There’s just, it’s just the way [00:23:00] the, the economy of grace and mercy work, works. There is no forgiveness of sin after death. There’s no one last mass, one last prayer, one last rosary, let me just go to confession real quick. There’s no reasoning with God. God, I know I didn’t go to church for 30 years, but You know, I had to sleep.

I said this in a past episode, there is no reasoning with God. He already knows why you did what you did, and you’re going to be held account for what you did. And you will not be held responsible for the things that you shouldn’t be held responsible for. God, I did this, whatever the this is, but I literally had no idea that that was a sin.

Well, you don’t even have to say that. God’s already gonna know that. You’re not going to be held responsible for that. Whether or not it contributes to your time in purgatory because you aren’t culpable, I don’t know. I, I don’t think so. Talk to a priest, ask him. So you won’t be held respon you won’t be held to account for things you’re not re for sins you are not responsible for, because you aren’t aware of them, whatever.

But you [00:24:00] will be held to account for the sins you are responsible for. And God already knows why you did them. There’s no reason there’s gonna be no conversation. He already knows. So there’s no forgiveness of sin, there’s no I’m sorry, there’s no trying to reason with God, no trying to level with God. He doesn’t need leveling, he’s perfect.

Okay.

Living a Sacramental Life to Shorten Purgatory

The time to invest in our stay in purgatory is right now. Part of that is changing our lives, giving our lives over to Jesus. Another part of that is living the sacramental life, living the gospel, living the commandments. Another part of that is, as I said, the sacramental life, frequent mass, as frequent as you can.

Frequent Holy Communion and frequent Sacrament of Confession. I don’t, I, I, I don’t want to say you’re investing in your time in Purgatory because I don’t want it to be about that. It’s about growing in holiness. That’s really what it’s about. [00:25:00] But by extension, it is sort of an investment in your stay in Purgatory because every Mass you go to shortens your stay in Purgatory.

Every, um, every time you receive Holy Communion, you’re getting holier. You’re shortening your stay in Purgatory. Every confession, and so on and so on. Every time you offer up your suffering in reparation for your sins, shortening your time in purgatory. Every time you pray for the holy souls in purgatory, you could be shortening your time in purgatory, because they’re gonna be praying for you when you get there.

But don’t do it just for yourself. Have a devotion to the holy souls in purgatory out of charity, out of love for your brothers and sisters. I don’t mean biological. Out of love for your brothers and sisters who are there. That’s why you do it.

Engaging with the Community and Final Thoughts

So, here are some things that you might do. By the way, let me take a break from the action and, and say this.

Because this is going out on Locals, and it will stay on Locals, but it will be deleted from [00:26:00] social media. This livestream will be deleted from social media, okay? But let me say something to my Locals peeps. My account is still in chains. There are limits that Locals places on, on my account, okay? One of the limits is I’m capped at 30 minutes in my live streams.

However, I am also simulcasting to my website. So when I do these live streams, it’s going to get cut off at 30 minutes. I think it’s, I think it’s still going. It’s gonna be cut off at 30 minutes. But I will be, I will still be conducting the live stream on my website CatholicAdventurer. com slash live dash video.

CatholicAdventurer. com slash live dash video. Okay. And that’s true for every, every time I stream live, I am always simulcasting it to my website. So if you realize that I’m live on locals, but you want to make [00:27:00] sure you be, you’re able to catch the whole stream, just go to my website, Catholicadventurer.

com slash live dash locals. This stream has been going about 20 minutes in 10 minutes. Locals is going to do this to me. It’s going to cut off my stream, but I’ll still be streaming in this case on socials, but I won’t always be streaming on socials. In this case, I’m continuing on socials, but I’m also simulcasting to my website, catholicadventurer.

com slash live dash. video. Speaking of my website, folks, do you know I run a newsletter? A newsletter keeps you in informed and up to date about, uh, new content that I post, um, podcasts, blogs, articles, audio blogs, stuff like that. I don’t flood your inbox. And when I do send out a newsletter, I usually only tell you about one thing.

I don’t flood your newsletter. I used to, but I decided to stop doing that. I don’t flood the newsletter with everything I’ve posted that week in terms of content. You know, um, I usually just hit you up with one thing and I may mention just [00:28:00] in a link I may mention one or two other things and that’s it So it’s a very lightweight newsletter.

It’s substantial. It’s not just a bunch of links. It’s a nice little newsletter. If you would like to sign up for my newsletter, go to catholic, catholicadventurer. com and you’re going to see a pop up come up. Just follow the instructions there. Okay. Catholicadventurer. com sign up for my newsletter.

You can also sign up for live alerts in that same form. Live alerts is just a text message that gets sent to your phone when I go live and do a live stream It tells you what i’m doing where i’m doing it Because I don’t do these often, so you’ll only get those maybe once a week. Newsletter also, you get them about once a week, so I’m not gonna hammer you one way or the other, okay?

Alright, back to the show. My stream was just cut off by locals, thank you very much. But everybody else is still getting it. Okay. So let me give you a rundown of a couple of things that I do for the Holy Souls and Purgatory. [00:29:00] Do them or do them not. Modify them, do different things, do extra things, it’s up to you.

But here are a few things that I do. Number one, every time I pass the cemetery, I pray for the holy souls in purgatory.

And to end, I specifically name that cemetery or call out that cemetery, especially those buried here in this cemetery. Every time I’ve had some, if I pass and this has happened, if I pass three or four different cemeteries in the same trip, I do it three or four times all over again. Sometimes I’m passing a cemetery, and then I’m passing on the other side, and I’m not sure if it’s the same cemetery or what.

I just do it all over again. That’s one thing I do. One thing that I don’t do, which I should probably get into the habit of doing, is when I’m suffering, or when I’m like, you know, a physical injury or whatever, I don’t have the habit of offering it up for the holy souls in purgatory. I probably should.

When I think [00:30:00] to offer up my physical suffering, or even emotional suffering, mental suffering, usually I take that one for myself. I offer up this suffering in reparation for my sins, Lord. Usually, I take it for myself. Maybe I should do that. Maybe I should give the occasional bit of suffering for the Holy Souls of Purgatory.

But that’s one, that’s another thing that people do when they’re experiencing pain or suffering. As an example, it could be emotional suffering, mental suffering, physical suffering. It could be momentary physical suffering, something that’s very brief, like you stub your toe, as I said, or a paper cut. I don’t know.

Any kind of suffering. You can offer that up for the holy souls in purgatory. Well, how do you do that? You just say it. I offer this suffering, or I offer this pain, whatever, for the holy souls in purgatory. Or you can name someone. I offer this for the repose of the soul of my, my grandmother. You could name someone.

Or just make it in general for the holy [00:31:00] souls. That’s another thing. Another thing that I do is, after my prayers at night, I say a prayer for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. I do all of my praying, I say whatever I have to say to God, I invoke the saints, and the last thing I say is, and I pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, Eternal Rescuent unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them, and so on.

That’s, so that’s another thing that I do. If I go to a cemetery to pray, At the gravesite of a family member, I say a special prayer separately for the souls in purgatory and a particular prayer for the people buried in that cemetery.

If, here’s an old custom, here’s a very old custom.

I don’t know how true it is, but I think there probably is some truth to it. [00:32:00] It’s an old custom that people used to say, if somebody comes to mind, a friend who’s passed away, a relative who’s passed away. If they ever come to mind, I knew something looked wrong back there. If they ever come to mind, it means they need prayers, you should pray for them.

If you ever dream of a relative or friend who’s passed away, I mean like a regular dream, I don’t mean like a vision in a dream, but a regular dream, you should pray for them. Now, I understand some, usually dreams are just dreams, okay? But it’s not a bad idea that if your memory does trigger a dream, you know, you, maybe somewhere in your mind you’re thinking of, So and so who passed away even years later.

Maybe that’s just a natural trigger in your mind. It’s still a good idea to use that as a reminder to pray for them. Or you’re just walking down the street and an image of someone, uh, who passed [00:33:00] away pops into your memory, pops into your mind, pops into your thoughts. You’re like, wow, they, they died like 10 years ago.

We weren’t even that close. I wonder why I thought of that person just now. The old custom is when that happens, it’s because they need prayers, you should pray for them. It’s an old custom. I, I don’t think it’s superstitious. I think, I think, in many cases, it’s just your brain doing what your brain does.

But I do believe in some cases, it’s possible that the Lord has allowed that soul to get through to you and to send you, um, to prompt you to pray for them. I do believe that probably happens sometimes. I think it’s happened to me a few times. Okay, where the memory or the thought is just so weird, so out of nowhere, you know, maybe they need prayers.

So I offer a prayer for them, [00:34:00] just for that soul. I don’t include all the other souls in purgatory, just for that soul.

I want to repeat, I don’t think that happens frequently, but I, I’m confident that it probably does happen, um, to ordinary people, and they just don’t know. They don’t know that that might be a prompt, not a ghost, you. But a prompt permitted by God to pray for that soul. I do believe that. That’s another part of my devotion.

Do you have any other devotions to the Holy Souls? Maybe you have a devotion to the Holy Souls, something specific that you do for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Drop a comment and let me know. Everyone says drop a comment and let me know, because they want the engagement, and I don’t blame them. I’m trying to, I’m trying to get a little, a little attention here on social media myself.

I’m not really an engagement whore as I put it, but I, I know you got to [00:35:00] play the game, you know, if you want people to see what you’re producing, you need good engagement. So people are always like, Hey, I drop a comment. I read every comment. And meanwhile, maybe they don’t, but they, they’re trying to get you to comment.

Anyway, I’m not saying this to get you to comment. I’m saying it because I really want to know, do you have particular things, whether they’re things that I mentioned? Or things that you do, you know, that are different. Do you have particular things that you do for the Holy Souls and Purgatory? Please drop a comment, because I really do read Folks, I get so few comments, it’s like ridiculous.

So believe me when I tell you, I read them all. I read all two of them. All two comments that I get in a month, I read those. So drop a comment. Don’t worry, I will definitely read it. And I really want to know, what do you do for the Holy Souls and Purgatory? And if it’s nothing, say nothing. I mean, say the word nothing.

I don’t do anything. I’m a miserable heretic. I don’t do anything. No, I’m just kidding. You’re not a miserable heretic. I’m just kidding. Um, yeah, let me know because I really want to know. In [00:36:00] closing, I really strongly encourage you to revive this old tradition, this old custom in the Catholic culture. This, um, devotion to the Holy Souls.

Do some of those things that I mentioned. Um, you know, it’s something else that I sometimes do, is I say an extra decade just for the Holy, an extra decade of the Rosary, just for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. For a while, I was mentioning my prayer intentions before the Rosary, and they were just so long, and I decided that I really have to shorten it, because I’m really complicating my prayer life with, you know, specifically to the Rosary.

One of the ones that I stopped praying for, but I, I stopped doing it regularly, but I still sometimes throw it in. Is offering it for the holy souls in purgatory first because I still do it on occasion, but I don’t do it regularly anymore But I also feel like I want to do something more than just a mention for the holy souls, you know So [00:37:00] sometimes i’ll say an extra decade for them or something.

Anyway, but what else do you do if anything drop a comment? And let me know. Are you aware that I do a podcast on the regular? Mm hmm. It’s on iTunes. It’s on Spotify. It’s everywhere you find podcasts. I also have a website, CatholicAdventurer. com. We’ve been talking about this, so now I know that you know, and if you tell me you didn’t know that, now I know that you’re a liar.

Um, do check out my podcast because I’m, I would really love to get, uh, more attention to that podcast. Not for my glory. I don’t want to be famous. You can probably tell that by now. I don’t want to be famous. And God is granting me my wish, my wish. Thank you, Lord. You know, I think I put a pretty good podcast together.

It may not be the best produced, may not be the best at anything, but you know what it is best at? It’s best at giving me a platform and a voice to share with you. Everything that I [00:38:00] know in the unique way in which I deliver it. I’m a pretty good teacher I’m a total moron and every other thing that I’m passionate about but this I’m pretty good at so I think I put together a Good podcast that that informs entertains a little bit.

It’s kind of interesting It teaches you something it pushes you closer to holiness or it nudges you anyway I don’t know how far I can push you that depends on the state of yours your soul uniquely You But it nudges you closer to holiness. It teaches you something about God, about life, about yourself.

And damn, I just wish that the work I put into it got a little bit more reception. Not a, it’s not the attention, like I want to be noticed. I just wish that work got more reception. You know, if you put a hundred things, a hundred amazing things, or maybe they’re not amazing, maybe they’re just very good.

You put a hundred really good things in a basket, and you put it on your [00:39:00] porch, But nobody wants it. Or not that they want it, but they don’t know that it’s there. Nobody ever picks it up. Nobody ever pulls from that basket of amazing things. You’re like, damn, but these are really amazing things, or they’re at least really worthy things.

I wish more people stopped by and took one. That’s really all that I’m trying to do. That’s the only thing that When I say I want more attention on my podcast, that’s really all it is. I think I put good things in that podcast, and I just wish more people would come and, and, and take some of those good things that I put in the podcast.

The podcast is called The Catholic Experience. It’s everywhere you find podcasts. You’ll also find links to it from my website, CatholicAdventurer. com. If you’re getting this on social media, you will see my bio link there on, on Linktree. Um, everything that I do is in that Linktree. Little video clips, audio clips, latest [00:40:00] shows, linkages to every place you can get the podcast, an audio preview of the latest episode of the podcast, accompanied by a list of links on which carriers have it.

Guaranteed, wherever you get your podcast, guaranteed it’s on that list, because my podcast is everywhere. Okay? It’s called The Catholic Experience. I’d really love for you to join me in this experience. Check out my podcast. I’m serious, man. You’re not gonna regret it, because I keep it real on this podcast.

I know that because people have told me so, but I really do keep it real. No fluff, no drama, no nonsense, and no pretense. Not an ounce of pretense in that. I think it’s a very unique podcast. If I listened to Catholic podcasts on the regular, mine would be one I’d want to listen to. To be very honest with you, I don’t like most Catholic podcasts.

I think most of them are BS. Some of them are [00:41:00] dangerous. Some of them are tight, but like boring, you know, some of them are a lot of performance art. I can tell you right now, my podcast is a hundred percent me. The good, the bad and the ugly. My podcast is a hundred percent me. Who you get over the microphone, or in this case on camera, is who I really am.

And not a lot of podcasts or podcasters, uh, in the Catholic space do that. I will tell you this, and here I go keeping it real, you ready? There are some podcasters and broadcasters in the Catholic space who what you see is what you get. The problem is, they’re all assholes. I’m talking about their personality.

I’m not talking about their nature. But the way they come off, it’s like, my goodness. If that is what being Catholic is all about, I’m going to the Protestants, man. Because that’s just [00:42:00] ridiculous. Keeping it real with you. This has been a special live episode of The Catholic Experience. I have been Your host, love him or hate him, sorry about it, the Catholic Adventurer.

Folks, I want you to know I really care about you and I really love you. In the name of my wife and my children, thank you for checking me out. This episode, any other episode, thank you for going on the website. In the name of my wife and my children, I love you. I thank you for it. Please say a hail Mary for me and my family.

One Hail Mary is so master for say one Hail Mary for us and thank you, those of you who have been praying for us, I really appreciate it. God bless you. God be with you all. Signing right outta here. Bye-Bye.