Page:Purgatory00scho.djvu/225

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her, complaining sorrowfully. " My dear sister," she said, "why do you no longer make the Stations of the Cross for the souls in Purgatory? You were formerly accustomed to relieve us every day by that holy exercise; why do you deprive us of that assistance? "

Whilst the soul was still speaking our Lord Himself appeared to His servant, and reproached her with her negligence. " Know, my daughter," He added, " that the Stations of the Cross are very profitable to the souls in Purgatory, and constitute a suffrage of the greatest value. This is why I have permitted this soul, for her own sake and for the sake of others, to implore this of you. Know also that it was on account of your exactitude in practising this devotion that you have been favoured by frequent communication with the dead. It is for this reason also that those grateful souls never cease to pray for you, and to plead your cause at the tribunal of My Justice. Make known this treasure to your sisters, and tell them to draw from it abundantly for themselves and for the dead."


CHAPTER XXVI.

Relief of the Holy Souls — Indulgences — Blessed Mary of Quito and the Heaps of Gold.

Let us pass to those indulgences applicable to the dead. Here Divine Mercy reveals itself with a sort of prodigality. We know that an indulgence is the remission of the temporal punishment due to sin, granted by the power of the Keys, outside of the Sacrament of Penance.

In virtue of the power of the Keys, which she has received from Jesus Christ, the Church may free the faithful from