Purgatory, where, without the assistance which you have afforded me, I should have had to undergo long years of intense suffering."
CHAPTER XXXI.
Relief of the Holy Souls — The Heroic Act of Charity towards the Holy Souls — Father Mumford— Denis the Carthusian and St. Gertrude.
Thus far we have spoken of the different kinds of good works which we may offer to God as suffrages for the dead. It remains for us to make known an act which comprises all works and means, whereby we can most effectually assist the poor souls; it is the heroic vow, or, as others call it, the Heroic act of Charity towards the souls in Purgatory.
This act consists in ceding to them all our works of satisfaction, that is to say, the satisfactory value of all the works of our life and of all the suffrages which shall be given to us after our death, without reserving anything wherewith to discharge our own debts. We deposit them in the hands of the Blessed Virgin, that she may distribute them according to her good pleasure, to those souls which she desires to deliver from Purgatory.
It is an absolute donation in favour of the souls of all that we can give them; we offer to God in their behalf all the good we do, of what kind soever, either in thought, words, or works, all that we suffer meritoriously during this life, without excepting anything that we may reasonably give them, and adding even those suffrages which we may receive for ourselves after death.
It must be well understood that the matter of this holy
