A Beautiful Devotion—The Rosary for the Holy Souls in Purgatory

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Rosary for the Holy Souls
—catholic.org

By Larry Peterson

The Souls in Purgatory hold a place of high esteem within the Catholic faith. These are our relatives and friends and fellow Catholics who have gone before us and prior to entering heaven must spend a period of purification in a place called Purgatory

What follows will help us learn how to help our family and friends and fellow Catholics gain release from Purgatory.

There is a prayer that St. Gertrude received from Our Lord. We are taught that every time we say it, 1000 souls are released from Purgatory. St. Gertrude’s Prayer is below:

“Eternal Father, I offer You the most precious blood of thy Divine Son, Jesus,
in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, for those in my own home, and in my family. Amen.”

Besides St. Gertrude’s Prayer for the Souls in Purgatory there are two other distinct methods of reaching out to help the Faithful Departed. The first is the Chaplet of the Holy Souls as profiled in Aleteia last year. The other is the Rosary for the Holy Souls  which is a bit more detailed and offers prayers that everyone from our parents, grandparents, children, down to those who suffered heart attacks, died suddenly in car accidents and even those who died without receiving the Last Rites of the Church. It even mentions every one of us when we face our particular judgment day.

How to Pray the Rosary for the Holy Souls:

 We Begin:

Let us pray:
May the prayer of Your suppliant people, we beseech You, O Lord, benefit the souls of Your departed servants and handmaids, that You both deliver them from all their sins and make them partakers of Your redemption. Amen.

Sign of the Cross +

  1. O Lord, open my lips.
  2. And I shall praise your name.
    V. O God, come to my aid.
    R. O Lord, make haste to help me.
    V. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
    R. As it was in the beginning…

Now We Pray for Specific Souls in Purgatory:

O Jesus, You suffered and died that all mankind might be saved and brought to eternal happiness. Hear our pleas for further mercy on the souls of:

Choose all those you wish to pray for:  parents, grandparents and spouse, brothers and sisters and other near relatives, teachers, priests, convicts, cancer patients, and on and on, including those who have wronged you and those that were your enemies.

Response to each special intention: Jesus, have mercy!

Using your Rosary, Begin with the Crucifix and then Pray on each Bead as Noted

 Apostles’ Creed
I believe in God, the Father almighty…

For the intentions of our Holy Father, the Pope:
Our Father, Hail Mary (x 3), Glory be..

Pray the Decades As Follows:

  • Our Father…
  • Hail Mary…(x 10)
  • Glory be…
  • Fatima Prayer…(Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins etc.)

Use the Sorrowful Mysteries:

  • The Agony in the Garden
  • The Scourging at the Pillar
  •  The Crowning with Thorns
  • The Carrying of the Cross
  • The Crucifixion

After the fifth decade we pray:
Lord, Jesus Christ, through Your five Holy Wounds and through all of Your Sacred Blood that You shed, we ask You to have mercy on the Holy Souls in Purgatory, and in particular on our parents, spouses, relatives, spiritual guides and benefactors. Complete the healing of their purification and let them enjoy and participate fully in Your Salvation. Amen.

Hail Holy Queen…etc.

  • Let us pray
    O God, Whose only begotten Son, by His life, death and resurrection, has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life, grant, we beseech Thee, that meditating upon these mysteries in the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
  • The Memorare…Remember oh most compassionate Virgin Mary etc…
  • St Michael Archangel, defend us in battle…etc.

Finish:

Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them with your Saints forever more because You are gracious.

May the divine assistance remain always with us.  And may the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

The Incredible Story of Four Nuns Trapped in the South Pacific during World War II. There only means of Escape—via Submarine

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Trapped in Paradise–true story from WWII in the Pacific
Sisters of St. Joesph of Orange

By Larry Peterson

There is a touch of irony to this story. On July 8, 2018,  Aleteia ran a story about Our Lady of Puy. This is the site of the Blessed Mother’s very first apparition after her Assumption into Heaven. The irony is in what follows.

The Sisters of St. Joesph are a worldwide organization representing more than 14,000 Sisters around the world. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange is the congregation based in California and was established in 1912 by Mother Bernard Gosselin. It is one of many congregations worldwide. In 1966 The Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, which comprise all the congregations in the United Staes, was formed; all having their origin in LePuy.

This is about four nuns from California who somehow became stranded behind Japanese enemy lines during World War II.  They happened to be members of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange. The foundation for this order was set in place in LePuy, France, in 1650. As the Feast of the Assumption approaches, it is an honor to mention them.

Two of the Sisters were teachers, and two were nurses. They had arrived in the Solomon Islands in December, 1940. These young women were new to missionary life, confronting an unknown culture for the first time, and did not speak the languages spoken on the different islands. Also, they had to learn how to get around the jungle. One year after they arrived, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

The Japanese quickly occupied many of the islands in the South Pacific. The nuns had been deeply involved in a village on the island of Buka. They had no idea that the Japanese wanted Buka for an airfield. Sister Hedda Jager was the nun in charge of journaling their experiences. No matter what kind of day she was having, she always managed to record the day’s happenings.

As the Japanese get closer and closer Sister Hedda records how their lives morphed from working as missionaries to being filled with sheer terror as the invading Japanese got closer and closer. They made it to Bougainville where they learned  how other missionaries in the Solomons had been tortured and executed.

There were Marist missionary priests on the island and, knowing what the fate of the nuns would be if captured, managed to hide the Sisters for months in the jungle. On New Year’s Eve, 1942, the priests managed to get the Sisters and twenty-five others, to the beach in Teop Harbor. It was then they all learned that a submarine would be their means of rescue.

On New Year’s Day,1943, in the early morning darkness, the submarine Nautilus, pulled to within 100 feet of the beach and the terrified passengers were safely taken on board and brought to safety. Sister Hedda wrote in her journal: “You cannot put into words the feeling that one has for those of one’s own country, especially when one is miles from home and running away from the Japanese.”

When the war ended the four Sisters returned to Buka to continue their work. The last of them passed away in 1999. These Sister of St. Joseph of Orange will forever remain a true inspiration to us all.

The book by Sister Hedda; Trapped in Paradise, is previewed below.

This nun had visions of heaven and the Holy Family

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Venerable Marie-Martha Chabon and the Holy Face of Jesus   (public domain)

By Larry Peterson

It was Good Friday in 1850 when Francoise Chambon reported her first vision of Jesus. She was with her godmother at Good Friday services when the vision occurred. She reported that she saw Jesus, on the cross, covered in blood and His body having many wounds. She was nine years old.  Later on during the year, upon receiving her First Holy Communion, she saw Jesus again, who told her, “My child, so it will be every time you go to Holy Communion.”

Francoise Chambon was born in Davoy, France on March 6, 1841. Her parents were poor farmers, and life was not easy. Francoise, for the most part, kept her experiences to herself. She bided her time and when she was 20 years old, she entered the Monastery of the Visitation Order in nearby Chambery. This was when she was given the name, Marie-Martha.

Marie-Martha was favored with many supernatural visions during her life. One of these was actually of heaven. While on a retreat in 1870, during a recreation break the Sisters would pray the Rosary. Marie-Martha said to them: “The Sisters who endeavor to be present and attend the Rosary give me much delight; those who say it with much fervor will one day be in my entourage.” Marie-Martha then witnessed the graces and many blessings which Jesus poured out on the families of these sisters because of their prayers in honor of His Mother.

There were times when Marie-Martha was allowed to see the Holy Family. After a long vision, she told Mother Superior: “My Mother, I return from Paradise! I cannot say that which I saw! I can only say that I prostrated myself in front of the Holy Family and I said to Saint Joseph: My good Father, I thank you that while you were on the earth, you took care of my sweet Mother Mary.”

She said that St. Joseph was very happy and told her to say this short prayer often, “Jesus, Joseph and Mary, I give you my heart and my soul.”

Marie-Martha began to have more visions of Jesus when He would ask her to contemplate the Holy Wounds. Jesus would teach her specific prayers and meditations. Her Mother Superior began to chronicle Marie’s life, and this was published in 1923 and sold worldwide. The following year the Vatican granted an indulgence to those who said the following prayer which was based on her reported visions:  “Eternal Father I offer the wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to heal those of our souls.”

Jesus wanted her to unite her sufferings with His in the Rosary of the Holy Wounds. This would be done as an act of reparation for the sins of the world and the souls in purgatory. He told Marie-Marthe that the Holy Wounds were a true treasure for the souls in Purgatory.

Marie-Martha foresaw the death of Pope Pius IX whose soul appeared to her. He thanked her for her prayers which helped open the doors of paradise to him. She had a clear vision of her twenty-five-year-old sister’s death. Her younger brother passed away in 1878, and he appeared to his big sister to tell her he was in Paradise.

On March 21, 1907,  Marie-Martha Chambon passed away. She was sixty-six years old. Her cause for beatification began in 1937.

Venerable Servant of God, Marie-Martha Chambon, please pray for us.

Our Lady of Sion—aka The Queen of the Jews–The Unbreakable Bridge between Catholicism and Judaism

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courtesy (fair deal)

Our Lady of Sion & the Jewish man, Alphonse Ratisboone     (his brother, Theodore was not present)

By Larry Peterson

The roots of Our Lady of Sion go back to the fourth or fifth century. Sion (or Zion) is a place in the Diocese of Toul in France where Christianity in the future nation took root. Writings from a Christian named Nicetius were found there, and it is recorded that a church dedicated to Our Lady was the center of a very large Catholic community. The Basilica of Our Lady of Sion is built over the ruins of a temple that had been dedicated to an unknown Roman goddess.

But we must leap forward to the 19th century to grab hold of what this all means today. The Congregation of Our Lady of Sion was actually two Catholic religious congregations founded in Paris. Two brothers, Theodore Ratisboone and Alphonse Ratisboone (some spell it Regensburg) founded the order for Religious Sisters in 1843 and the order for Catholic Priests and Brothers in 1852.

What intrigued me so much was their mission statement—“to witness in the Church and in the world that God continues to be faithful in his love for the Jewish people and to hasten the fulfillment of the promises concerning the Jews and the Gentiles.” (Constitution, article 2).

 I must admit that as a cradle Catholic who is the maternal grandson of a Hebrew man, and a descendant of  family members killed in the Holocaust, I was stunned to learn of The Congregation of Our Lady of Sion. Imagine, a Catholic organization dedicated to Jewish people. I had no idea.

God sure “writes straight with crooked lines” doesn’t he? The Ratisboone brothers and founders of the order, were Jews.  They were continually being drawn to the faith but Theodore converted first. Seeing some of his friends embrace Catholicism and after studying and reading about the faith, he was baptized in 1826. He was not done with his conversion. He was ordained a priest in 1830.

Alphonse was much more reluctant to embrace and believe in Jesus Christ. But on January 20, 1842, while on a trip to Rome before getting married, he happened to visit the Church of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte. It was here that the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to him. He hurriedly contacted Theodore and told him. Both brothers believed that God was calling them especially since Alphonse had been personally converted by none other than Our Lady. They both strongly felt that they had been called to bring their fellow Jews to Christianity.

Alphonse was baptized and entered the Society of Jesus where he spent several years. In 1843 Theodore founded a small community of women who wanted to join him in his ministry of teaching the faith to Jewish children.  In 1850, Alphonse, with permission from  Pope Pius IX  and the Superior General of the Jesuit Order, left the Jesuits and joined with his brother to work together. Side by side, in 1852, they founded the Congregation of the Fathers of Our Lady of Sion.

Eventually, Theodore Ratisboone wanted to continue his work of converting fellow Jews to Christianity. In 1842 while visiting Rome, Pope Gregory XVI, blessed Theodore’s ministry. He immediately formed a school for Jewish children in a Christian setting. As God will provide, two Jewish sisters came to him for spiritual advice. They converted to Christianity and became the starting point for the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion, found in 1847.

Alphonse moved to the Holy Land and in 1858 and, on the sight of the ruins of an old church, built and orphanage and vocational school which the Sisters ran. These schools were open to all children regardless of creed. In 1874, Alphonse began construction on the Ratisboone Monastery on the outskirts of Jerusalem.  It was a school for boys and today is a branch of the Salesian Pontifical University.

Today the Congregations of Our Lady of Sion are spread around the world from Australia to England, to Istanbul, Costa Rica, Rio de Janeiro and even Kansas City, Missouri.

Not bad for a couple of Jewish converts. Not bad at all.

At this time there is no cause pending for either of the Ratisboone brothers to have their causes for sainthood begun. But there are those who are diligently trying to get the process started.