St. Faustina Prayer Book for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Susan Tassone

be no St. Faustina Prayer Book for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, and I just can’t thank you enough.

      To Jackie Lindsey, my dear friend through nine books, my support, and the person who gives me great encouragement to keep writing. Thank you!

      To Steven Jay Gross, who is beyond words and to whom I’m eternally grateful. Thank you for your unending support, friendship, wisdom, and knowledge. Steve, you’re the most compassionate man I know on this earth (both to all people and animals). You’re unrepeatable and irreplaceable. I would thank you from the bottom of my heart, but for you my heart is limitless.

      To George Foster, a man who dots every i and crosses every t. Thank you, George, for the final editing on all my books … in your quiet, positive, professional, and faith-filled way.

      To my longtime and dear friend Larry Lesof, who joined me over coffee to discuss Rich in Mercy. Larry, as always, you were there for me and offered wise, helpful, and excellent advice.

      To Natalie Raaths, who gave me the opportunity to dig deep into St. Faustina’s life. Natalie, remember to keep me in the pipeline of the books you read!

      To Deacon Mike McCloskey. In 1996, long before St. Faustina was a household name, you were out front celebrating Divine Mercy Sunday. Thank you so much for introducing me to the Divine Mercy Stations, St. Faustina’s favorite devotion.

      To Father Anthony, Father Miguel, and Father Joseph — Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word — whose love and concern for the holy souls has included promoting my books for many years. Thank you so much, dear Fathers!

      To Loyola University Chicago librarians Yolande Wersching and Vanessa Crouther. Once again, your assistance was outstanding!

      To Mike Wick, my “creative extraordinaire” friend, who pointed the way to a fantastic iconographer, Vivian Imbruglia, from Rancho Cucamonga, California! I’m most grateful.

      To Garrett Fosco, who so generously shares his talents with others, including helping design the cover of this book. You help me “see” through an artist’s eyes, and that’s changed how I see the world.

      To my home-team supporters, my sisters Terrie, Angel, and Claudia, a special thank you.

      To Jean Studer, who is there for me. You’re a wonderful, radiant woman, and I’m blessed to have you in my life.

      To Fran Stortz, a powerhouse of prayer. Thank you for so faithfully keeping me, and my work, in your thoughts and prayers.

      To Mary Ward, always giving and ever gracious. Thank you for traveling around the country with The Purgatory Lady.

      Foreword

      Powerful and Personal

      I have to confess I was a “Doubting Father Dan.”

      When I first learned this book was being considered, I thought it would be difficult — if not impossible — to make a compendium of St. Faustina’s spirituality for the holy souls. Yet, here it is, in your hands.

      Author Susan Tassone isn’t just to be congratulated, but thanked.

      I’m happy to do both.

      This wonderful book not only encompasses an array of prayers, meditations, and insights from the Diary of St. Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul but also intertwines them with beloved traditional Catholic prayers and devotions here “re-viewed” through the eyes of Divine Mercy and sharply focused on helping the holy souls in purgatory.

      There is, for example, an examination of conscience based on the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy, and a series of meditations from the Diary that can be used while praying the Rosary.

      Personally, the “treasure” I was most pleased to discover was “The Seven Sorrows of Mary for the Faithful Departed.” We have no knowledge of St. Faustina’s familiarity with the Seven Sorrows devotion, but clearly, it fits hand-in-glove with her spirituality. And clearly — as with all the prayers in this book — it’s both a powerful and personal way to help us pray for the holy souls.

      That’s been Susan Tassone’s ministry and mission for close to two decades: encouraging all of us to remember the Church Suffering and help speed them on their way to join the Church Triumphant.

      I thank her for that, too.

      — Father Dan Cambra, M.I.C.

      Director of the Holy Souls Sodality

      Introduction

      A New Friend Named Faustina

       “I have heard the Lord Jesus say that, on the Day of Judgment, He will be judging the world only in terms of mercy, because God is all Mercy. And by acting out of mercy, or neglecting mercy, a person determines their own judgment.”

      — St. Faustina to Sister Damiana Ziolek

      Are you ready to die today? Am I?

      Are we fully prepared to stand before our all-pure, all-holy God?

      Even if we’re in a state of grace, is it possible our snap judgment of others, selfishness, recurrent sins, pride, and long-held grudges have become such a part of our daily life that we’re blind to them? Is the habit of overlooking them, dismissing them, or explaining them away so deeply engrained in us that we quickly and easily point out the speck in our neighbor’s eye but fail to see the beam in our own?

      Sometimes our love isn’t spotless. Our ingratitude, tepid faith, lack of forgiveness, and self-centeredness hobble our relationship with God right here, right now. And on the day we die, they can stand between us and heaven.

      We don’t always get rid of these faults and shortcomings — these sins — during our time on earth. We may pass away with imperfections we didn’t conquer … or never tried to. And that’s why the God who is love has given us purgatory.

      That’s why He offers us both the place to restore our souls and the means for that to happen.

      The souls in purgatory are human beings that were weaved into the fabric of our daily lives: our families, friends, benefactors. These souls cry day and night from the depths of purgatory. They long and pine for God, their Beloved. Their tears are endless. Their suffering never ceases. They’re helpless.

      Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI put it this way: “[Purgatory] strips off from one person what is unbearable and from another the inability to bear certain things, so that in each of them a pure heart is revealed, and we can see that we all belong together in one enormous symphony of being” (God and the World, p.130).

      The Catholic Church’s teaching on purgatory is all about the abundance of God’s mercy, love, and grace. Purgatory heals our souls of sinfulness so that we can be united with God in heaven. More than that, even now, today, God invites us to play a role in this masterpiece of His mercy. While still on earth, we can help those who are in purgatory.

      Just as Jesus asked St. Faustina to cooperate in His plan of redemption — to include in her spiritual life acts of charity toward the living and the dead — He asks that of you. And of me.

      You may be familiar with St. Faustina and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, but what you may not know is how mercy and the needs of the souls in purgatory were intertwined throughout her life.

      On the day of her final religious vows, one of St. Faustina’s requests to Jesus was to free all those souls. It was that important to her, that central to her understanding of, and teaching of, God’s mercy.

      The purpose of this book is to share with you how we can help ourselves avoid purgatory and, at the same time, come to the aid of the suffering souls there. To show you how we can speed them home to the heavenly Father. To point out that we’re on a mercy mission — with St. Faustina — to free them!

      To help you become an “Apostle of Purgatory,” we’ll cover the seven major pillars God provides