QUOTATION: Praying for the Dead

If you neglect your duty towards the dead, you will be neglected in your turn when you are no more. If you pray for them carelessly, you will be prayed for carelessly ; in a word, you will be treated as you have treated others.

--St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, Conferences and Instructions

QUOTATION: The Souls in Purgatory

The souls in Purgatory pray for us, and their prayers are even more effective than ours, because they are accompanied by their suffering. So, let's pray for them, and let's pray them to pray for us.

--St. Padre Pio

QUOTATION: Helping the Poor Souls in Purgatory

Christ went down into hell to set free those that were his own. We, too, therefore, should go down there to help our own. For those who are in purgatory are themselves unable to do anything, and therefore we ought to help them. Truly he would be a harsh man indeed who failed to come to the aid of a kinsman who lay in prison, here on earth. How much more harsh, then, the man who will not aid the friend who is in purgatory, for there is no comparison between the pains there and the pains of this world.

--St. Thomas Aquinas

QUOTATION: Praying for the Souls in Purgatory

If, during life, we have been kind to the suffering souls in purgatory, God will see that help be not denied us after death.

--St. Paul of the Cross

QUOTATION: Prayers for the Dead

Let us help commemorate them. If Job's sons were purified by their father's sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them.

--St. John Chrysostom