The book, The Month of the Holy Souls, presents daily considerations for the month of November in the form of meditations and practical examples. The example for today is as follows.

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EXAMPLE

The venerable Curé of Ars used to assure his hearers that one Mass was of more value than all good works put together, for the latter are the works of man, whereas the Sacrifice of the Mass is the work of God.

It is related by a pious author that a very holy monk was one day offering up Mass for the souls in Purgatory. When he had pronounced the words, “Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, give them rest,” he heard a multitude of distant voices calling out: “Make haste, make haste, come and receive rest, for the Mass will soon be ended;” and at the time of Communion, whilst he held the body of Jesus Christ in his hands, he was rapt in ecstasy, and saw a crowd of souls hastening to receive rest. And as they retired after receiving it others called out: “Hasten, hasten, for Mass is about to end.”

Thus the monk remained standing at the altar from early morning to nine o’clock, when he finished Mass, and his Superior obliged him under obedience to tell the rest of the community of his ecstasy, and the vision he had had.

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This anecdote comes from Month of the Souls in Purgatory by Abbé Berlioux, originally published in English in the year 1886. This book contains meditations and an example story for each day of the month. In an effort to preserve short inspiring stories from our Catholic past, every day for the month of November you can find the example story for the day published on the website under people/stories.

The same author also published similar books for the months of March (St. Joseph), May (Our Lady), and June (Sacred Heart). We are planning to post the stories for these months in the future, as well as re-publish a collection of these four books as a set, so be sure to check back in a few months.