From the writings of Don Giuseppe Tomaselli (1902-1989).
In this life of moral wretchedness, to justify
our weaknesses, we say: my passions are so strong that I can’t always resist
them! Anyway, after sinning I rush back to Confession! Others say: I don’t commit serious sins! I fail constantly in certain
small things, which are unavoidable! There are those instead who sin more than
I do and much more gravely!
When someone dies, we are want to exclaim: What a
holy person! He did so much good! For sure he went to Heaven! On headstones the most illusory and flattering
inscriptions present the dear departed as models of noble virtue.
We
are simply what we are before God.
Man judges from a human viewpoint and frequently
falls into error. The judgments of God instead are perfectly exact and we need to
ponder on their rigor, in order to live as holy a life as possible and to come
to the aid of those who have left this valley of tears, where they are paying in
Purgatory for the wretched acts committed on this earth.
PURGATORY
The
Yearning!
An
almost eighty year old lady died on February 3rd 1944. My mother. I was able to
gaze on her dead body in the Cemetery Chapel before the burial. As a Priest I
thought to myself: You, woman, as far as I can judge, did not even once transgress
gravely one of God’s commandments! And in my mind I went over her life.
In
reality my mother was a great model and to a large extent I owe my priestly
vocation to her. Every day she went to Mass, even in her old age - with the
crown of her children. Her Holy Communion was daily. She never omitted the
Rosary. She was so charitable that she even lost an eye while acting with
exquisite charity towards a poor woman. She was so united to the will of God,
that she asked me when my father’s dead body lay at home: What can I say to Jesus
right now to please Him?
-
Lord may Your will be done!
On her death-bed she received
the Last Rites with great faith. A few hours before expiring, suffering intensely,
she repeated: O Jesus, I’d like to ask you to lessen my sufferings. But I don’t
want to go against Your will; may Your will be done! This is the way the woman
who brought me into the world died.
Basing myself on the concept
of Divine Justice, paying little attention to the praises that acquaintances
and Priests might make, I intensified the
prayers for her soul: a great number of Masses, abundant charity, and,
wherever I preached I exhorted the faithful to offer their Communions, prayers
and good works for her soul.
And then the Lord allowed my
mother to appear to me. I examined this phenomenon, discussing it with
good Theologians and the conclusion was: It was a real apparition!
My mother had been dead for
two years. She suddenly appeared in my
room, in human form. She was very sad.
- You
abandoned me in Purgatory!
- How long were you in Purgatory?
- I’m still here! My soul is
surrounded by darkness and I can’t see the Light – which is God! I’m on the threshold of Heaven, near eternal
bliss, and I’m yearning with the desire to enter, but I can’t! I’ve said so
many times: If my children knew of my terrible torment – ah! How they would
come to my aid!
-Why didn’t you come before to
tell us?
-It was not in my power.
-So you haven’t seen the Lord yet?
-As soon as I expired, I saw God, but not all of His Light.
-As soon as I expired, I saw God, but not all of His Light.
-What can we do to free you
immediately?
-I need only one Mass. The Lord allowed me to come
and ask you for it.
-As soon as you are in Heaven,
come and tell us!
-If the Lord allows it! What
Light – what splendor! Saying this the
vision vanished.
Two Masses were celebrated and
one day later she reappeared, saying: I am in Heaven!
After
what I have reported, I say to myself: An exemplary Christian life, a great
amount of prayers for her soul - and two
and a half years in Purgatory! So much for the judgments of men!
[Extract from "I
nostri morti - La casa di tutti", [
Our Dead – Everyone’s Home] by Don
Giuseppe Tomaselli].
Source: https://cordialiter.blogspot.com/2018/11/mi-avete-lasciata-nel-purgatorio.html
Translation: Contributor Francesca Romana
