Signs of the Times  

     Maria Simma-  From her childhood, she helped souls in purgatory with her prayers, gaining indulgences for them.  From 1940 onward, the souls in purgatory asked several times for the help of her prayers.  On All Saints' Day in 1953, Maria started helping the dead with her repentant suffering.  She suffered very much because of an officer who died in Karnten in 1660.  The pains she endured were equal to the sins she had to atone.  It seemed that the souls in purgatory were given mercy through the blessed Virgin Mary during the week after All Saints' Day.ber was a month of especially abundant grace for them, but she was very happy when November came to an end.
      Once, a priest from Koln, who died in 555 appeared to her in despair.  He begged her for repentant suffering which she had to take on voluntarily--otherwise he would suffer until Judgment Day.  Maria accepted it and it was a week of terrible suffering for her.  Every night that soul came to her and gave her new tortures.  It seemed as if her limbs were dislocated.  That soul pressed and squeezed her repeatedly from all sides and blades of pain strongly stabbed her.  She felt as if a broken edge, bending under pressure was stabbing her all over her body.  That soul had to suffer for murder (he took part in murdering the nuns of St. Ursula's), lack of faith, adultery and blasphemous masses.
      One soul told her that he was rising a motorcycle in Vienna without paying attention to the traffice signs and suddenly an accident happened, in which he died.  She asked the soul, "Were you ready to go to eternity?"  "I wasn't ready, but God gives two or three minutes to all those who sin unscupulously against him to repent.  Only the person who refuses to repent will be doomed to eternal suffering.  When someone dies in a car accident, it is said that his time has come.  That is not true.  You can say that only when someone dies when it is not his own fault.  But according to God's plans, I could have lived 30 years longer--that would have been the time for my life.  Therefore, a man must not risk his life unless it is necessary."

     One day in 1954 at about 2:30pm, while travling to Marul.  I saw a miserable old woman by the road.  She looked as if she were about 100 years old.  I greeted her in a friendly way.  "Why do you greet me...Nobody does it anymore."  I tried to console her saying, "You deserve to be greet like other people."  And then she started lamenting, "Nobody gives me that sign of kindness.  Nobody gives me anything to eat and I have to sleep by the roadside."
        I thought that perhaps she didn't have sound judgment.  I tried to persuade her that it wasn't true, but she was persistent.  And then I thought that nobody wanted to live with her anymore because she was old and boring, so I invited her to come to my place.  "But I can't pay," she said.  Trying to encourage her, I said, "It's not important.  You only have to accept when I have.  My house is not that nice, but it will be better than sleeping by the road."  Then she said, "God will reward you!  I am now released."  And she disappeared.  Only then did I realize that it was a soul from purgatory.  Perhaps in her earthly life she had refused to help someone who needed her help, and after her death she had to wait for someone to offer her voluntarily the same help she had refused to give to others.

                                                   A MOTHER WHO HINDERED HER
                                                         CHILD'S VOCATION

     The next time a woman came to me, "I hd to suffer for 30 years in purgatory because I didn't let me daughter go to the convent."  This shows that parents who don't allow their children to respond to God's call, to priestly duty or monastic life, take a great responsibility.  The souls told me that many parents had to be aware of the responsibility they had taken because they didn't accept their children's vocation to consecrated life.


                                              A WOMAN WHO HAD A MOST
                                                    TERRIBLE PURGATORY


      One man wrote a letter to me saying that his wife had died a year earlier and since that time he could hear knocking on his door every night.  He wanted me to find out what was going on.  After telling him that I was not sure whether it was possible to find out about it.  I went to his room.  Perhaps his wifewould not be able to apper.  In this case we should put everything in the hands of Providence.  I was sleeping in that room.  At about 11p.m., I heard some noise and asked immediately, "What do you want and what do I have to do?"
      I didn't see anybody and got no answer.  I thought that perhaps the woman still couldn't talk.  After five minutes, I heard frightful stamping.  A huge animal appeared which had never happened before.  It was a rhinoceros.  I sprinkled it with holy water and asked, "How can I help you?"  There was no answer.  The animal looked worried.  Then Satan came in the appearance of a huge snake, which grabbed the rhino in order to strangle it.  After that, it suddenly disappeared.  I came to some sad conclusions.  This woman, however, should not have been condemned.  A little later, another soul in human appearance came to me.  He consoled me saying, "Don't be afraid.  That woman is not condemned, but she suffers the most terrible purgatory." 

        What was it caused by?  For a long time she lived in enmity with another woman and was the cause of that enmity.  Her enemy wanted to make it up with her a few times, but she refused.  She even refused her unkindly during her last illness and so she died.  Here we have proof of the strictness with which God punishes those who are hostile towards those closest to them, because such behavior is completely opposed to mercy.  We often quarrel in our life, but it is necessary to try to return to peace and harmony--to forgive immediately.  Mercy is above everything, but the value of its strength is not emphasized enough.  It covers many sins....



              WHAT A FEW OF THE SAINTS SAY ABOUT PURGATORY


     "Even the smallest torture in purgaotry is stronger than the greatest torture on earth.  As much as the torture of the fire in purgatory is different from our fire, so much is our fire here different from a painted image of fire....Prayer for the dead is more acceptable to God than prayer for the living, because the dead need it more and cannot help themselves as the living can."
                                                                     St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church

         "This mountain (San Giovanni Rotundo) is climbed more by the souls from purgatory than by men and women who are still alive, in order to take part in holy Mass and look for my prayers....If the Lord has to allow the souls to pass from the fire of purgatory to the fire on earth,  it is like passing from boiling water to cold water."
                                                          St. Padre Pio, Capuchin Friar and priest, stigmatist


       At the moment of St. Gertrude's death, Jesus appeared to her saying, "Be brave and hope.  You will be in heaven soon.  Here, many souls are coming ot welcome you, those who were released from purgatory, thanks to you.  They are singing and cheering to see you off to the eternal prize in heaven."


        "I believe that after the bliss of the saints who are enjoying their glory, there is no joy similar to that of the souls in purgatory.  It is certain that these souls are joining together two seemingly irreconcilable things--enjoyment in extreme joy, and at the same time, enormous suffering.  Although these two things are so contradictory, they don't exclude each other.  I have always been answered when I have prayed for grace through the souls in purgaotry.  What's more, the graces which I couldn't get through the saints, I got through the advocacy of the souls in purgatory."
                                                                                      St. Catherine of Genoa


     "When I want to receive some grace from God, I address the souls in purgatory, and I feel that my petitions are answered through their intercession."
                                                                              St. Catherine of Bologna


     "In my free time, I always pray for the souls in purgatory.  With their advocacy, these souls have saved me from many dangers of soul and body.  Piety toward the souls in purgatory is the best school of the christian life.  It moves us to merciful deeds, teaches us to pray, helps us in listening to holy mass, gets us used to thinking about penitence, encourages us to be charitable, helps us to resist mortal sin, and makes us frightened of small sins.
      Always pray to holy Mary for the souls in purgatory.  Our Lady expects your prayers to present it to God and  release the souls you are praying for.
                                                                                St. Leonard of Port Maurice


      "To show love for your deceased, don't bring them flowers, but pray more.  Don't care about the funeral, but give support to the souls in purgatory by giving vharity, forgiving sins, and doing works of mercy.  Don't care about the building of luxurious tombs, but care more about assisting at holy mass.  Outward signs are a relief for you, but spiritual deeds are, for the souls in pirgatory, a much-wanted and expected comfort."
                                                                              St. John Chrysostom


     "How many souls are being released from purgatory during the holy mass!  Those for whom the mass is offered don't suffer, the time of their repentance is hastened, and they immediately go to heaven, because holy mass is the key which unlocks two doors--the door through which you enter purgatory, and the door to heaven through which you enter into eternity."
                                                                                        St. Geralmo

     In Medjugorje, Our Lady said:    "Pray for the souls in purgatory...
        Today I wish to ask you to pray for the souls in purgatory.  Each soul needs prayers and graces to reach God's love.  By doing this, you too, dear children, will acquire new mediators who will help you to know that earthly things are unimportant for you in life; that you must only stretch out towards heaven.  Therefore, dear children, pray without ceasing in order to help yourselves and also others to whom your prayers will bring joy...."


....tp be continued....