Empty Purgatory in just over three years

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Apparently, the Prayer to St Gertrude releases 1,000 souls from Purgatory every time it is prayed. This is astonishing when you think about the possibilities.

Do the arithmetic:

1,000 souls per prayer…

If 10,000 people offered the prayer 10 times, that would get 100 million souls out of purgatory. (1,000 x 10,000 x 10 = 100,000,000)

If this happened every day for 100 days, that’s ten billion souls.
(1,000 x 10,000 x 10 x 100 = 10,000,000,000).

Do it for 1,000 days, and that’s a hundred billion souls.
(1,000 x 10,000 x 10 x 1,000 = 100,000,000,000)

That’s quite probably more than all the people who have ever lived.

(Combine this with the untold billions of prayers that have been offered throughout the millennia. There’s also the notion (as I’ve read many times on this forum) that prayers can be stored up. If the person you pray for is out of purgatory, and you obviously don’t know that, then the prayers are good for other souls-in-transition. Purgatory is suddenly as empty as Santa’s sack on Boxing Day.)

Getting back to the arithmetic: it’s simple.
10,000 Catholics (which is quite achievable in a billion-plus church) saying a short prayer 10 times a day for 1000 days, and Purgatory is emptied by mid- 2016, if not before, if not already.

It’s so simple that I’m surprised the Church hasn’t latched onto the idea. Oh well, I offer it to them at no cost.

(Unless, of course, the “1,000 souls” is a meaningless, feel-good platitude, without any foundation whatsoever. But it would be cynical to suggest such a thing.)
 
Maybe there are conditions attached that we don’t know of? For example, it only gains said indulgence the first time it is said in a day, or similar?
 
Apparently, Christ himself revealed the prayer to Gertrude, with the promise of the release of 1,000 souls, so it comes straight from the top.

I am disappointed to have read, just in the last few minutes, that the whole story is of uncertain origin.
Maybe Jesus didn’t actually reveal a special prayer that would release 1,000 souls from purgatory.

Is this one of those occasions, like the apparitions of Mary, that are “worthy of belief” but you don’t have to believe them at all if you don’t feel like it?
 
I can’t find anything about this particular saint in my “Handbook of Indulgences.” But there is a small bit about the Cult of the Saints. “A partial indulgence is granted the Christian faithful who on the day of liturgical feast of any saint recite in the saint’s honor the prayer taken from the missal or another prayer approved by legitimate authority.” If it was revealed in a “private” but accepted revelation, then you may pray the given prayer. This is one of those things that may help, and certainly wouldn’t hurt.
 
Those kind of fables have about the same credibility as chain letters or Clarence’s saying in It’s a Wonderful Life that “Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.” Pray because you want to, not because of some mathematical calculation.
 
THIS THREAD has a post saying that such things are to be regarded as apocryphal…
So - such prayers may have good intentions and may well be efficacious , but they are not to be regarded as a part of Church teaching.
Our sovereign God, will determine who gets out of purgatory and when.

Peace
James
 
The story of the prayer of saint Gertrude is that Jesus said “a multitude of souls would be released” not 1000. the story got scewed into 1000 souls. But in the vision Gertrude had Jesus gave no specific number.
 
Fair enough, PaulfromIowa, but I still wonder if the Church holds any part of it to be true. If not, there are many faithful who are being misled by an apocryphal, centuries-old legend. This might be only one legend out of many.

I’m especially interested in the “1,000 souls” aspect. Now, if Christ himself revealed that (even privately) to Gertrude, then it must be valid. The trouble is, no-one else would know about it. After 700 years, it’s very hard to know what to believe. The legend comes from a time when the Black Plague was still attached to a rat in China.

As an unprovable legend, I dare to suggest that it would hold its own with much of scripture.

All of this raises the question: are prayers offered on the basis of legend still valid? If you sincerely believe you are getting 1,000 souls out of purgatory, does God make it so? Does this fall under the “binding and loosing” authority, or does a higher authority need to approve it?
 
hansard said:
Apparently, the Prayer to St Gertrude releases 1,000 souls from Purgatory every time it is prayed. This is astonishing when you think about the possibilities.

Do the arithmetic:

1,000 souls per prayer…

If 10,000 people offered the prayer 10 times, that would get 100 million souls out of purgatory. (1,000 x 10,000 x 10 = 100,000,000)

If this happened every day for 100 days, that’s ten billion souls.
(1,000 x 10,000 x 10 x 100 = 10,000,000,000).

Do it for 1,000 days, and that’s a hundred billion souls.
(1,000 x 10,000 x 10 x 1,000 = 100,000,000,000)

That’s quite probably more than all the people who have ever lived.

(Combine this with the untold billions of prayers that have been offered throughout the millennia. There’s also the notion (as I’ve read many times on this forum) that prayers can be stored up. If the person you pray for is out of purgatory, and you obviously don’t know that, then the prayers are good for other souls-in-transition. Purgatory is suddenly as empty as Santa’s sack on Boxing Day.)

Getting back to the arithmetic: it’s simple.
10,000 Catholics (which is quite achievable in a billion-plus church) saying a short prayer 10 times a day for 1000 days, and Purgatory is emptied by mid- 2016, if not before, if not already.

It’s so simple that I’m surprised the Church hasn’t latched onto the idea. Oh well, I offer it to them at no cost.

(Unless, of course, the “1,000 souls” is a meaningless, feel-good platitude, without any foundation whatsoever. But it would be cynical to suggest such a thing.)
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👍
 
Megan7, I’m just a little confused: your “thumb up” seems to endorse the arithmetic and salvational content of my post, while also endorsing the cynical bit at the end.
Which is it? Or is it both?
 
Certainly we should pray for the souls in purgatory but this idea is nothing but superstition. As Catholics, we should know better. It doesn’t work that way.
 
Dear hansard, your argument, I hope, is coming forth as an act of love rather than skepticism.

We are not bound to give assent to a private revelation, but since the Church does assert that the revelations to St. Gertrude are of supernatural origin and has given the nihil obstat and imprimatur to them - declaring them thus free of doctrinal error - we must keep in mind that if we believe Our Lord spoke to her, then we know that Our Lord has but one word. If he said a thousand souls are released, then a thousand souls are released. He is God, and all things are possible for Him.

Of course, the prayer is not just to be read. It is to be prayed. And I fear for myself if I were to say out loud that prayer without having the most pure intention, for it is the Lord’s own blood that I am offering to the Father, in atonement for sins. Who can truly understand what this means: “this is the Chalice of my blood, of the new and everlasting covenant, the mystery of faith, which shall be shed for you and for many for the remission of sins”.

I suggest you read more writings about the Lord’s private revelations concerning His Sacred Heart and Divine Mercy. It is astonishing what one small act of sheer love can merit for souls, and how greatly can distrust in His infinite mercy affect Him. It is possible that all private revelations are ultimately meaningless, feel-good platitude, without any foundation whatsoever. The saints receiving them were tempted daily to believe this, and the duty of their superiors and spiritual directors was to make sure to test this thoroughly. But I can hardly doubt, given that the Holy Gospel transmits to us an astonishing teaching of Christ:
Timeless truth, I tell you: 'whoever believes in me, those works which I have done he will also do, and he will do greater works than these
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Who can fully understand what this means: to do greater works than the ones done by Christ in His public ministry? To this, our weak flesh bows in humbleness, while our spirit leaps of joy to the great promises of the Bridegroom.
 
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