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Now, what does the Heroic Act require? That we should despoil ourselves of all the merit of our good works? Not at all. It calls for only the fourth part of our good works in favor of the Holy Souls—that is, the expiatory or satisfactory part. It is this portion that we place in the hands of Our Blessed Lady to relieve their sufferings or to deliver them from their torments. The meritorious, the propitiatory, the impetratory portion of our spiritual acts remains in our possession, belongs personally to us—in fact, cannot be applied by way of suffrage. Moreover, the cession that we make for the benefit of the Holy Souls augments in value the fourfold qualities of our actions, since their merit is derived from the charity that inspires them; and how can charity be more fully shown than by voluntarily, and through purely supernatural motives, renouncing in favor of our neighbor a spiritual good which belongs to ourselves?Furthermore, we thereby increase our resources a hundredfold; for do we not enlist in our behalf all the souls we thus console or release? And who can express the ardor of their gratitude to their deliverers, the promotion of whose welfare has thus become a sacred obligation to them? This multitude of grateful souls, then, will unite their prayers with ours, and God will refuse them nothing.
The Heroic Act has some analogy to the miracle wrought in the desert, whereby Christ fed five thousand men with five barley loaves and two fishes—that is, He returns to him who had furnished the bread much more than he had originally given. By the charity of this boy the five barley loaves, multiplying under the Divine benediction, not only fed the famishing thousands “as much as they would,” but so abundantly that what remained filled twelve baskets. Thus it is with the gifts we make to the Holy Souls; in our hands they are only as five barley loaves, but with the Divine benediction they acquire an extraordinary merit, and not only benefit thousands of suffering souls, but enrich ourselves a hundredfold. Two points only in the teachings of theology upon Purgatory are illuminated by the infallible rays of Catholic dogma—viz., the existence of a place of detention, and the fact that the prayers of the living are beneficial to the souls therein. All else is veiled in the greater or lesser obscurity of theological opinions. We cannot know what souls are most in need of our prayers, or whether those for whom we pray are in Purgatory or not. No one can tell in what proportion, or according to what law in the Divine economy, our suffrages are available for those for whom we pray. God, indeed respects our intentions, and applies our suffrage in accordance with our desires, when there is in them nothing contrary to His Will. But if the souls for whom we pray are not in Purgatory, our suffrages would fall into the common treasure of the Church, increasing the sum of satisfactory merits, which are applied by way of indulgence to the souls of men. For God cannot, so to speak, traverse the actual order established by His providence, and apply our suffrages Himself directly without in some way receiving from us a sort of authorization to do so—so true is it that the suffering souls can be assisted solely by suffrages. God disposes directly neither of our satisfactory merits, nor of those which compose the treasure of the Church; He passes them over to us; He liberates the souls whom we liberate; He leaves bound those whom we do not unbind—the Poor Souls whom we forget. It is clear from what has been said above that our suffrages may possibly fail of the object for which we offer them; this can never be the case after we have made the Heroic Act—our expiatory merits then being placed at the disposal of the Blessed Virgin, who applies them herself according to the will of her Divine Son, and who knows all the secrets of that dread place of purification, which areas yet concealed from us. We are left entirely free to pray for any good whatsoever—for our friends, our relatives, our benefactors, living and dead—and the good God will not fail to hear our prayers according to our intentions, so long as they are conformed to His holy Will. Those, then, that make the Heroic Act of Charity need have but one anxiety—to multiply the suffrages which they entrust to Our Blessed Mother.
scribd.com/philpenguin/d/6185125-The-Heroric-Act-of-Charity
[underlining added by this poster for emphasis]
(I have had some problems with this link; when I clicked on it I was taken to an incorrect site, but when I clicked on it again I was taken to the correct site)
I am also learning a great deal regarding indulgences, from your post. This is exactly what I was seeking. You are a God send for the OP and also myself.
