  Devotion for the Dying [and the Holy Souls in Purgatory] MARY'S CALL TO HER LOVING CHILDREN  By Ven. Mother Mary Potter FOUNDRESS OF THE LITTLE COMPANY OF MARY TAN
BOOKS AND PUBLISHERS, INC.
Chapter 1 "Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment!" And the multitudes who have lived on this earth arise to appear before God, to appear before the Lamb of God in His glory, the glory of that suffering human nature now triumphant, with the rays of the Divinity surrounding it, flowing from that Sacred Body; rays of Beauty, of Sweetness, are springing from the high throne of God and flowing toward Him, the Desired of All Nations, and springing from the Sacred Heart of the Incarnate One. The same glorious rays flow to the heights of Heaven, the Throne of the Holy of Holies; they are the same, and what are they? Rays of love? Yes. Of mercy? Yes. Of all God's attributes? Ah, yes! They are now to be shown, now to be glorified, and one more especially, one we think least of, one equally Infinite with the others-----His justice. "Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment!" O most miserable multitude now assembling, unhappy beings, of all created things most wretched, the victims of God's justice, they are now crouching, they are now in fear and wretchedness, awaiting the proclamation of their sentence. It is but the proclamation, for they know it already; they know their eternal, unhappy doom, yet they still dread to hear it proclaimed; but they must hear and quake in anguish and still confess their sentence to be just. Yes, indeed, just. They, poor beings, must glorify God; despite themselves, they must glorify His justice, they must magnify His purity, by showing the hatred of the All-Pure God for sin-----His horror and detestation, His loathing of it, since it can draw down this terrible justice from the God of Mercy, from the God Whose mercy is above all His works. O God, we adore Thy justice, but we love Thy mercy! The ray of Thy justice is grand. Thou wert not God without it; but our eyes are dazzled; we cannot look upon such glory; we turn to Thy ray of mercy and, longingly, lovingly, contemplate Mary the Queen of Thy mercy, and we are Mary's own and love to look upon the Fruit of Thy mercy. And, behold! Who are these happy ones? Oh, the glorious face of our Mother, as hurrying toward her throne flock old and young, rich and poor, of all tribes and nations of the earth! Oh, the beautiful smile of Mary as her own flock toward her, that she may place them at the Right Hand of Jesus! Oh, the benignant, loving look of Jesus to His Mother and her children as she presents them to Him! Oh, the happiness of guardian Angels, of glorious Saints! Oh, the happiness of our poor hearts as we claim our own! Yes! Jesus lets us say it: As our Mother is Queen of Mercy, so her children strove to imitate her; they suffered and prayed in their degree with her to save souls, and now these for whom they suffered flock around them, and cry aloud to them, "You saved us! We should have been sent to that miserable crowd if you had not brought to us the Precious Blood, the Saving Blood of Jesus!" Reader, stay from the contemplation of that last Day of Retribution and consider that you have got time, that you live in God's time of mercy, that you may save souls every hour-----might we not say it, every minute of your life. And you are perhaps wasting precious time, time so precious because every moment may be used in bringing the Precious Blood to our own souls and the souls of others. Let us realize what we can do; let us make acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity; let us visit the Precious Blood; let us take that Precious Blood into our hearts; let us allow our hearts to be as vials in which we carry the Precious Blood to apply to the souls of others. Think of what you might do! Think of how you can spiritually carry the Precious Blood to souls and thus heal their wounds. If you have love in your heart, you have Jesus; you have His life. You may be as Mary, your Mother, a dispensatrix of the Precious Blood. What grand work, what a happy life, what a happy end will be yours! Holy Spirit, inspire Thy children! Make us earnest, zealous; make us live as Mary would have us-----loving souls, healing them, saving them-----and for all eternity have the happiness of claiming as our own the souls we saved by aiding Mary to bring the Precious Blood to them. It is from want of thought we are so callous, so cold, about this grand work; there is so much to be done; so little being done, in comparison to the needs. We might convert our friends if we would; we might instruct little children; we might teach them of the good God; we might bring those to their duties who are neglecting them; a few words would often bring people back to the Sacraments; but above all, it takes prayer, and especially prayer for that great need we have endeavored to point out in this little work------the need dying sinners have of earnest, ardent prayer that they may not present themselves before Jesus with their souls stained with the fearful guilt of mortal sin. This is a work for us all: none can excuse himself from it; none can say he cannot do it. One might say that for many reasons he could not speak of religion to his Protestant friends; either he was afraid of offending them, or he was afraid of losing his temper in arguing; our duties, likewise, prevent our giving instruction, and so on. This may all be true. But with the work pointed out here, the work of saving souls at their last by our fervent prayer, by our offering patiently our trials, by placing ourselves, as it were, at the portals of the Church to allow no soul to go forth for whom we have not prayed, by pleading by all that is most holy and most efficacious, by realizing their terrible need and inflaming our hearts with love for those souls and pity for their terrible danger-----this we can all do! And if we really excite our souls to realize their sad state, we shall find innumerable means of succoring them, of endeavoring to prevent their leaving this life at enmity with God. We shall touch their souls with the Precious Blood; we shall work miracles-----yes indeed, the miracle of grace. God so loves to work the conversion of the sinful soul, to transform the prey of the devil into a beautiful soul and the-----the Precious Fruit of the Passion of Jesus, temple of the Holy Ghost!
I ask you, then, to read these pages in a prayerful spirit, that you may
derive profit from them and may desire to do this work. You must see
that,
if you do not love souls, you are not like Jesus. And yet you desire to
be like Him; you do wish to be beloved by Him. Therefore, you must do
as
people who have no appetite: try to create one; that your heart may be
touched by what you read and that you may earnestly set about the work
here advised-----that it may inflame you with a desire
of commencing at
once what will render you so beloved by
Jesus, what will fill you with
a constant holy joy, what will render you especially dear to Mary, what
will make you a savior and mother of innumerable souls.
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