Which prayers and works help the souls most?
Defined dogma Private revelation
Defined dogma What the Church holds
The Mass first: Trent says the souls are helped “principally by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar”, and the Directory on Popular Piety ranks after it prayer for the dead, alms, works of mercy and indulgences applied by way of suffrage. No prayer formula has a guaranteed yield.
Private revelation What the saints and mystics report
The witnesses agree on the Mass. Beyond it, each saint’s own devotion is the one the souls praise to her — the Precious Blood, the Stations, the Rosary, obedience, Communion. Two cautions: every “300 days” in the older books is pre-1967 arithmetic, and the “1,000 souls” promise attached to St Gertrude’s prayer has no located source in her writings.
Accounts that bear on this
- MED-16St Bernard: A tepid monk of Clairvaux seen in the abyss; once delivered, he points to the altar, "the Saving Host" (St Bernard)
- MED-49Henry Suso: Henry Suso's friend: their pact of two Masses a week broken; "It is the Blood of Jesus Christ that is needed"
- UMP-R6Sr Mary of the Cross (the Manuscript): Helps: the Way of the Cross next to the Mass; one intention can cover all the souls; a little prayer is like a glass …
- VIS-R1The Portuguese visionary: The angel on suffrages: daily Mass with the Memento, the Rosary and the Stations are the three great means; fasting …
- FAU-12St Faustina: §1226–1227: the eighth day of the Novena: the souls in "the prison of Purgatory"; "Draw all the indulgences from the …