What's Next
You have prayed that a soul be saved from the fires of hell, and that they receive God's infinite Mercy.
Therefore, if the soul is saved from hell by the mercy of God, yet not purified so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven, what shall we do?
WE TURN TO St. GERTRUDE.
Saint Gertrude had a deep empathy for the Church suffering, the Holy Souls in Purgatory. At every Holy Communion she beseeched Jesus for His mercy to be bestowed on them. During one Holy Communion she experienced the descent into Purgatory with Our Lord. She heard Him say: "At Holy Communion I will permit thee to draw forth all to whom the fragrance of thy prayers penetrates." After Holy Communion Our Lord customarily delivered more Souls than she had dared to ask for.
In a vision to Saint Gertrude, Jesus confided that He longs for the faithful on earth to plead for mercy for the suffering souls. He uses the metaphor of a king who imprisoned a friend for justice’s sake, but internally hopes that someone will beg for mercy for his friend.
In another vision, Jesus gave her a prayer for the Holy Souls. She used the prayer herself and also wrote it down.
Our Lord told St. Gertrude the Great that the following prayer would release 1,000 souls from Purgatory each time it is said. (Whether or not exactly 1,000 souls are released, it has become the practice to repeat it 10 times as we know that our Lord wants us to pray for the holy souls in purgatory and 10,000 souls would be a fantastic start.)
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen
(Repeat 10 times.)
AND NOW...
... May I offer you the keys?
THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM
As Jesus gave them to St. Peter, the Church gives them to you. Because...
...there is no salvation apart from Christ and His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
You might say, "I just prayed for someone who was not Catholic. Did I waste my time?"
No. You did not. We are doing Jesus' will and bestowing His Mercy on poor sinners.
We leave the judgment up to Him.
The Catholic Church teaches that outside the Church there is no salvation, and that the Church was instituted by Christ Himself. So it stands to reason that the doctrine is true. Therefore, I hand you the keys to the Kingdom.
I beg you: find the nearest Catholic church, and learn what it takes to become Catholic. It's not because of the name. It's because of the sacraments. The Mercy that you prayed for the poor sinner is offered daily at Catholic churches around the world in the sacrament of Confession — sometimes called Reconciliation.
This is what Jesus said to Sister Faustina about confession:
Daughter, when you go to confession, to this fountain of My mercy, the Blood and Water which came forth from My Heart always flows down upon your soul and ennobles it. Every time you go to confession, immerse yourself entirely in My mercy, with great trust, so that I may pour the bounty of My grace upon your soul. When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I Myself act in your soul. Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy. Tell souls that from this fount of mercy souls draw graces solely with the vessel of trust. If their trust is great, there is no limit to My generosity. The torrents of grace inundate humble souls.
There you have it. The keys to the Kingdom, if you wish to accept them.
You may not have someone to pray for you at the end of your life.
Today is the day to immerse yourself in the Fount of Mercy.
May God bless you.
Now — do it again tomorrow.