CHAPTER II.
Confidence — Mercy of God towards Souls — He Consoles them — St. Catherifie of Genoa — The Brother of St. Magdalen de Pazzi.
It is true that all have not attained this high degree of Charity, but there is no one that cannot have confidence in the Divine Mercy. This Mercy is infinite, it imparts peace to all souls that keep it constantly before their eyes and confide therein. Now the Mercy of God is exercised with regard to Purgatory in a threefold manner: (1) in consoling the souls; (2) in mitigating their sufferings; (3) in giving to ourselves a thousand means of avoiding those penal fires. In the first place, God consoles the souls in Purgatory; He Himself consoles them; He also consoles them through the Blessed Virgin and through the holy angels. He consoles the souls by inspiring them with a high degree of faith, hope, and Divine love—virtues which produce in them conformity to the Divine will, resignation, and the most perfect patience. " God," says St. Catherine of Genoa, "inspires the soul in Purgatory with so ardent a movement of devoted love, that it would be sufficient to annihilate her were she not immortal. Illumined and inflamed by that pure charity, the more she loves God, the more she detests the least stain that displeases Him, the least hindrance that prevents her union with Him. Thus, if she could find another Purgatory more terrible than the one to which she is condemned, that soul would plunge herself therein, impelled by the impetuosity of the love which exists between God and herself, in order that she might be the sooner delivered from all that separates her from her Sovereign God."
