supplication, or, as we say, by impetration, but not by satisfaction. In other words, the saints in Heaven may pray for the souls, and thus obtain from Divine Mercy a diminution of their suffering; but they cannot satisfy for them, nor pay their debts to Divine Justice; that is a privilege which God reserves to the Church Militant.
CHAPTER IX.
Assistance given the Holy Souls—Suffrages — Meritorious, Impetratory, and Satisfactory Works — God's Mercy — St. Gertrude— Judas Machabeus.
If God consoles the souls with so much goodness, His mercy shines forth still more clearly in the power which He gives to His Church to shorten the duration of their sufferings. Desiring to execute with clemency the severe sentence of His Justice, He accords abatement and mitigation of the pain; but He does so in an indirect manner through the intervention of the living. To us He gives all power to succour our afflicted brethren by way of suffrage, that is to say, by means of impetration and satisfaction.
The word suffrage in ecclesiastical language is a synonym of prayer; yet, when the Council of Trent declares that the souls in Purgatory are assisted by the suffrages of the faithful, the sense of the word is more comprehensive; it includes in general all that we can offer to God in behalf of the departed. Now, we can thus offer to God, not only our prayers, but ail our good works, in so far as they are impetratory or satisfactory.
To understand these terms, let us recall to mind that
