Page:Purgatory00scho.djvu/295

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ask our suffrages? " " Blessed be God, I am no longer in pain nor sorrow. I need not your suffrages. I am in the joys of Paradise." "And King Philip, is he also already in Paradise?" "Yes, he is there, but placed as much below me as he was elevated above me upon earth. As for you, Dr. Verdiano, where do you propose to make your first visit to-day?" Verdiano having replied that he was then going to the Patrician di Maio, who was dangerously ill, Lacci warned him to guard against a great danger which menaced him at the door of the house. In fact, the doctor found there a large stone so placed, that on being shaken, it would have fallen and mortally injured him.

This material circumstance seems to have been designed by Providence to prove to Verdiano that he had not been the sport of an illusion.


CHAPTER L.

Advantages—Prayers of the Souls for us—Suarez—St. Bridget—St. Catherine of Bologna—Venerable Vianney.

We have just spoken of the gratitude of the holy souls. This they sometimes manifest, as we have seen, in a clearly visible manner, but most frequently they exercise it invisibly by their prayers. The souls pray for us not only when, after their deliverance, they are with God in Heaven, but even in their place of exile and in the midst of their sufferings. Although they cannot pray for themselves, yet, by their supplications, they obtain great grace for us. Such is the express doctrine of two eminent theologians, Bellarmine and Suarez. "These souls are holy," says Suarez, "and dear to God. Charity urges