Holy Mass on Wednesday 14 November at 16.30 pm at the Basilica of San Giuseppe al Trionfale

"If the punishment of hell - wrote the Russian novelist Dostoevsky - is the inability to love", the condition experienced in purgatory is that of a laboratory in which the harmony of love is completed. 

It is difficult to imagine the condition of souls in Purgatory, a state of suspension in which the desire for total love is nourished yet one feels the discomfort of not yet being able to fully experience it. 

An evangelical comparison that allows us to effectively explore the heart of this discomfort is Peter's experience after the betrayal committed against Jesus. On that occasion "the Lord turned, met the gaze of Peter and his trusted friend, Peter, wept bitterly." 

The poignant suffering of a divinizing love to be recovered: this is the punishment of "Purgatory". It is an antechamber in which we await the restoration of the whiteness of the baptismal robe that was given to us at the moment of our entry into the very life of God. 

That garment that wrapped our flesh, at the moment in which Life handed us over to human history, has suffered some tears, some wear and tear and now needs mending.

There are two hands that mend. The first is that of our dearly departed. Because of that bond of affection that will forever bind us to them, our relatives pray for us so that the divinization of our earthly life does not come to an end. The loving second hand is the prayers we raise to God as suffrage for the benefit of our deceased loved ones and so are the acts of love towards our neighbors in need. These spiritual and corporal works of mercy put us in a position to breathe the same divine charity that governs the world.

On Wednesday 14 November at 16,30 pm we will meet in the Basilica to experience a solemn moment of prayer of suffrage for the benefit of our dearly departed, and for all the people registered with the Pious Union of the Transit of Saint Joseph who in the last year have reached the shore of eternity.