Jean's Journal: The Greenway and Purgatory

by Jean Farrell

I‘m writing this on a lovely sunny Sunday morning, on November 2. I‘ve just walked from The White Gates down to Garrycastle Bridge and back again, along The Greenway. (I’m feeling very virtuous!)

It was wonderful to see so many Athlone folk enjoying this marvellous amenity. I must have passed about 40 people cycling or walking along it.

Little boys on bikes passed me, peddling furiously, as their fathers ran behind them. Ladies, my age, strolled and chatted together. I saw a very old man, using a walker, shuffling along beside a much younger man. He could have been his grandson. It was lovely to hear them laughing.

Others were stepping out smartly, in time to the music on their ear-phones. Cyclists sped past, maybe on their way to Moate, or even Mullingar.

The beautiful autumnal colours of the leaves on the trees and bushes all around us were a joy to behold. And there was no litter along the way, thanks to the two ladies in the photograph (above). They were picking up rubbish with long sticks, designed for the purpose. Aren’t they great! I thanked the two women as I passed them, on my way up and down. Well done, Phil and Marie.

A suggestion! It would be lovely to have a few seats along this walk. When I (and our dog Bobby) arrived at Garrycastle Bridge, I’d have welcomed a ‘sit-down’ before heading back again.

On the subject of seats – it would also be lovely to have the seats outside The Friary Gardens reinstated. Wasn’t this supposed to happen?

Do any of you remember how important November 2 once was? It is the feast of All Souls. It was a day that we, as little children, could get souls out of Purgatory and send them straight up to Heaven. Such power!

The nuns told us that if we went into a church and said six Hail Marys, six Our Fathers and six Glory be to The Father (I think) a soul would escape from the fires of Purgatory and go straight up to Heaven, immediately.

I clearly remember coming out of St Peter’s Church, standing on the high steps and looking up at the sky. I visualised a soul, in the shape of a heart with wings, flying Heavenwards. Then, I ran back into the church to release another. (We had to come out and go in again, or it wouldn’t work. God knows why!) I remember walking home, for my tea, with a great sense of satisfaction. I had released about twelve souls from Purgatory, by my prayers. Magic!

There were many of my classmates doing the same thing, in the church, on November 2, long ago. I wonder do any of you remember this.

I’m sure that all of you, dear readers, remember how much ‘The Souls in Purgatory’ featured in our young lives. How often did we hear, “Offer it up for the Holy Souls.” By offering up our pain and sufferings for the souls in Purgatory, we could shortened their time there. So the nuns said.

We could say aspirations for them – remember aspirations? “Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you,” was worth 300 days. This meant that 300 days were knocked off a soul’s times in Purgatory. I don’t know how much time was knocked off their stay when a mother - having discovered, with dread, that she was expecting her twelfth child - was told to “Offer it up for the Holy Souls.”

Were there accountants, above in Heaven, sitting all day and night at large ledgers? Had deceased Mary Margaret Maloney (in Purgatory) her own page? As her daughter, on earth, said an aspiration, did her accountant in Heaven knock 300 days off her sentence in the fires of Purgatory?

I know that many of you attended small country primary schools, long ago. Some of you would have been taught by male teachers. I often wonder did you get the same level of religious education that children in convent schools got.

‘The nuns got into our heads while they were still soft,’ a writer wrote. This is true. Some might regard the intense instruction we received as brain-washing or indoctrination. All I know is that it has stuck in my head, to this day.

I wonder what children nowadays are taught. Have they ever heard of Purgatory? Do they learn about the souls burning in the fires there? Have they ever heard of temporal punishment, which only a plenary indulgence can remove completely? Are these facts even still part of Catholic teaching anymore, I wondered. I consulted Google and discover that they are.

Google tells us, “During the 2025 Jubilee Year, you can gain a plenary indulgence by performing specific acts, such as making a pilgrimage to Rome, performing works of mercy, or engaging in acts of penance and charity. To be eligible, you must fulfil three conditions: a sacramental confession, reception of the Eucharist, and a prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father”

So, instead of walking along our lovely greenway, on this morning of November 2, maybe I should have been ‘engaging in acts of penance and charity’ to enable a soul to escape from Purgatory!

Do you think that the good Lord was watching the two women on The Greenway? Would he consider that they were doing “works of mercy, as well as acts of penance and charity?” They were working hard, picking up other people’s rubbish and making The Greenway a pleasant place to be. Might they be eligible for a plenary indulgence?

God only knows!!!

jeanfarrell@live.ie