The Power of Praying for Others – S. Gemma Galgani
The Power of Praying for Others
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For more information on St Gemma Galgani, see e.g.
https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=225
Portrait at
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The Devil once said to St Gemma Galgani "You can pray for yourself, but if you pray for others, I will make you pay dearly for it". And on another occasion the devil said to this great Saint, "While acting for yourself, do as you please, but listen well, do nothing for the conversion of sinners; if you attempt it, I shall make you pay dearly for it." The devil appeared to affirm for St Gemma Galgani that our Prayers for other are seemingly more fruitful than when we Pray for our own wants.
When he tried a new tactic to get St. Gemma to consider her own soul rather than only others when he exclaimed "How and where comes such presumption? You are laden with sins, and all the years of thy life would not suffice to bewail and expiate them, and yet you lose time about the sins of others? Do you not see that your own soul is in danger? A strange gain, that of thinking for others and neglecting thyself." Through all this she was brutally beaten by the devil; but she never stopped praying for others, letting herself be a victim for the human race as her Lord and Saviour did on His Cross.
“Know that no servant Is greater than their Master.” The devil seemed to be in a personal war with St. Gemma Galgani . At one point during one of his attacks he started horribly cursing God and shouting “War! War against you and your spiritual director!”. This continued on a nightly bases with the devil mocking her and her prayers for others on the chance that she would give up praying for others. She took all this with the true patience of a saint. The devil caused her the most pains by blaspheming her True Love, Jesus Christ, continuously, even one day exclaiming “What are you doing? How stupid you are to pray to that malefactor. Look at the harm He does thee, keeping thee nailed to the Cross with Himself. How then can you care for Him, for Him whom you don’t even know, who makes all who love Him suffer?”
Through all these continued promises of earthly happiness and even acknowledging to her that might may pray for herself, just not for others, she persevered through the devil’s attacks and eventually won a great victory for mankind, guaranteeing herself an exalted place in Heaven along with all the Saints of Christ.
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The devils to Padre Pio: "You bother us more than Saint Michael. If you don't snatch souls from us we will not bother you."
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St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney (the Curé of Ars): “What souls we can convert by our prayers. The one who saves a soul from hell saves this soul and his own as well.”