The members of the Crusade are asked to pray St. Gertrude’s prayer every day, as often as is reasonably possible.

We also encourage our Crusaders to spread the word, and invite as many people as they can to join this Crusade of Mercy for the Poor Souls in Purgatory. Anyone can join up at any time! Just keep track of the prayers your family and friends say, unless they want to sign up for themselves.

Now, you may be wondering just how much you can help the Crusade. Again, there is no limit of time, so we just want to try and help as many souls as quickly as we can. We have set ourselves both large and small goals to reach, to help us stay motivated and focused.

So, let’s estimate for a minute. If each Crusader said 5 prayers a day, then it would take a little over one month for 33 Crusaders to unlock one group of Crusader Tokens. At that rate, the Grand Prize goal of 25,000 prayers would be reached in nearly 5 months. But it seems like that is an awfully long time for those Poor Souls to wait. I am sure that with more help, effort, and generosity from all the Crusaders we can reach these goals faster!

Now, if you want to be a bit more generous and pray 11 of these prayers every day then, with the help of only 32 other Crusaders, the goal of 5,000 prayers will be achieved in just two weeks!

YOU can help say 10,000 prayers in one month! And it takes a mere 5 minutes to pray this prayer 11 times - and to pray it slowly and well.
Five minutes!!!

And remember! Every one of the souls you help is a powerful intercessor FOR YOU in Heaven! Many Saints tell of the miraculous help they received from the Poor Souls who were still in Purgatory. How much more powerful will these souls be for YOU personally, once YOU have helped them get to Heaven sooner!

As a member of the Crusade of Mercy, I recommend that you make a plan for yourself. Decide on how many prayers you would like to say towards the 25,000 prayer goal. Then, set yourself a goal of time. For example, if you chose 3 months, that would give you a total of approximately 92 days. So in that case, you would divide the total number of prayers you want to say by 92 - and that will show you how many prayers you need to say each day.

You can also pray more on the weekend. What better way to honor Sunday than to spend 15 or 20 minutes (or more) praying this golden prayer of mercy.

In “How to Avoid Purgatory" (at the Cathedral’s section on the Poor Souls) we explained that Jesus told all of us, "if you want mercy you must show mercy!" Many, many times Our Lord and Our Lady have told Saints that God is well pleased with those who help comfort the Poor Souls.

Please, have pity on these poor, countless souls who are suffering pains worse than you can imagine. Won’t you give them just 5 minutes of your day? Maybe your family can add the prayers to family prayer time. If you just say the prayer once before each meal and when you get up and go to bed, that is 5 prayers already! Please be merciful. Do it for yourself as well as them. Every person you help to free from the debt of their sins becomes your faithful friend in Heaven forever and does all they can to help you save your soul and grow in holiness. You will also please Almighty God and His merciful Mother, Mary. Your eternal reward in Heaven will be great. And the sacrifice you make will strengthen your soul against temptations, making you less likely to sin. There are other great reasons, but most of all, help them because their need is very great and there are very few these days who do anything at all to help them.

Do not be like everybody else. Be generous! You will be very glad you did!

Jesus suffered horribly to give you a chance to save your soul. No sacrifice that you could ever make to help the Poor Souls (or for any other reason) could possibly start to equal what God Himself has suffered for you.

Thank you for helping others!

Please be generous!!