The apostolate on networks for the Souls in Purgatory and the rest of the groups is “a little army of little souls who pray for the dying,” says Begoña. These WhatsApp groups exist to help the dying to die well through a powerful prayer,” she adds.
Exaudi talked with Begoña García, creator of the Apostolate of Prayer ‘To Love Love,’ which prays to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, for the dying and for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.
Begoña’s devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has a long history. When she was baptized, her godmother gave her a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and her mother placed it at the entrance of their home, a devotion that, as she says, has accompanied her whole life.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
One of the key dates that Begoña remembers is November 16, 2016, when she was invited to a talk about the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “In that talk, I felt that God wanted me to spread devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I began with two WhatsApp groups and now there are 71.” “I also created a Web page called “To Love Love,” which has 44,000 users, with 122,000 sessions. Two weeks ago I began to spread this devotion on Facebook,” she says.
Through the spread of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Begoña has discovered “the personal love that God has for each one of us, who are unique for God and that God loves us with a Human Heart.” “I discovered the devotion of the nine First Fridays of the month, which is a promise that Jesus made to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque: “To all that go to Communion for nine consecutive First Fridays of the month, the Omnipotent Love of my Heart will grant the grace of final perseverance.’” To go to Communion, one must “be in God’s grace,” she stresses.
On the Web page that Begoña has created is all the material necessary to make the Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the home, which, “on one hand is to give Him a place of honor in the home, and on the other, to acknowledge Him as the center of family life,” she explains. “Two of the promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, are related directly to the family and the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus”: “’I will give peace to the families’ and ‘I will bless the families in which the image of My Sacred Heart is exposed and is honored,’” she recalls.
Testimonies on the Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Begoña talks about some of the testimonies of people who have made their Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Such is the case of María Yolanda of Mexico, who says that these WhatsApp messages bring to mind an experience of her childhood, “when we prayed for the DOMUND, we called at the door of houses, and we discovered in many a relief of the Heart of Jesus, and I thought, imagine that if on opening the door it was truly Jesus! The surprise is that always in those homes, it was Jesus who lived in the heart of those people who had Him enthroned, endearing, generous, affectionate. The Peace of Jesus lived there, and it’s what I always desired for my family, that Jesus would come to us in that well-installed place at home, in each heart.”
Marta, from Spain, says that this apostolate of prayer has helped her a lot to find daily “time for prayer, reflection and pause to raise her eyes to Heaven in the midst of her daily occupations. Perhaps we resolve to pray a bit more, to engage in spiritual reading . . . However, the rhythm of life makes it difficult for us. At least in this way, we have little oases of encounter with the Lord, strengthening our faith,” she stresses.
An Apostolate Born During Spiritual Exercises
These prayer groups didn’t stay in this very special devotion for Begoña but were extended to new apostolate groups. The emergence of these new groups of evangelization began, for Begoña, through an event.
In February of 2020, she was invited to do Spiritual Exercises, according to the method of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, in a monastery near where she lives. “These Exercises are a real marvel; spiritually, there is a before and after doing them. They help one to order oneself and know the Will of God in one’s life,” she points out.
The Ignatian Exercises are “led by priests of the Institute of the Word, and they can be done in person or online. The truth is that it’s a gift of God. I also invited the people in the WhatsApp groups to do them online, and I sent them testimonies of people that did them,” she continues.
A person who did them online said to Begoña that it was a wonderful retreat also because of the meditations. “I heartily recommend them, what’s more, I know little and I want to repeat them again.” Another person said to me: “These Spiritual Exercises end today; they have been the best of my life.”
Through these retreats, Begoña was able to meet the person who today is her Spiritual Director. And the two apostolates arose from this spiritual direction: the Apostolate to pray for the Souls in Purgatory and for the Dying.
A Little Army of Little Souls
The Apostolate for the Souls in Purgatory is “a little army of little souls who pray for the dying. These WhatsApp groups exist to help the dying to die well through a powerful prayer, as is the prayer of the chaplet or Rosary of Divine Mercy.” “Many people don’t know the devotion to the Divine Mercy, and there are very many people that die daily completely alone physically and spiritually,” she adds.
She also points out that “the dying risk eternity, and for us, as instruments of the Lord and brothers of ours as they are, we only need a few minutes to help them.” Hence, it’s very important that, in addition to praying the Chaplet, a priest be contacted to administer to them the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, given that, in addition to preparing them to take the step to life, sometimes the Lord gives their physical health back to them.”
The Apostolate’s Testimony: “Pray for the Dying”
One of the anonymous testimonies talks about a brother who said: Dear group, I tell you that this morning my brother Julio Ernesto received the Sacraments of Confession, Anointing of the Sick, and Holy Communion. As a family, we are giving glory to God and gratitude for having put these angels on our path, who were the engine that gave impetus to this encounter of my brother with the Lord and it all happened in a very natural way, without great complications. Nevertheless, he had been 30 years or more estranged from the Catholic Church. He wept with joy. The Lord and the little Virgin Mary will be able to reward you for all the good you are doing. He died four days after he was administered the Sacraments.”
The second testimony comes from Spain, where a person is grateful for the prayers for her sister who now rests in peace, and who said: “she rested with the help of the priest and with the Sacraments, prayer is very, very powerful. What was humanly very impossible, was obtained through prayer; it’s a great testimony, and after she asked for forgiveness and we forgave her, especially her close family, and accepted her departure with much love, saying to her in her ear, that God loves her immensely and that He had already forgiven her.”
The Prayer Group for the Souls in Purgatory
The third and last prayer group that Begoña leads on the social networks is the one that, as she herself says, is made up of “a little army of Little Souls who pray for the Souls in Purgatory.” “Saint Catherine of Bologna said: I have received many and great favors from the Saints, but much greater ones the Holy Souls in Purgatory.”
In this WhatsApp group, every Monday each member communicates the prayers suggested to pray for the Souls in Purgatory. So, “each person chooses one to pray during the whole week, until the following Monday. And so we pray seven days for all our deceased brothers who do not yet enjoy the presence of the Eternal Father, because, as Saint John of the Cross says: ‘At the end of this life we will be judged on love’ and what greater love is there than to pray for the dying and the Holy Souls in Purgatory. “
Testimony of the Group That Prays for the Souls in Purgatory
The story of Rosa, of Costa Rica, is one of gratitude for the apostolate. “Thanks to your effort I have been able to pray daily and to make an effort to help the Holy Souls in Purgatory. My mother always prays and lights candles for her dead. I didn’t understand this well until now.”
Moreover, these apostolates are an important instrument for evangelization on the social networks, given that, as Begoña explains, she has been able “to verify the fruits that are borne thanks to the comments that many people send me.” Hence, it encourages her to continue with this service that, although it implies an investment of time, turns out to be very enriching.
“In any case, this endeavor I’m engaged in could not be carried out if it were not for the people that in turn make themselves responsible for resending the messages to the different groups of the different countries. Nor would it be possible if it were not for the encouragement that my Spiritual Director gives me,” she highlights.
Because, for Begoña, suffice it that “just one person finds it useful and helps them to improve on the path of Salvation, I am satisfied. I think that with the hectic pace of life we live, these messages that are sent can help, as a parenthesis of prayer, in the course of the day,” she concludes.
You can join these groups on WhatsApp: +34 636 744 762 and also through the e-mail of the Web page “To Love Love.”
Translation by Virginia M. Forrester
