Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever and ever.
Today again, we commemorate the faithful departed, this time those specifically who were members of the Franciscan Order, friars, their benefactors, their relatives, their friends, as a duty of justice and to be faithful to our rule, we pray for the deceased as Saint Francis wanted it.
And many of the friars, maybe many is too strong of a word, but I know some friars definitely have very interesting stories of what seems to have been souls from purgatory visiting them, asking them to pray for them. I don't have any such great story to tell you, but they do occur. I will instead share a story with you from a book that you probably know, Jesus Our Eucharistic Love, by Fr. Stefano Manelli. Fr. Stefano knew Padre Pio, and Padre Pio had many such stories as well. And just a very brief story, and it goes like this. 
Many apparitions have been reported about souls in purgatory who came to ask the offering of Saint Pio's Holy Mass for their deliverance from purgatory. One day, Padre Pio celebrated Holy Mass for the father of one of his fellow friars. At the end of the holy sacrifice, Padre Pio said to this friar, for whose father the Mass was being offered, this morning the soul of your father entered heaven. The friar was obviously very happy, but said, Padre, my father died 32 years ago. My son, Padre Pio, replied, before God, every debt must be paid. And it is Holy Mass which obtains for us a treasure of infinite value, the body and blood of Jesus, the unspotted lamb.
So the friar, Padre Pio's confrere, for whose father the Mass was celebrated, was surprised that, wow, after 32 years, his dad was still in purgatory. And Padre Pio affirmed that, well, for God, every debt must be paid. Of course, we don't know the exact time that each person is in purgatory, but it can be a long time. So the takeaway is that we should not cease to pray for our loved ones in purgatory. We should not forget them. It's always good to persevere in prayer for them. 
If they don't need our prayers, of course, they will go to benefit somebody else. But if they do, they will be very grateful to us for our prayers for them. It can be a long time that we might be in purgatory. It can be a long time that our loved ones are in purgatory. It's always a good thing to pray for them, as the story from the life of Padre Pio reminds us.
And stories are good reminders, but let's not forget that also we have simply the truth of faith that purgatory exists. Souls are there, and they need our prayers. And the closer they are to us, the more we are obligated to pray for them. 
Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever and ever.