Mother Mary, Purgatory and The Bible

Hear the following talk from Apologetics about Mary and Purgatory.

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Mother Mary

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom He loved standing near, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”

Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home. - John 19:26-27

Called in the Gospels “the mother of Jesus”, Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as “the mother of my Lord”.

In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father’s eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity.  Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly “Mother of God” (Theotokos) - CCC #495

Perpetual Virginity – Brothers & Sisters of Jesus

Prayers for the departed souls is as important as oxygen for the living.

Anyone of us could die suddenly and find ourselves stranded on the lost continent of purgatory. Scripture tells us that our lives are like a flower of the field, like grass which flowers in the morning and grows dry and withers in the evening. Our Lady of Medjugorje also reminds us of the quickness of the passage of life; “Everything is passing, little children; only God is not passing.”

Pope John Paul II defined purgatory like this: “Every trace of attachment to evil must be eliminated, every imperfection of the soul corrected. Purification must be complete, and indeed this precisely what is meant by the Church’s teaching on purgatory.” To achieve this we must pray. We have this tremendous energy in us and prayer gets us in touch with that energy.

Prayer unleashes souls from purgatory through the Mass, the highest form of prayer.

In Rome there is a Church called the Church of the Suffering Souls. In that Church there is a small museum with relics from souls who touched objects and scorched them to show the purifying spiritual fires (and to indicate the desperate need for our Masses to move them on to Heaven). Every relic has a story. Every story has the same theme. Purgatory exists, and they were in desperate need of Masses. Once the soul leaves the body all merits ceases. For the poor souls their work does not count. It is penal labor – a wearing out of one’s self without any effect. Their efforts obtain nothing. It flows, yet dries up as a river in the sand. Such is the life of the poor souls in purgatory.

At wakes do we hear the need to pray for the souls of our loved ones? We must remember that our faith requires our prayers to help our loved ones join the house of the Lord. Very few of us have souls free from defects — but with our prayers we can create a soul without blemish. Pope Benedict XVI stated that “if we did not have the doctrine of purgatory we would need to invent it!”

Do we have time for our departed loved ones? Do we have time to help our friends reach high places before the throne of God? You can help them. They are poor you are rich. The can do nothing for themselves; you can do everything for them. They can no longer assist at holy Mass and cleanse themselves in the Blood of Christ; you can offer the holy sacrifice and Christ’s Precious Blood for them. They can no longer eat the Bread of Life; you can receive it for them in Holy Communion. They can no longer perform good works or pay their debt by giving alms; you can do it for them! They can no longer draw from graces of the church you can apply your indulgences to them. Your prayers descend to them like refreshing dew and speed them home to Heaven.

Even though the holy souls can do nothing for themselves, they can do much for us once they enter the gate of heaven. Oh, how we need that prayer in the dangers and troubles of this life; and how we shall long for their prayers when we may have to languish in purgatory.

Our Lady of Medjugorje told visionary Mirjana that in Purgatory there are several levels. The more you pray on earth, the higher your level in purgatory will be. The lowest level is closest to hell where the suffering is the most intense. The highest level is closest to Heaven and there the sufferings are the least.

Goto Prayer for Souls in Purgatory

- – - written by Susan Tassone

Complete E-book on Purgatory. Take a look at this PDF given for free download here.

Read Me or Rue It – How To Avoid Purgatory written by Fr. Paul O’Sullivan

To view/save the E-book, click on Download Now

Chapters in this PDF on Purgatory

Although a small e-book, it is destined to do great good among Christians, many of whom are incredibly ignorant of the great doctrine of Purgatory. As a consequence, they do little or nothing to avoid it themselves and little to help the Poor Souls who are suffering there so intensely, waiting for the Masses and prayers which should be offered for them.

Help, Help, They Suffer So Much

I. We can never understand too clearly that every alms, small or great, which we give to the poor we give to God. He accepts it and rewards it as given to Himself. Therefore, all we do for the Holy Souls, God accepts as done to Himself. It is as if we had relieved or released Him from Purgatory. What a thought! How He will repay us!

II. As there is no hunger, no thirst, no poverty, no need, no pain, no suffering to compare with what the Souls in Purgatory endure, so there is no alms more deserving, none more pleasing to God, none more meritorious for us than the alms, the prayers, the Masses we give to the Holy Souls.

III. It is very possible that some of our own nearest and dearest ones are still suffering the excruciating pains of Purgatory and calling on us piteously for help and relief.

Is it not dreadful that we are so hardened as not to think more about them, that we are so cruel as to deliberately forget them! For the dear Christ’s sake, let us do all, but all, we can for them. Every Catholic ought to join the Association of the Holy Souls.

“Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you my friends, because the hand of the Lord hath touched me. ” (Job 19:21). This is the touching prayer that the Poor Souls in Purgatory address to their friends on Earth, begging, imploring their help, in accents of the deepest anguish. Alas, many are deaf to their prayers!

What is Purgatory?

It is a prison of fire in which nearly all [saved] souls are plunged after death and in which they suffer the intensest pain. Here is what the great Doctors of the Church tell us of Purgatory: So grievous is their suffering that one minute in this awful fire seems like a century.

St. Thomas Aquinas, the Prince of Theologians, says that the fire of Purgatory is equal in intensity to the fire of Hell, and that the slightest contact with it is more dreadful than all the possible sufferings of this Earth!

Read more in the attached pdf available from Download Now link.