CLICK HERE to read The Purgatory – Part 01 if you haven’t read that.
Purgatory is a shelter for souls, rather than a place of punishment. There they get a lot of insights and knowledge. The souls get to know about all the secrets of God’s love and His ways. There they become aware of the importance of giving first place to God while on Earth and about salvation of souls. They also realize that life on earth is so transient and they should have done a lot of good and how little they have done etc. They realize that the spiritual treasures they achieved during life on earth were far far precious than their earthly treasures.
The souls understand that after this purification, they will become stronger and they will be freed from sins and temptations. They rejoice at being in purgatory as they know that after all these pains, they will receive god and His love forever. A soul, after going through this purification, clears all the debts of sins and receives in full God’s love, accepts it and gets ready to fulfill His will.
A person gets the gift of eternity according to how much love he had for God, at the time of his death. Remember what St. John said while on cross : “You will be tested according to your love at the end of your life.”
The soul, which gets clear knowledge about God and His love, is purified in the fire by the earnest desire to be with God. As we know, in purgatory it does not have the physical body it had on Earth. By the burning fire of purification, we mean the agony which they experience as a result of their inability to be with God and not being able to love Him completely. Even though the above said purifying fire is not like ordinary fire and smoke, the pain that this fire causes to the soul is far greater than the pain that the ordinary fire causes to one’s physical body. For e.g. the pain that a wounded heart feels will be much more than the pain when one’s leg is broken, right? The pain in the first case also takes a much more time for alleviation.
A soul in purgatory wishes to complete the purification as soon as possible and to join God and love Him at the earliest. The thought that it could have avoided all these pains, makes the pain all the more severe for the soul. Also the soul sadly admits the fact that it could have destroyed the HARD CRUST (refer Purgatory Part 01) made by its selfish love, if it had loved, prayed and done deeds of penance and deeds of generosity during its time on Earth.
Ah, why these souls have to bear these pains in the fire in purgatory? Who is responsible for these pains? What is God’s scheme? Wait for the answers, next week in The Purgatory – Part 03.
Related Posts:
- The Purgatory – Part 04
- The Purgatory – Part 03
- The Purgatory – Part 01
- Prayer for the souls in Purgatory
- November 02 – All Souls’ Day
- Why should we pray the Stations of the Cross?
- “The Wonderful Cross” – Michael W. Smith
- Story : The Lost Kingdom of the Ants
- Power of Your Subconscious Mind – Part 02
- The Chaplet of The Divine Mercy
Random Posts:
- Plant 4 Rows
- “I Waited for the Lord on High” song – Petra
- Beware of Hell
- A Matter of Focus
- Virgin Mary Pics 12 – Wallpaper sized images
- It’s Strange, Isn’t It?
- “Joy To The World” song – Diana Ross
- Jokes : A priest and a rabbi
- “Auld Lang Syne” song – Boney M
- Jokes : Use Your Brains Even After Your Death
Tags: cross, free, god, love
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If there is a “purgatory” as this blogpost claims, where will you find its description, or even the mention of it in Scriptures?
I was a Catholic, born and raised in a strictly Catholic setting, but having found out a lot of lies concocted and fed to me by my Catholic upbringing made me realize that there is only one way to discern truth from the lies – by reading and investigating through the Bible and depending fully on what is written on it. After all, don’t the Catholics share the same belief that the Bible is the Word of God? I left the Catholic flock after learning about their false teachings. It’s sad, but I had to choose and I chose my Lord, the God of the Bible, and I have been living a peaceful and fulfilling life eversince. There is not a mention of purgatory in the Bible, but there sure is a lot of information about hell. You may want to check that out for yourself.
A catholic’s life and beliefs are not based solely on The Word. Teachings of the Church should also be taken into consideration.
Matthew 15:2 states thus, ” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”
Matthew 15:6 “…So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.”
Just like the Pharisees, the Catholic church made up traditions such as the veneration of Mary and the saints, purgatory, the misconception about the Trinity and so forth. Catholics have become so concerned with keeping with these traditions that they have completely turned away from the true gospel – The Word of God.
Would you agree with the preceding text?
Revelation 22: 18-19 – ” I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”
Or would you rather remain faithful to the Catholic traditions?
2Ti 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.
Scripture is sufficient because it is the Word of God. To say that we need more than just what is written in the Bible is blasphemy, it is rebellion against him. It is synonymous to saying that God is not sovereign enough.
I came to know about Christ and the scriptures through the Catholic Church. And I believe in the teachings of the Church. I usually do not go into the logic of my beliefs.
that is true Hazel, all we need is the word of God as all other grounds are sinking sand.
We need to know that only the bible is unchanging, traditions come and go base on different backgrounds, different culture and different ideals. traditions are man made. and man are fallible. even the Catholic Catechism has undergone numerous version and updates. an e.g. earlier catechism states that you can only be saved throught the church, and now the latest update is saying you need not be.
So to be on the safe side, stick to the scriptures and do work out the logic of our faith, why and what we believe so that as Peter states, we can be prepared to give an answer when ask about our beliefs