Read this Part 04 only after reading the first three parts linked below…
The Purgatory – Part 01
The Purgatory – Part 02
The Purgatory – Part 03
If a soul completes its purification on Earth itself, through prayer, deeds of penance, sacraments etc, then that soul need not spend much time in Purgatory. Those who had led a good life without sins might be having a selfish love for themselves. This selfish love urges them to abstain from many religious rituals, which makes them eligible for punishments. So these souls need very hard punishment to destroy the HARD CRUST created on the surface of their selfish love.
Even though God has given many opportunities to those who lead a pure life to help others, if they move away from these blaming personal inconveniences, it is due to their selfish love for themselves. Some souls give visions that the reason for them being in Purgatory is due to their not fully utilizing the chances they got to help others on Earth.
When one soul gets purified in Purgatory, the Guardian Angel of that soul teaches the soul all about praises to Lord and the need for them. Yes, the presence of one’s Guardian Angel in Purgatory surely brings some joy to the soul, but no relief. A soul gets relief only through its pains in purgatory and the prayers it gets from the earth.
Even though the pain a soul suffers in Purgatory is unbearable beyond words, it doesn’t wish to go back from Purgatory or for someone to free it from there. They only wish for the quick melting down of the selfish love they have, which separates them from God’s love. They are thankful to God and are always hopeful. They strongly believe in the truth that after purification, they will all get the bright sacred cloth promised for them. All other souls rejoice when one soul gets promotion to Heaven. Through the purification in purgatory, all the souls understand the virtues like pain, kindness, service, brotherly love etc and they rejoice in these virtues.
The souls in Purgatory eagerly wait for the day of remembrance of all the souls. On that day they get more joy and more relief. The level of happiness they enjoy then will be according to the level of pain they experience at that time. Their joy know no bounds when they see the bright rays coming out of them. They will then get convinced that they will be able to love God more, in future.
The souls also come to know how much harmful it was to commit even a simple sin while they were on Earth. In Purgatory, some souls experience solitude. Those souls who are in the empty corners of Purgatory experience many times the pain that the others experience. They are there, as those souls caused many others to move far away from God, through their false teachings or beliefs. Those souls are also responsible for those sins committed by others who followed them, moving away from God. Because these souls used the god given talents to publicly blame God and disrespect the Church.
As pride is the most serious sin, the souls which had pride, have to remain in the purgatory for a very long time. These souls were those people who said they don’t need God and who were reluctant to follow Him, while on Earth. This soul gets ready to suffer more pains, admitting the fact that it had been a fool on Earth. They fully understand that they are in the Purgatory only because of God’s kindness and love, and that they should have gone to permanent hell, if otherwise. When Mother Mary comes to Purgatory to comfort the souls, these souls move away from Her. Because Her purity and love to God creates more pain and sorrow in these souls. Another reason for this is that these souls feel more and more ashamed as they didn’t love or respect Mother Mary, while on earth.
We have seen that those who loved Mother Mary more, while on earth, are able to receive more relief from Her in the Purgatory. Virgin Mary comes and makes clear all the selfish love and demerits which separates the soul from God. Thus the soul gets to heaven very quickly than expected. Virgin Mary will never forget the love we had shown to Her , while on earth. If a person alive loves and respects mother mary, prays for a dear soul who suffers in purgatory, She will free the soul from Purgatory. The prayers of the person alive touch Mother Mary very deeply.
The best weapon to free souls from purgatory is the Rosary. It helps to destroy the HARD CRUST formed on the surface of a soul’s love to God. A soul which had a personal relationship with Mary while on earth and if for him, a person alive who also loves Her prays, then we can see that the soul gets a better and brighter place in purgatory. Those who were eligible to receive the love of Mother Mary, they were seen more joyful in purgatory, through various visions to saints. Since these souls had received some special insights from others, they can attain the needed knowledge very quickly.
Those souls who had not loved or respected Mother Mary while on earth, suffer gravest pains in Purgatory. Many visions say that when she comes to purgatory and when Her shadow falls on these souls, they experience strong pains and sufferings.
Please have the Biblical view on purgatory and according to early Roman Catholic tradition there was no any such teaching of purgatory. It was later on accepted into RC teaching for the financial befits by the medieval Christian leaders.
So more than what tradition believes, believe on the word of God. In the New Testament, Luke 16:22-23, Jesus’ tells the story of Lazarus and the rich man, there we can not see any word on purgatory. So please don’t be deceived.
Dear Paul I totally understand where your coming from, please I totally do, but can people like you for once in your life give it a rest about going on that there is no purgatory can you just have some respect for a change for us that believe.
We chose to believe out of our faith, and upbringing just like anyone else who has a believe in a religion and lives by it. Just like the way you came to believe what you believe, surely one of the functions of religion is to help bring about tollerance for others and respect their way of living, and believing, not forcing folk over to the way you live and experience prayer and God.. and if they dont they are wrong in your eyes and not right with God, because of their religion,,
I love the faith and the love of the word that other christians have it helps me greatly to grow in faith. I love the openess to the Holy Spirit too in the other christian churches and the whole lot. But the one thing that really gets to me is staunch tight christians who quote , attack, and try to divide the body of Christ over their views towards the faith that catholics live by and just always hung up on the Purgatory thing and Mary,, all i ask is we are all on the same side working together for the Kingdom of God, and if someone gets saved and becomes a Born again Christian so be it let it be , it is a very good thing and i have been fead and encouraged, and helped, by the Born again Christians all through my life even tho I am devout Catholic,, I love all the churches and all i ask is that people like yourself paul would come to see the whole picture of the Catholic religion,, there is to many negitive mind sets that it clouds your judgement when you only focus on one subject like Purgatory ,, we are brothers in Christ … May God bless you kindly and open your mind to all the good things God has given to our process of Christian Living amen
Even when I was Protestant, I thought the concept of Purgatory made sense. Sin cannot enter heaven, & who among us dies with soul so pure as to enter into God’s presence? God in His infinite mercy, desiring that none of us should perish, provided a place and state of purification so that we CAN eventually come face to face with Him for eternity. While my Protestant pastors ranted that the Bible does not mention Purgatory, they will admit that neither is the Trinity mentioned, but no Christian disbelieves in the Trinity. And if there is no place such as Purgatory, why does Maccabbees mention that it is a good thing to pray for the souls of the dead? St Teresa of Avila wrote that the soul, upon death, willingly throws itself into Purgatory to be cleansed, with the sure knowledge that this cleansing will enable us to enjoy God forever.