Posted on 10/30/2014 2:54:21 PM PDT by NYer
Does purgatory still exist? Even though we don’t hear about it as much as in earlier times, Catholics do believe in purgatory. It is a matter of faith, supported by the Bible and tradition, clarified at the Council of Florence in 1439 and the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Here is what we know about purgatory.
1. Purgatory exists: The Catechism of the Catholic Church states there are three states of the church, those who are living on earth, those who are in purgatory and those who are in heaven with God.
2. It is not a second chance: The soul is already saved. Purgatory is a place to pay off debts for sins that were forgiven but for which sufficient penance had not been done on earth.
3. It is not an actual place: Blessed John Paul II said in an Aug.4, 1999 general audience that purgatory was a state of being: “The term does not indicate a place, but a condition of existence.” Pope Benedict XVI said in a Jan. 12, 2011 general audience, “This is purgatory, an interior fire.”
4. Purgatory is not punishment but God’s mercy: “Few people can say they are prepared to stand before God,” says Susan Tassone, author of “Prayers, Promises, and Devotions for the Holy Souls in Purgatory” (Our Sunday Visitor, 2012). “If we didn’t have purgatory there would be very few people in heaven, because it would be heaven or hell. It is his mercy that allows us to prepare to be with him in heaven.”
5. Our prayers for the souls in purgatory help them achieve heaven: “The doctrine of purgatory recalls how radically we take love of neighbor,” says Sulpician Father Gladstone Stevens, vice rector and dean of men at St. Patrick’s Seminary & University, Menlo Park. “The obligation to pray for each other does not cease when biological life ends. God wants us to always pray for each other, work for each other’s redemption.”
6. The souls in purgatory can intercede for those on earth but cannot pray for themselves: The Catechism of the Catholic Church (958) states: “… the church in its pilgrim members, from the very earliest days of the Christian religion, has honored with great respect the memory of the dead; … Our prayer for them is capable not only of helping them, but also of making their intercession for us effective.”
7. God does not send souls to purgatory – each soul sends itself to purgatory: Once a soul sees itself with the light of God, it realizes it cannot stay in his presence until all imperfections are wiped away.“The soul chooses,” Tassone says.
8. There is no fire in purgatory: But each soul is aflame with the pain of being separated from God and with the desire to be purified so it can be in the beatific vision. Each soul also feels joy knowing it will one day be with God, Father Stevens and Tassone say.
9. There is a special day and month to pray for the souls in purgatory: Nov. 2 or All Souls’ Day is the day set aside and November is the month in the liturgical calendar to pray especially for all the souls who are in purgatory. Nov. 2 is called “The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed,” but the church asks us to pray always for each other, including for the souls in purgatory.
10. Prayers for souls in purgatory always count: Pope Benedict says in his encyclical “Spe Salve” (“On Christian Hope”), regarding the souls of the dead, “ … in the communion of souls simple terrestrial time is superseded. It is never too late to touch the heart of another, nor is it ever in vain.”
Thank you.
God is awesome.
You’re Welcome.
Something very wrong with you. Read the rules.
I’m guessing this post was not directed at me? I am the one that defended you. You shared a great prayer and that person called you a name. I think his/her quarrel is with a Saint not you.
Yes He is.
Of course the Narnia series remains my favorite . . .
I love Narnia! I also enjoyed the Screwtape Letters. I used the Screwtape Letters with my 7th grade Confirmation kids. They really understood it.
Newer editions are bound with "Screwtape proposes a toast" which is Lewis' take on public education. Everything he said has come true . . . .
I SEEMED to be standing in a bus queue by the side of a long, mean street. Evening was just closing in and it was raining. I had been wandering for hours in similar mean streets, always in the rain and always in evening twilight. Time seemed to have paused on that dismal moment when only a few shops have lit up and it is not yet dark enough for their windows to look cheering. And just as the evening never advanced to night, so my walking had never brought me to the better parts of the town. However far I went I found only dingy lodging houses, small tobacconists, hoardings from which posters hung in rags, windowless warehouses, goods stations without trains, and bookshops of the sort that sell The Works of Aristotle. I never met anyone. But for the little crowd at the bus stop, the whole town seemed to be empty. I think that was why I attached myself to the queue.
Online here: The Great Divorce
I read very well, but you know some stuff is just so hard to read. St. John of the Cross comes to mind with "Dark Night of the Soul" Arg!
Lewis often said that obscure language or jargon was a sure sign that you didn't thoroughly understand what you were talking about and were taking refuge in "shop talk". He recommended that anybody writing something technical (whether textual analysis or theology) put it in "plain English" before publication.
What's interesting is that his personal, plain-spoken tone is evidence even in his "day job" writings - he wrote the volume of the Oxford History of English Literature on the 16th Century (excluding drama, which had a volume of its own), and it's quite engaging, very friendly and chatty, even though the subject is obscure. I mean, who has read David Lyndsay's The Monarche lately? although if you do (or if you read Lewis' tome) you'll find out where the title of That Hideous Strength came from!
If you liked Screwtape check out Peter Kreeft's "Snakebite letters." He did an updated version of "Screwtape" dealing with some contemporary issues and it is almost as good as Lewis.
Wow. That’s pretty high praise - I’ll have to look into it.
Sounds so interesting. Thanks for the hint.
I like John Paul II in that he took deep subjects and presented them to us with enough for all. What I mean is everyone could read it. How far you wanted to dive into it was left for the individual.
In other words I am not a contemplative person. I would love to be, really and I do have the ability to do it, I just don't have the time. So I want it where I can "get it" and use it.
When I first read "Confessions", I was blown away. It seemed so contemporary. I mean contemporary in the sense that I could relate to what he was saying.
There was a thread on here some time back that was about Christopher Columbus and it was fascinating. I came away with a lot. But the thing that struck me most was that in this coming time of trouble, "we" have been there before. The Muslims occupied Spain for 700 years, but they were eventually expelled. Now to modern man they will say so what? But I don't know I find a comfort in that. The gates of Hell did not prevail then and they will not prevail now.
I would read a couple of pages and then ponder them before I picked up the book again.
I like High schoolers best. the Jr. Highs have to much energy and don’t understand sarcasm.
That's why it all seems so familiar.
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