Another Purgatory Question!

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I’ve read books by “Anne the Lay Apostle,” which makes Purgatory sound like a piece of cake. But then recently I’ve been reading a book by Bob and Penny Lord which describes what many of the saints have said about Purgatory - it doesn’t sound at all like what Anne says. They make it sound pretty scarey - definitely not a good place for a vacation!

So which way is it? Why is there such a difference between these accounts? Does Purgatory become more merciful depending on the times? Are Anne’s visions not reliable?

Thanks!
 
From the perspective of justice, Purgatory is painful. From the perspective of mercy, Purgatory is joyful. Both are correct.

Pope Benedict adds,
Some recent theologians are of the opinion that the fire which both burns and saves is Christ himself, the Judge and Saviour. The encounter with him is the decisive act of judgement. Before his gaze all falsehood melts away. This encounter with him, as it burns us, transforms and frees us, allowing us to become truly ourselves. All that we build during our lives can prove to be mere straw, pure bluster, and it collapses. Yet in the pain of this encounter, when the impurity and sickness of our lives become evident to us, there lies salvation. His gaze, the touch of his heart heals us through an undeniably painful transformation “as through fire”. But it is a blessed pain, in which the holy power of his love sears through us like a flame, enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus totally of God. In this way the inter-relation between justice and grace also becomes clear: the way we live our lives is not immaterial, but our defilement does not stain us for ever if we have at least continued to reach out towards Christ, towards truth and towards love. Indeed, it has already been burned away through Christ’s Passion. At the moment of judgement we experience and we absorb the overwhelming power of his love over all the evil in the world and in ourselves. The pain of love becomes our salvation and our joy.
​
 
Wow - What a WONDERFUL answer! Thanks Vincent for explaining that to me. I understand it better now.
 
Vincent said:
From the perspective of justice, Purgatory is painful. From the perspective of mercy, Purgatory is joyful. Both are correct.

Pope Benedict adds,
Some recent theologians are of the opinion that the fire which both burns and saves is Christ himself, the Judge and Saviour. The encounter with him is the decisive act of judgement. Before his gaze all falsehood melts away. This encounter with him, as it burns us, transforms and frees us, allowing us to become truly ourselves. All that we build during our lives can prove to be mere straw, pure bluster, and it collapses. Yet in the pain of this encounter, when the impurity and sickness of our lives become evident to us, there lies salvation. His gaze, the touch of his heart heals us through an undeniably painful transformation “as through fire”. But it is a blessed pain, in which the holy power of his love sears through us like a flame, enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus totally of God. In this way the inter-relation between justice and grace also becomes clear: the way we live our lives is not immaterial, but our defilement does not stain us for ever if we have at least continued to reach out towards Christ, towards truth and towards love. Indeed, it has already been burned away through Christ’s Passion. At the moment of judgement we experience and we absorb the overwhelming power of his love over all the evil in the world and in ourselves. The pain of love becomes our salvation and our joy.
​
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Thank you for the quote. As it comes from our Holy Father, I am sure it will be beautiful and inspiring. I will read it as soon as I find a magnifying glass. 😛
 
rpp said:
I will read it as soon as I find a magnifying glass. 😛
Click to expand...
You can increase/decrease the text size of almost any page by:
  1. Holding down CTRL and pressing – or ++
  2. Holding down CTRL and spinning the top mouse-wheel.
(I use this every day)
 
Catholic_Dude said:
You can increase/decrease the text size of almost any page by:
  1. Holding down CTRL and pressing – or ++
  2. Holding down CTRL and spinning the top mouse-wheel.
(I use this every day)
Click to expand...
Thanks for that. I learn something new every day.
 
Vincent said:
From the perspective of justice, Purgatory is painful. From the perspective of mercy, Purgatory is joyful. Both are correct.

Pope Benedict adds,
Some recent theologians are of the opinion that the fire which both burns and saves is Christ himself, the Judge and Saviour. The encounter with him is the decisive act of judgement. Before his gaze all falsehood melts away. This encounter with him, as it burns us, transforms and frees us, allowing us to become truly ourselves. All that we build during our lives can prove to be mere straw, pure bluster, and it collapses. Yet in the pain of this encounter, when the impurity and sickness of our lives become evident to us, there lies salvation. His gaze, the touch of his heart heals us through an undeniably painful transformation “as through fire”. But it is a blessed pain, in which the holy power of his love sears through us like a flame, enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus totally of God. In this way the inter-relation between justice and grace also becomes clear: the way we live our lives is not immaterial, but our defilement does not stain us for ever if we have at least continued to reach out towards Christ, towards truth and towards love. Indeed, it has already been burned away through Christ’s Passion. At the moment of judgement we experience and we absorb the overwhelming power of his love over all the evil in the world and in ourselves. The pain of love becomes our salvation and our joy.
​
Click to expand...
Thanks, Vincent. By the way, according to your location I must not live too far from you.
 
tomch said:
I’ve read books by “Anne the Lay Apostle,” which makes Purgatory sound like a piece of cake. But then recently I’ve been reading a book by Bob and Penny Lord which describes what many of the saints have said about Purgatory - it doesn’t sound at all like what Anne says. They make it sound pretty scarey - definitely not a good place for a vacation!

So which way is it? Why is there such a difference between these accounts? Does Purgatory become more merciful depending on the times? Are Anne’s visions not reliable?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Hi Tom -

The sufferings of Purgatory are the same as the sufferings of hell, with one difference - you get to go to heaven at some point. This makes them HAPPY sufferings. This may be what Anne meant to be saying.

Subrosa
 
Subrosa said:
Hi Tom -

The sufferings of Purgatory are the same as the sufferings of hell, with one difference - you get to go to heaven at some point. This makes them HAPPY sufferings. This may be what Anne meant to be saying.

Subrosa
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They are not the same as the sufferings of hell. The soul in hell is eternally condemned to torment, the soul in purgatory is not being tormented but purified and is still united to God.
 
Catholic_Dude said:
They are not the same as the sufferings of hell. The soul in hell is eternally condemned to torment, the soul in purgatory is not being tormented but purified and is still united to God.
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What is the nature of purgatory? How does it purify a soul?
 
389670 said:
What is the nature of purgatory? How does it purify a soul?
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I’m not sure of the technical nature, but from a practical understanding I see it as a place where you “make up for” the time you wasted on earth when you should have been growing in holiness, as well as a time when you let go completely of any attachment to sin (especially your “pet sins”).

The nature of hell does not do this, in hell the soul is abandoned by God and made to suffer the effects of willfully rejecting God.
 
389670 said:
What is the nature of purgatory? How does it purify a soul?
Click to expand...
Pope Benedict describes Purgatory as the definitive encounter with Christ after death. Within this perspective, the fire of 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 *is *Christ himself:
The encounter with him is the decisive act of judgement. Before his gaze all falsehood melts away.

This encounter with him, as it burns us, transforms and frees us, allowing us to become truly ourselves. All that we build during our lives can prove to be mere straw, pure bluster, and it collapses.

Yet in the pain of this encounter, when the impurity and sickness of our lives become evident to us, there lies salvation.

His gaze, the touch of his heart heals us through an undeniably painful transformation “as through fire”. But it is a blessed pain, in which the holy power of his love sears through us like a flame, enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus totally of God.

In this way the inter-relation between justice and grace also becomes clear: the way we live our lives is not immaterial, but our defilement does not stain us for ever if we have at least continued to reach out towards Christ, towards truth and towards love. Indeed, it has already been burned away through Christ’s Passion.

At the moment of judgement we experience and we absorb the overwhelming power of his love over all the evil in the world and in ourselves. The pain of love becomes our salvation and our joy.

It is clear that we cannot calculate the “duration” of this transforming burning in terms of the chronological measurements of this world. The transforming “moment” of this encounter eludes earthly time-reckoning—it is the heart’s time, it is the time of “passage” to communion with God in the Body of Christ.
​
The nature of Purgatory is therefore the transformative power of Christ’s love on His beloved the moment the two come into final communion. It involves being purified of the “unhealthy attachment to creatures” entailed by our sins, which may remain until the end of one’s earthly life.

I propose that coming into final communion with Christ after death purifies by harmonizing our love with the love of God, indeed, that *is *God-- for God *is *love (cf. 1 John 4:16). Our relation to God and neighbor is thus perfected so that the attachment to creatures don’t impede the exchange of total self-giving and receptivity that characterizes life with Love Himself.
 
tomch said:
I’ve read books by “Anne the Lay Apostle,” which makes Purgatory sound like a piece of cake. But then recently I’ve been reading a book by Bob and Penny Lord which describes what many of the saints have said about Purgatory - it doesn’t sound at all like what Anne says. They make it sound pretty scarey - definitely not a good place for a vacation!

So which way is it? Why is there such a difference between these accounts? Does Purgatory become more merciful depending on the times? Are Anne’s visions not reliable?

Thanks!
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You may not have to worry about purgatory that much if the promises below are true. One is from a saint St. Gertrude the Great. Here is what the promise claims:
Our Lord told St. Gertrude the Great, that the following prayer would release 1,000 souls from Purgatory each time it is said. The prayer was extended to include living sinners which would alleviate the indebtedness accrued to them during their lives.
Code: 
Eternal Father,
I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus,
in union with the Masses said throughout the world today,
for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory,
for sinners everywhere,
for sinners in the Universal Church,
those in my own home and within my family.
Amen.

The other promise comes from the Sabbatine Privilege and Brown Scapular

"The wearing the Scapular is the Sabbatine Privilege. This concerns a promise made by Our Lady to Pope John XXII. In a papal letter he issued, he recounted a vision that he had had. He stated that the Blessed Virgin had said to him in this vision, concerning those who wear the Brown Scapular: “I, the Mother of Grace, shall descend on the Saturday after their death and whomsoever I shall find in Purgatory, I shall free, so that I may lead them to the holy mountain of life everlasting.”

Why the catholic church does not promote this as far as i can tell is a mystery. It would seem to make the whole idea of purgatory almost a non-issue.
 
Vincent -
Thank you for the quote. 🙂
I had never heard that idea before.
 
Think Hell with no demons.

But to get a vague idea consider the following:

Take a super vivid painting of a flame and put your hand on it.

The that painting is like the flames here in comparison to the ones of Purgatory.

And this is no time out.

Sentences run in the hundreds and thousands…YEARS!!!
 
justasking4 said:
“I, the Mother of Grace, shall descend on the Saturday after their death and whomsoever I shall find in Purgatory, I shall free, so that I may lead them to the holy mountain of life everlasting.”
.
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I just hope I die about 11:59 on a Friday night.😉
 
justasking4 said:
Why the catholic church does not promote this as far as i can tell is a mystery. It would seem to make the whole idea of purgatory almost a non-issue.
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These are private revelations given to individuals, and as such, are not binding on the faithful. While there is nothing in them that contradicts the public deposit of faith, that deposit is complete,and we do not add to it.

Why are you so pre-occupied with this, since you believe it is all a bunch of man made tradition and “hooey” anyhow?
 
mommyof4 said:
I just hope I die about 11:59 on a Friday night.😉
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I second that. I had no idea Purgatory was so horrible. I thought it was more of a lonely place, sort of a gray area where you had to have certain experiences and have proved certain merit to God after a shorter amount of time than thousands of years to enter heaven. I was thinking more like 2 and that did not include being burned over and over for half of an eternity? This is terrible.
😦
 
I am happy to see orthodox Latin Catholic brethren who are able to expound the true Faith of the Catholic Church. You are a great defense against those non-Catholic polemicists who try to lead others away from the Church by trying to misrepresent her teachings.

Abundant blessings,
Marduk
 
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