Fear of Purgatory

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CHRISTINE77 said:
Try reading Dante’s Purgatorio, the second book in The Divine Comedy. I think he explains it perfectly. We will be purged of our sins through time witha form of punishment that will help us to understand what we failed to do on earth. Also, other’s prayers will help to hasten our path up the mountain toward heaven. Dante is very allegorical, but I don’t fear Purgatory after reading his ideas on it. It will be a sure ascent to heaven, and the angels will be ever watchful of our progress.

Be sure to pray for those who have died and who may need your prayers to lessen their time spent in Purgatory.
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Thanks for giving me the idea to download and read this, boy I’m glad I have kindle installed on my PC, you can get stuff so cheap that way! I just wish that I had an actual Kindle device 😦
 
Wow, there sure are a lot of brave people on this forum. I honestly can’t see how I’m not going to Purgatory, but it’s definitely not something I look forward to. Living in New York, I heard a priest one time describe Purgatory like being in the Holland Tunnel, you know you’re going to arrive at your destination, but it sure seems like hell when you’re stuck in the tunnel. I’ve heard Fr. Groeschel say many times that he is looking forward to Purgatory. But the way he has and is suffering on this earth, I sort of think he has probably already put in his time.

So I’m with the OP. I do not cherish the thought of purgatory, but as someone posted, purgatory is the very essence of God’s mercy, to give us a chance to get fully cleaned up to be in the presence of God.

And yes, we definitely need to pray for the souls in purgatory. This is truly where the communion of saints comes in.
 
crazzeto said:
Thanks for giving me the idea to download and read this, boy I’m glad I have kindle installed on my PC, you can get stuff so cheap that way! I just wish that I had an actual Kindle device 😦
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One of the best translations I have found is on this link:

poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Italian/Danthome.htm

Be aware that Dante uses a lot of references to people and event that were happening in Florence and Italy while he was living in the late 1200s and early 1300s. It’s been a long studious read for me (but also very enjoyable). There are so many levels to his writing.
 
dusza said:
The very existence of purgatory is evidence of His mercy. His mercy does not imply that we get off easy in purgatory or bypass it completely. Purgatory isn’t punishment, it’s our time of healing of the effects of our sins. If anything, we choose our “time” there.
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Well put!

Purgatory is necessary to remove the damage sin has done to the soul. I like to think of it as a hospital for the soul where the treatment might be difficult but there is a 100% guaranteed success rate.

I have written about this in a small piece called The good side of purgatory.

(FYI: There is also another similar thread to this one here.)
 
Brooklyn said:
. . . I honestly can’t see how I’m not going to Purgatory, but it’s definitely not something I look forward to. . . …
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If I broke my leg, I I wouldn’t look forward to having it set, but it sure beats any alternative.😉
 
Gertabelle said:
I think of purgatory as the chance to finally pray and suffer for others without the distraction of a body 🤷 I have no fear of it.

Gertie
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dusza said:
I don’t think that’s accurate. Purging means passively suffering for your own sake. If you want to suffer for others you better do it here and now. I think that’s the freightening thing about purgatory, that there’s nothing you can do about it except wait it out. Purgatory is a place where we heal of the effects of our sins and imperfections.
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I meant my post to be a bit humorous, to point out the persistent selfishness with which I battle, even while trying to pray for others.

Still, it has been my understanding, from one of my favorite apologists, that the souls in purgatory can indeed pray for those of us still on earth. I’m not sure if you were saying that they can’t, but I wanted to clarify, just in case.

Gertie
 
JMJ, I got that idea from an old prayerbook, which stated how many days or years indulgence a person gained by reciting the various prayers. It was called “My Sunday Missal”, and it was given to me as a first communion gift.
 
Joe_Kelley said:
If I broke my leg, I I wouldn’t look forward to having it set, but it sure beats any alternative.😉
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👍 👍 👍

I had my first therapy appointment to help my seriously injured hand start a full recovery. My hand is still so swollen, and my remaining fingers can barely move and ache when they do make their microscopic movements – it’s frustating and painful and sometimes gross. But I will gladly go through this to regain the ability to type, and play the piano, and just plain use my hand.

And for the pain of purgatory, we get HEAVEN!!! :extrahappy:
 
CHRISTINE77 said:
One of the best translations I have found is on this link:

poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Italian/Danthome.htm

Be aware that Dante uses a lot of references to people and event that were happening in Florence and Italy while he was living in the late 1200s and early 1300s. It’s been a long studious read for me (but also very enjoyable). There are so many levels to his writing.
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Thanks for making me feel bad about spending $2.00 on the kindle version 😉

Seriously, thanks for the link that’s a terrific eBook.
 
Joe_Kelley said:
If I broke my leg, I I wouldn’t look forward to having it set, but it sure beats any alternative.😉
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You are absolutely right, and truly Purgatory is what God’s mercy is all about. But just as it is sometimes neccesary to go through the Holland Tunnel to get to New York, and I’m grateful the tunnel is there to get across the river, I still don’t like it. But it is better than trying to swim across the river. 👍
 
Brooklyn said:
You are absolutely right, and truly Purgatory is what God’s mercy is all about. But just as it is sometimes neccesary to go through the Holland Tunnel to get to New York, and I’m grateful the tunnel is there to get across the river, I still don’t like it. But it is better than trying to swim across the river. 👍
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This is so true. Being burnt in hell is much worse than burning for just a few years. Purgagory is temporary torment and for a good reason, it means that we will be united in heaven afterwards with God.

The bible is clear when it says you have nothing to fear of purgatory but that it is a temporary thing which in a way will be pleasurable (not that the pain will be pleasurable of course but that it will be a pleasure to know that we are serving God and getting closer to him through the pain).

Scripture is clear on this point.
 
midwestbeliever said:
JMJ, I got that idea from an old prayerbook, which stated how many days or years indulgence a person gained by reciting the various prayers. It was called “My Sunday Missal”, and it was given to me as a first communion gift.
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When it was said: Doing XYZ will give a 700 days indulgence (or similar) – it never meant that the person got 700 days off their stay in Purgatory. It meant that XYZ will be as penitential and meritorious (from the Treasury of Merits) as an early Christian doing 700 days of penance.

The fact that so many completely misunderstood this is one of the primary reasons the Church in her wisdom decided to omit that part and simply state whether an indulgence is plenary or partial (i.e., remits all or part of the temporal punishment due to sin).
 
I would suggest that Purgatory is somewhat equivalent to Dealer’s prep for new cars. 😉
 
athiest ignorance never really understanding who the sheep are
 
I tend to think of Purgatory, if it exists in whatever form, as a chance to willing choose to free one’s self from sin and therefore freely choose Heaven. I wonder about how there can be Free Will in Heaven if one cannot sin in Heaven and in my opinion Purgatory is the answer. Purgatory is the time when we are able to let go of all desire to sin and choose to spend all eternity with God in the beatific vision.

God could just magically within his power make us perfect for Heaven but rather have us choose it freely.
 
wjp984 said:
I tend to think of Purgatory, if it exists in whatever form, as a chance to willing choose to free one’s self from sin and therefore freely choose Heaven. I wonder about how there can be Free Will in Heaven if one cannot sin in Heaven and in my opinion Purgatory is the answer. Purgatory is the time when we are able to let go of all desire to sin and choose to spend all eternity with God in the beatific vision.

God could just magically within his power make us perfect for Heaven but rather have us choose it freely.
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Oh, it exists =)
 
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