If God knows everything can we pray for a soul's time in Purgatory to be mitigated though already freed?

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fulbert4605

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I have recently picked up Fr. F. X. Schouppe’s Purgatory for a third time. I read it in 2004, 2008, and I am now making my way through it in 2018. Hardly have I ever read a book cover to cover twice, much less thrice. Possibly, Of The Imitation Of Christ, I also have thrice. One question has been ringing in my mind, though. It never gets addressed within the confines of the book Purgatory.

God gave us free will, but He knows everything. Can I therefore pray for St. Augustine’s time to be shortened in Purgatory now in A. D. 2018, even knowing he is in Heaven, as he is declared a Saint (a Doctor of the Church, no less; one of 36 Doctors of the Church)? What happens in such a case where it is known they are in Heaven, yet you pray their Purgatorial sufferings be mitigated? Would their time in Purgatory be retroactively shortened? Or does Purgatory time share a certain connection with ours in that he is in Heaven as we know it now in A. D. 2018, and any prayers for him ever since his deliverance would therefore be applied to another soul in Purgatory? Or is this in the realm of something we are not privileged to know? (under the old system of indulgences 50, 100, 300 days, God never did reveal to anyone the actual ratio, if any, those indulgence days absolve you from Purgatorial suffering). I will tell you right now, the book implies my fourth question out of the five posed in this paragraph. But, that seems to fly in the (F)ace of an omnipotent God.

So I am left trying to resolve these two concepts of an omnipotent God versus Purgatorial time mitigation. I have never seen or heard this question posed anywhere. I have not been able to resolve this of either my own volition(arguably my own wisdom of this sort comes from my guardian angel or another angel or the Holy Spirit) or others’ wisdom, at least those I have read or heard.

Maybe St. Thomas Aquinas tackles this in his Summa-I admit I have only read parts of that, but do own it (it’s not meant to be read cover to cover per se, but I digress). One of my similarly burning questions was adequately answered by a poster on this very forum probably 7 or 8 years ago, and they quoted St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa, which gave an incredibly adequate explanation.

But any thoughts or explanations are welcome; they don’t have to be from St. Thomas Aquinas or his school of thought 😉 Wisdom is gleaned from many places and peoples.

Thank you for your reading and … indulgence. 🙂

Fulbert
 
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I’m sure Padre Pio said that your prayers can be back paid so to speak and if you pray for a soul in Purgatory and that soul is released then some other soul gets the benefit.
Here I found his words
“You and I both die, and, through the good fortune and the goodness and mercy of the Lord, we are obliged to stay in purgatory for 100 years. During these years nobody prays for us or has a Mass offered for the release of our souls. The 100 years pass, and somebody thinks of Padre Pio and the good doctor and has Masses offered. For Our Lord, the past does not exist; the future does not exist. Everything is an eternal present. Those prayers had already been taken into account so that even now I can pray for the happy death of my great-grandfather! . . . ”
Looks like we can so.
 
Wait, you seem to be saying that not only does that (already freed soul) get the retroactive benefit, but also another soul would as well? Am I understanding your response correctly?

I am not well-read on Padre Pio, have not heard that quote, but I do understand he could see the state of souls in the Afterlife. He may well be a rather authoritative figure to answer this question.

Thank you.

Don’t take offense. Not that I don’t believe you or him, but I would love to hear other (name removed by moderator)uts on this subject as well. For even Doctors St. Jerome and St. Thomas Aquinas vehemently disagreed on heavy Catholic topics and would almost come to blows.

Doesn’t have to be quotes from saints. I welcome “layman” thoughts as well (many of the living walk among us who are not called saints but actually are). As I said wisdom comes from many peoples and places. Don’t be reticent to answer if you don’t have a saint’s quote to back you up, though, of course, that is welcomed, too.

Fulbert
 
I’m not sure about Padre’s credentials or authority but he believed that no prayers go to waste, and it seems that if God is not bound by time then why not? As Padre says it is taken into account .
Now as for passing prayer onto another, that comes from my mind and in it there are a million quotes etc and sometimes I can pull one out but not remember the reference, but I feel it was a padre Pio statement also but don’t hold me to it.
Sorry I’m not much help to you but you have given me something to think about as I go for a walk on the beach.
 
fulbert4605 said:
Or is this in the realm of something we are not privileged to know?
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That would be my guess but I would like to think on this more myself today.

There are many questions and far fewer answers and that leads me to think that actually sometimes we are not meant to know for sure.
 
As a matter of interest what is the source of your quote?
I, like many, am a fan of St Pio and have read quite a bit about him.
 
I can accept that. I just always wondered why the Purgatory book never addressed this. It does such a thorough job of research into saintly accounts of location, anecdotes, etc. Like I mentioned in the OP, it was indeed the Purgatory book that mentions the ratio, if any, of the old way of indulgences was never revealed to any visionary. So the book covers some ground of “not privy to our knowledge”. Even if the answer is “we have no way of knowing”, I wish the Purgatory book would have satisfied this answer of future mitigation, even if the research revealed “we can’t know”.

It sounds like an oxymoron at first, but sometimes an absolutely, satisfactory, even exhaustive, answer in Catholicism, psychology, or philosophy is “we don’t know” or “we can’t know”.

Fulbert
 
The merit you gain for the soul who is already in heaven will be applied to another soul in purgatory.
 
I actually heard it in a sermon. I should have e specified: “at least, that’s what I’ve heard.
 
Thank you. It’s very useful to know where information has come from, to keep as a resource and to denote authenticity rather than just an opinion.
The source will probably be revealed here in time.

Please don’t be offended. 🙂
 
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fulbert4605 said:
… Would their time in Purgatory be retroactively shortened? …
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The Most Holy Trinity knows of all the vicarious remission that will occur before it is offered, so to speak.
An example is the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was blessed from the first moment of her conception, sharing in the salvation of her son Christ, in anticipation of her assent.
 
I was wondering if anyone had anything more to add on this subject. I have some of my own opinions regarding this topic, but they can yet be changed, as this, to me, seems a wide open matter of discussion. Any additional (name removed by moderator)ut is appreciated.

I know these topics get closed 14 days after the final response, and it has now been ten. This is a respectable “bump” of this topic to the top so that maybe now that some time has passed, some previous responders might have something more to add after having thought about this matter further, or that this topic can reach new eyes now that it has been ten days-I know most posters are not here every day and come and go.

I may “mini-bump” this topic one final time after a few days after any new, if any, responses here now. But I promise I will not keep bumping this topic to the top more than possibly one more time and will respect the opinions thus far given and leave it at that.
 
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