The Poor Souls in Purgatory

[oneofmany]

I know the souls in purgatory can’t pray for themselves but can they pray for the other souls in purgatory?

 

[White_Peony]

Nope! They can pray for us, but not for themselves or each other.

Holy souls in purgatory, pray for as we have prayed for you!

 

[Bookcat]

I know the souls in purgatory can’t pray for themselves but can they pray for the other souls in purgatory?

I do not know that they can’t pray for other souls in purgatory. What says they cannot? It may not have the “effect” that our prayers could have I imagine though.

 

[Weejee]

I never imagined that the Holy Souls could pray for each other. I guess that’s a question for a professional.

The church has badly neglected the Holy Souls over the past 50 years, and we really need to go back to it. Just paragraph from the pulpit would encourage us in the pews to get to work! The more the Church Militant (We) pray for the Holy Souls, the faster they’ll get out. I imagine God wants us to pray for them because we don’t know one spit about Purgatory, and that makes it a prayer of complete faith.

You can also offer up distasteful chores, moments of impatience, moments of irritation. I have a cat who yowls when she wants something and won’t stop till she gets it. She’s like a crying baby. I offer it up

Try this link to join us who are praying as often as we remember. ** Let’s Empty Purgatory 2.** The original “Let’s Empty Purgatory” group is closed because the person who ran it is no longer around to admit new members.

forums.catholic-questions.org/group.php?groupid=1092
This is a link to the Purgatory 2 group.

 

[TheSeeker2014]

I never imagined that the Holy Souls could pray for each other. I guess that’s a question for a professional.

The church has badly neglected the Holy Souls over the past 50 years, and we really need to go back to it. Just paragraph from the pulpit would encourage us in the pews to get to work! The more the Church Militant (We) pray for the Holy Souls, the faster they’ll get out. I imagine God wants us to pray for them because we don’t know one spit about Purgatory, and that makes it a prayer of complete faith.

You can also offer up distasteful chores, moments of impatience, moments of irritation. I have a cat who yowls when she wants something and won’t stop till she gets it. She’s like a crying baby. I offer it up

Try this link to join us who are praying as often as we remember. ** Let’s Empty Purgatory 2.** The original “Let’s Empty Purgatory” group is closed because the person who ran it is no longer around to admit new members.

forums.catholic-questions.org/group.php?groupid=1092
This is a link to the Purgatory 2 group.

Where is the documents* that prayer helps get people out of purgatory faster vs helping them endure or encouraging them?

• I say documents because I do not know what else to call them, Where did the idea come from?

 

[Bookcat]

Where is the documents* that prayer helps get people out of purgatory faster vs helping them endure or encouraging them?

• I say documents because I do not know what else to call them, Where did the idea come from?

Without commenting on the link etc.

Regarding prayer assisting those who are being purified:

Pope Benedict XVI

“Now a further question arises: if “Purgatory” is simply purification through fire in the encounter with the Lord, Judge and Saviour, how can a third person intervene, even if he or she is particularly close to the other? When we ask such a question, we should recall that no man is an island, entire of itself. Our lives are involved with one another, through innumerable interactions they are linked together. No one lives alone. No one sins alone. No one is saved alone. The lives of others continually spill over into mine: in what I think, say, do and achieve. And conversely, my life spills over into that of others: for better and for worse. So my prayer for another is not something extraneous to that person, something external, not even after death. In the interconnectedness of Being, my gratitude to the other—my prayer for him—can play a small part in his purification. And for that there is no need to convert earthly time into God’s time: 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.”

~Pope Benedict XVI

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi_en.html

 

[Bookcat]

Where did the idea come from?

Tis very ancient - Jewish as well as in the Church …from the early days.

 

[oneofmany]

Well I thought it would just make sense if they could pray for us, they could pray for each other. I can kind of understand why they can’t pray for themselves since they had their free will not to sin and be there after death. Well actually, that part doesn’t make any sense to me either. ???

 

[Timothysis]

Nope! They can pray for us, but not for themselves or each other.

How do you know this? The fact of the matter is that we do our best to explain purgatory and the way it purges sin before entering into the presence of God but when it all is said and done, we just don’t know.

 

[Bookcat]

Compendium issued by Pope Benedict XVI

1. What is purgatory?

1030-1031
1054

Purgatory is the state of those who die in God’s friendship, assured of their eternal salvation, but who still have need of purification to enter into the happiness of heaven.

1. How can we help the souls being purified in purgatory?

1032

Because of the communion of saints, the faithful who are still pilgrims on earth are able to help the souls in purgatory by offering prayers in suffrage for them, especially the Eucharistic sacrifice. They also help them by almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance.

vatican.va/archive/compendium_ccc/documents/archive_2005_compendium-ccc_en.html

 

[thistle]

Where is the documents* that prayer helps get people out of purgatory faster vs helping them endure or encouraging them?

• I say documents because I do not know what else to call them, Where did the idea come from?

CCC 1032 This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: “Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.” From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead:

Let us help and commemorate them. If Job’s sons were purified by their father’s sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them.

 

[fred_conty]

I know the souls in purgatory can’t pray for themselves but can they pray for the other souls in purgatory?

I think it has something to do with faith. Those in purgatory no longer have faith because they now know. They don’t believe and longer.

The angels and saints don’t have faith either, because they also know.

We on earth are the only ones who have faith. And so when we pray, we are exorcising faith and applying the merit of faith to them. And of course the greatest act of prayer is the Mass, the sacrifice of Jesus himself.

Faith is not all that easy…it is in fact a strain, a real work and takes time and effort. And at times it is very difficult which requires a great deal of trust in God.

We on earth are the ones who can suffer, even in our everyday lives. This can be transferred to those in purgatory, whereas those in heaven and purgatory cannot do this.

The church even grants indulgences for certain prayers we pray with conditions which may be applied to those in purgatory.

And so because of our faith, which is a certain type of suffering, and our sufferings themselves, we can help those in the next world.