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SeanF1989
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When souls enter Heaven do they become angels?
What happens to souls in Purgatory?
What happens to souls in Purgatory?
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Godfollower
Guest
No, they remain human. Angels are purely spirit, whereas we will retain our physical bodies.
As for purgatory, we don’t know a lot about it. All we can really say is that some of us will go to Heaven, and some of us will go to Hell. Of those bound for Heaven, some of us will still have non-mortal sin weighing us down. Because nothing impure can enter Heaven, we will need to be cleansed before entering. We call that cleansing Purgatory (from the Latin purgare, to cleanse). We expect – but are not guaranteed – that the process will be painful, rather like pulling an abcessed tooth. We do not know whether Purgatory will be an instantaneous process (“Cleansed. Next! Cleansed. Next! Cleansed. Next!”) – after all, Heaven and Hell are outside both time and space, so there’s an existential question to begin with of whether there can even be a passage of time in Purgatory. We don’t know how “long” (if that word has any meaning in this context) we will be in Purgatory.
But, in the end, everyone in Purgatory will be in Heaven – because you only go to Purgatory to be cleansed before entering Heaven. There are only two destinations: Heaven and Hell. Hope for the former, not the latter.
As for purgatory, we don’t know a lot about it. All we can really say is that some of us will go to Heaven, and some of us will go to Hell. Of those bound for Heaven, some of us will still have non-mortal sin weighing us down. Because nothing impure can enter Heaven, we will need to be cleansed before entering. We call that cleansing Purgatory (from the Latin purgare, to cleanse). We expect – but are not guaranteed – that the process will be painful, rather like pulling an abcessed tooth. We do not know whether Purgatory will be an instantaneous process (“Cleansed. Next! Cleansed. Next! Cleansed. Next!”) – after all, Heaven and Hell are outside both time and space, so there’s an existential question to begin with of whether there can even be a passage of time in Purgatory. We don’t know how “long” (if that word has any meaning in this context) we will be in Purgatory.
But, in the end, everyone in Purgatory will be in Heaven – because you only go to Purgatory to be cleansed before entering Heaven. There are only two destinations: Heaven and Hell. Hope for the former, not the latter.
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dailey
Guest
We want to aim for heaven, so if we miss, we end in purgatory. I have heard quite a few people say that they would be quite happy to land in purgatory…but from what I have read from the saints, it is not a place you want to go. 
The one thing that I read about it, though, that makes me feel better is that even though it is a painful place, no one there would trade places with those still on earth.
I kinda see it like those people who stand in lines for hours in the freezing cold to get tickets for a concert. They wait happily knowing what there reward is.
The one thing that I read about it, though, that makes me feel better is that even though it is a painful place, no one there would trade places with those still on earth.I kinda see it like those people who stand in lines for hours in the freezing cold to get tickets for a concert. They wait happily knowing what there reward is.
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GEddie
Guest
I often think of Purgatory as the customs-line for Heaven, where you pay off the tariff on your favorite sins prior to being let through.
Others express it as a shower room for Heaven.
Either way, it’s not truly separate from Heaven, whatever it’s alternate physics may entail. Ultimately, there are only Heaven and Hell.
And no, we remain human beings either way. We do not change our being, only interrupt it.
ICXC NIKA
Others express it as a shower room for Heaven.
Either way, it’s not truly separate from Heaven, whatever it’s alternate physics may entail. Ultimately, there are only Heaven and Hell.
And no, we remain human beings either way. We do not change our being, only interrupt it.
ICXC NIKA
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Texas_Roofer
Guest
To add to Godfollower’s comments Revelation 12 is general understood to say 1/3 of the Angels followed the devil and this would be who you call Demons. Here is an important distinction, Catholics are not taught those in hell are with the Devil or Demons, but are only separated from God.
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GEddie
Guest
I’d be ok to land in Purgatory…as long as it’s really in Colorado.We want to aim for heaven, so if we miss, we end in purgatory. I have heard quite a few people say that they would be quite happy to land in purgatory…but from what I have read from the saints, it is not a place you want to go.
I kinda see it like those people who stand in lines for hours in the freezing cold to get tickets for a concert. They wait happily knowing what there reward is.
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105lynne
Guest
Do you remember which saint(s) knew that? I’ve always wanted to read about Purgatory but I can’t find any good material on it.We want to aim for heaven, so if we miss, we end in purgatory. I have heard quite a few people say that they would be quite happy to land in purgatory…but from what I have read from the saints, it is not a place you want to go.
I kinda see it like those people who stand in lines for hours in the freezing cold to get tickets for a concert. They wait happily knowing what there reward is.
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puzzleannie
Guest
the souls of human beings remain human souls whether their final destination is heaven or hell, and whether or not they remain for a time in purgatory before entering heaven. At the end of the world comes the resurrection of the body, when the human soul will be reunited with its human body for all eternity, either in heaven or hell. Purgatory will then cease to exists.
Demons are fallen angels, pure spirits, are not and never were human. Just as the good angels may at times take on a human appearance to act as messengers and helpers to humans, demons may at times take on a human appearance, the appearence of some animal or “demonic” or monstrous being in order to appear to humans to tempt them.
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theotimus
Guest
Yes, they become demons.
Since before death a soul is a body and spirit united together composing the whole we call the soul. After death only the spiritual part of the soul lives, and we call it a spirit.
Now if it is evil and died unrepentant, in the state of mortal sin, we call it an evil spirit. Since in Hell absence of good is in its maximum potential of each individual spirit, than these spirits are properly called demons. A demon is a spirit that is evil, malevolent. So if the spirit of the man ends in Hell, it becomes a human-demon.
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puzzleannie
Guest
this post is completely incorrect
human souls remain human, they do not turn into demons or evil spirits. Demons are fallen angels, never were, never will be human.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church on “Heaven and Earth, Angels”
http://old.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt1art1p5.shtml
The CCC on Sin, the Fall, Fall of the Angels [demons]
http://old.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt1art1p7.shtml
CCC on the resurrection of the body and the Christian meaning of death
http://old.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt3art11.shtml
the CCC on the final judgment, heaven, hell and purgatory
http://old.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt3art12.shtml
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theotimus
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No, they are added to the angelic orders but remain human.
An angel is a distinctive species of created spirits. Pure spirits free from all body and all matter. The life of spirit consist in knowledge and will. The will is the appetite of knowledge.
Knowledge in the angels attains to the truth at once without the need of reasoning while human spirits use reasoning. Since after death a man becomes a pure-spirit it is added to the angelic choirs but remains a human-spirit because of the inferiority of the intellect and the will. Therefore a human-spirit is in the order of nature and grace always inferior to an angel.
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puzzleannie
Guest
still wrong
no a human being does not become a pure spirit when he dies. His human soul remains a human soul with a human spirit and is merely temporarily separated from his body. Never are the orders of angels and the order of humans confused or blended in heaven. Please read the catechism sections before commenting again. No a human soul in heaven is not “added to” the angelic choirs, he is “added to” the company of saints.
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theotimus
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No, you are wrong!
The soul is the spirit when it exists without the body.
St. Thomas Aquinas
ccel.org/a/aquinas/summa/FP/FP075.html#FPQ75A2THEP1
There are different powers of the soul
ccel.org/a/aquinas/summa/FP/FP077.html#FPQ77OUTP1
It is St. Michael the Archangel and St. Padre Pio, a human spirit.
Company of the saints is all the blessed spirits, including the angels.
St. Thomas teaches (III:8:4) that the angels, though not redeemed, enter the communion of saints because they come under Christ’s power and receive of His gratia capitis.
newadvent.org/cathen/04171a.htm
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theotimus
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Demons are evil spirits of either angelic or human nature.
St Faustina
" …I saw my Guardian Angel, who ordered me to follow him. In a moment I was in a misty place full of fire in which there was a great crowd of suffering souls. They were praying fervently, but to no avail, for themselves; only we can come to their aid. The flames, which were burning them, did not touch me at all. My Guardian Angel did not leave me for an instant. I asked these souls what their greatest suffering was. They answered me in one voice that their greatest torment was longing for God. I saw Our Lady visiting the souls in Purgatory. The souls call Her “The Star of the Sea”. She brings them refreshment. I wanted to talk with them some more, but my Guardian Angel beckoned me to leave. We went out of that prison of suffering. * ‘My mercy does not want this, but justice demands it. Since that time, I am in closer communion with the suffering souls.’” (Diary, 20)*
St Faustina
+One night, a sister who had died two months previously came to me. She was a sister of the first choir. I saw her in a terrible condition, all in flames with her face painfully distorted. This lasted only a short time, and then she disappeared. A shudder went through my soul because I did not know whether she was suffering in purgatory or in hell. (58)
+One night, a sister who had died two months previously came to me. She was a sister of the first choir. I saw her in a terrible condition, all in flames with her face painfully distorted. This lasted only a short time, and then she disappeared. A shudder went through my soul because I did not know whether she was suffering in purgatory or in hell. (58)
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puzzleannie
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I never said the human soul is not a spirit when it exists without its body, as it does temporarily after death until the resurrection of the body. Don’t put words in my mouth. I said the nature of the human soul does not change after death into an angelic soul, nor into a demonic soul.
please show me a church source that defines demons as anything other than the fallen angels in hell.
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puzzleannie
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please show me a church source that defines demons as anything other than the fallen angels in hell.
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Mintaka
Guest
If I dig a hole and stick my feet in the ground, I don’t turn into a tree, and my soul doesn’t become a “vegetable soul.” If I put myself on all fours and pant and put a beef bone in my mouth, it doesn’t turn me into a dog, and my soul doesn’t become an “animal soul.” So even if I go to Heaven as a saint and hang out with angels, my soul will still be a human soul.
There’s no shame in that – especially since God became Man. But even God didn’t change His divinity into humanity; He acquired humanity without losing divinity.
Basically, God didn’t go to all the trouble of creating all different sorts of life in order to smoosh them all up into a smooshy-gooshy gooky blend, like food in your stomach. He made us what He loved us to be, and loves all that He made. We will be made new and improved, but humans will still be humans, and angels will be angels, and so on.
There’s no shame in that – especially since God became Man. But even God didn’t change His divinity into humanity; He acquired humanity without losing divinity.
Basically, God didn’t go to all the trouble of creating all different sorts of life in order to smoosh them all up into a smooshy-gooshy gooky blend, like food in your stomach. He made us what He loved us to be, and loves all that He made. We will be made new and improved, but humans will still be humans, and angels will be angels, and so on.
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Ian_Ward
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Most people who post on this website will have to go to purgatory before they go to heaven and thats the purgatory described by St. Faustina because most people here are sinners and dont know it.
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