Why exactly do our prayers help the souls in Purgatory be released earlier?

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I understand our prayers may lead to an earlier release of the souls in Purgatory, but why exactly is this so? How does our concern (even if it’s genuine) allow other souls an earlier release, if they must be cleansed themselves?
 
In 1 John 5:16-18, he said that if you pray for someone who has committed a sin which is not unto death (a venial sin), then the Lord will forgive him. So apparently it works both before and after death. Don’t ask me how or why, though.
 
Because the church says so. And it’s based on belonging to Christ’s body and being members of one another. Christ said to love one another and this is one very good way of doing that very thing. God listens to those unselfish kind of prayers. And God in turn can’t help but notice our concern for others as well which pleases him.
 
Offering one’s suffering is perhaps more effective, as we ask for that suffering to be applied to their souls. Colossians 1 is a good chapter to read and reflect on in this regard.
 
Balaco said:
I understand our prayers may lead to an earlier release of the souls in Purgatory, but why exactly is this so? How does our concern (even if it’s genuine) allow other souls an earlier release, if they must be cleansed themselves?
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. . . just to augment a little what fred conty has posted - what he is defining is sometimes called the Treasury of the Church , or the Treasury of Merits.
From Father John Hardon’s Modern Catholic Dictionary :
TREASURY OF MERITS.
Also called the Treasury of the Church. It consists of the superabundant merits of Jesus Christ and his faithful ones. Such a treasury implies that good works benefit others, and that the Communion of Saints is also an intercommunication of merits, not only when a good work is performed but, under God’s Providence, for all future time.
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I personally see an implication in this that Christ is willing to share his redemptive power with those of us who wish to cooperate in the salvation of others. Our Blessed Lord’s reference to the holy souls in Purgatory and the Treasury of the Church - as recorded in St. Faustinsa Kowalska’s diary is striking:
“Today bring to Me the souls who are in the prison of Purgatory, and immerse them in the abyss of My mercy. Let the torrents of My Blood cool down their scorching flames. All these souls are greatly loved by Me. They are making retribution to My justice. It is in your power to bring them relief. Draw all the indulgences from the treasury (64) of My Church and offer them on their behalf. Oh, if you only knew the torments they suffer, you would continually offer for them the alms of the spirit and pay off their debt to My justice.” (Diary, 1226)
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Balaco said:
I understand our prayers may lead to an earlier release of the souls in Purgatory, but why exactly is this so? How does our concern (even if it’s genuine) allow other souls an earlier release, if they must be cleansed themselves?
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We are asked to pray for those in Pugatory but contrary to what some people say the Church does not teach that certain prayers or quantity of prayers get X number of souls released. Only God decides who gets released and when.
 
The souls cannot pray for themselves for remittance of temporal sins, (unpaid debt) . So our prayers masses and sacrifices for this intention help with this.
 
The Church is one body. In this sense, we are one, and our prayers can help others. In the modern world we think a little too much of ourselves only as individuals. (We are individuals, but there’s more to it than that, we are a community in Christ, and also in Adam).

We see the living praying to help the dead in Maccabees 2. Judas Maccabee made sacrifice for the atonement of fallen soldiers who had been discovered to be carrying small idols/pendants for other gods.
 
po18guy said:
Offering one’s suffering is perhaps more effective, as we ask for that suffering to be applied to their souls. Colossians 1 is a good chapter to read and reflect on in this regard.
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How exactly is our suffering applied to the souls in Purgatory if offered?
 
Balaco said:
I understand our prayers may lead to an earlier release of the souls in Purgatory, but why exactly is this so? How does our concern (even if it’s genuine) allow other souls an earlier release, if they must be cleansed themselves?
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God knows the effect of our particular prayers…

God though give us the dignity of assisting each other via prayer.
 
“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. 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[39].”

~ Pope Benedict XVI Spe Salvi
 
“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 Spe Salvi

w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi.html
 
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