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<div><div class="yiv3035549618WordSection1"><div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="font-size: 20pt;">9 truths about purgatory</span></b></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></b></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">What Catholics need to know about the ‘anteroom of heaven’</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
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<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: gray; font-size: 10.5pt;">By Emily Stimpson - OSV Newsweekly, 9/29/2013
</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: gray; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Some fear it. Others hope for it. Some see it as proof of God’s mercy; others as testimony to God’s wrath. Many don’t know anything about it, while many more have forgotten
what they once knew.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">The “it” is purgatory, and when it comes to Catholic beliefs about the afterlife, the Church’s teachings on purgatory have long been among its most contested and misunderstood.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Yet, despite all the confusion, the teachings themselves aren’t that complicated. At their most basic, they can be boiled down to nine essential truths — truths that not
only illuminate the Church’s doctrine, but also reveal the eternal significance of those teachings for us and those we’ve lost.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">So, what are those essentials?</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: rgb(212, 20, 45);">1. Purgatory exists.</span></b></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: rgb(212, 20, 45);"> </span></b></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">That may seem like stating the obvious, but for some Catholics, purgatory has become what pastor, author and blogger Father Dwight Longenecker called “the forgotten doctrine.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">“Many modern Catholics don’t know what purgatory is anymore,” said Father Longenecker, who blogs at
<a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/" shape="rect" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">Standing On My Head</span></a>. “They’ve bought into the idea that sin has no consequences, that everyone goes to heaven because God is
too nice to send anyone anywhere else.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">The Church’s doctrine on purgatory, however, proclaims the opposite. It reminds us that sin does have consequences — eternal ones — and that while God is Love, he still
honors the free choices made by men and women.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">“That’s the terrifying compliment God pays the creature,” said Dr. Regis Martin, professor of theology at Franciscan University and author of
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594713413/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1594713413&linkCode=as2&tag=oursunvis-20%22%3eStill%20Point:%20Loss,%20Longing%20and%20Our%20Search%20for%20God" shape="rect" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">
<span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">“Still Point: Loss, Longing, and Love of God”
</span></a>(Ave Maria, $11.95). “He takes seriously the freedom we exercise, even if it carries us straight into hell.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: white; line-height: 115%; font-size: 10.5pt;">What's An Indulgence?</span></b></div>
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<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;">An indulgence is a remission from either part or all of the temporal punishment a soul must undergo because of sin. We’re able
to receive this remission thanks to the suffering and sacrifice of Christ, as well as the suffering, sacrifice and good works of all those united with him in perfect friendship — namely, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><i><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;">How do I get an indulgence?</span></i></b><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;">Indulgences can be obtained in many ways, including making pilgrimages to holy sites, such as basilicas and shrines. Indulgences
are also attached to special occasions, such as papal blessings or attending Mass on particular feast days, as well as through routine acts of piety — reading the Scriptures, praying the Rosary or the Way of the Cross and Eucharistic adoration.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><i><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;">General conditions for gaining an indulgence include:</span></i></b><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;">◗</span><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> A Catholic must be in a state of grace.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;">◗</span><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> He must have no attachment to sin.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;">◗</span><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> He must make a good confession to a priest and
receive Holy Communion.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;">◗</span><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> He must pray for the intentions of the Holy
Father (typically one Our Father and one Hail Mary).</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;">◗</span><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> No more than one plenary indulgence can be obtained
each day.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;">◗</span><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> The indulgence may be obtained for oneself or
applied to the souls of the deceased.</span></div>
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<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">That being said, he continued, “While hopefully few of us are so wicked that we would choose to be wretched forever without God, not many of us are so pure that we can
be catapulted straight into the arms of God. Most of us are somewhere in between.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Hence the need for purgatory — the final purification of those who die in friendship with God but who haven’t fully broken their attachment to sin or atoned for wrongs
done in this life.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">“When we stand before Christ the Judge, all the compromises we’ve made, all the gray areas into which our choices led us, have to be accounted for,” said Martin. “We’ve
got to square accounts with the Judge.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: rgb(212, 20, 45);">2. Purgatory isn’t merely a punishment.</span></b></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: rgb(212, 20, 45);"> </span></b></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">It’s a merciful gift and a testimony to God’s love.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">“Sometimes, people hear about the sufferings of the souls in purgatory and they think suffering is the desire of a vindictive God, a God who wants his pound of flesh,”
said Robert Corzine, vice president for Programs and Development at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">“But that’s not the case at all,” he continued. “God forgives us immediately when we ask. The role of suffering is to undo the damage we’ve done. It’s God the Healer applying
the remedy to make us perfect images of Christ.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">And perfect images of Christ is exactly what God calls each of us to become.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">According to the Catholic doctrine of salvation, God doesn’t simply desire to save us from hell — from a state of eternal separation from him. More fundamentally, he desires
to save us from sin, from being anything less than the men and women he created us to be.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">“God is like a great heart surgeon, trying to give us the new hearts we need,” Corzine said. “But we keep flopping around on the table, moving away from the knife. Death
then is like the anesthetic. In purgatory, we’re no longer able to resist the healing we need, and he can finish the task he began during our lifetime.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: rgb(212, 20, 45);">3. The suffering endured by souls in purgatory isn’t physical pain.</span></b></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: rgb(212, 20, 45);"> </span></b></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Through the centuries, artists striving to convey the sufferings of purgatory have depicted men and women tormented by a burning fire. But those illustrations aren’t a
literal representation of the goings-on in the purgative state. They can’t be. In purgatory, the soul remains separated from its body, so it can only suffer spiritually, not physically.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">That’s not to say, however, that the flames of purgatory aren’t real. They are.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">“The fire by which we’re purified is an interior burning for the love of God,” explained Susan Tassone, author of seven books on purgatory, including
<a href="https://catalog.osv.com/Catalog.aspx?SimpleDisplay=true&ProductCode=T1254" shape="rect" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">
<span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">“Prayers, Promises, and Devotions for Holy Souls in Purgatory”
</span></a>(OSV, $9.95). “Immediately after their death, the souls in purgatory saw God in all his glory. They saw his love, his goodness, and the plans he had for us. And they yearn for that. They burn for it, with a yearning that surpasses the heat of any
earthly fire.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">In other words, the primary pain endured by those in purgatory is the loss of the sight of God. They suffer from what Tassone called, “a spiritual fever.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">As that fever rages, it separates the soul from sin, a process almost equally painful.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">“To the extent we’re attached to our sin, becoming detached from it hurts,” said Corzine. “Seeing it in all its horror — how it wounded us and wounded others, how it led
us away from God’s perfect plan — no physical flames could be as painful as that.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: rgb(212, 20, 45);">4. The souls in purgatory experience joy, as well as pain.</span></b></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: rgb(212, 20, 45);"> </span></b></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">In the “Divine Comedy,” as Dante makes his way through purgatory, the souls he encounters suffer, but unlike the souls he met in hell, they suffer willingly and gladly,
with no self-pity and always eager to return to their sufferings when Dante’s questions cease.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">In their eagerness, those fictional souls testify to the enduring Catholic teaching that purgatory isn’t the outermost room of hell, but rather the anteroom of heaven.
Every soul in purgatory is bound for glory. Their fate has been sealed, and ultimately it’s a blessed fate. Therefore, the time they spend in purgatory, whether short or long, is a time marked not only by suffering, but also by joy.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">“Anything worthwhile requires pain to make progress, but it’s pain with a reward at the end,” said Father Longenecker. “Sometimes, it helps to think of purgatory like the
process of getting physically fit. There’s pain, but it’s a sign of progress. It means you’re on the road to where you eventually want to be. That makes it a joyful pain.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: rgb(212, 20, 45);">5. Our prayers for the dead matter eternally.</span></b></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: rgb(212, 20, 45);"> </span></b></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">The souls in purgatory may be bound for glory, but the process of purgation still can be long and painful. Save for humbly submitting to the purifying fire of Christ’s
love, there’s nothing those souls can do to speed up the process or mitigate the pain.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">That’s where we come in.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">“We need to be greedy for graces for the souls in purgatory,” said Tassone. “When the soul leaves the body, the time for merit is up. The soul is helpless. That’s why they
need our prayers — the Rosary, adoration, the Way of the Cross and, most of all, the Mass. The Masses we have offered for the souls in purgatory are the best thing we can do for our beloved dead. That’s because the Mass is the highest form of worship, the
highest form of prayer.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: white; line-height: 115%; font-size: 10.5pt;">Praying For the Holy Souls</span></b></div>
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<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><i><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;">How can you help the souls in purgatory?
</span></i></b><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;">1.</span></b><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> Pray the Rosary for departed
friends, relatives and the most forgotten souls. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;">2.
</span></b><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;">Daily, recite this simple prayer: “Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the
mercy of God, rest in peace.” </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;">3.
</span></b><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;">Visit a loved one’s grave and say a brief prayer for them.
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;">4.</span></b><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> Have a Mass celebrated for
loved ones on the anniversary of their death.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;">5.
</span></b><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 9pt;">Have 30 days of Gregorian Masses celebrated for loved ones through the
<a href="http://www.piousunionofstjoseph.org/" shape="rect" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">Pious Union of St. Joseph
</span></a>or other missionary orders that offer this ministry.</span></div>
</td></tr></tbody></table>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">“It really is one of the most consoling doctrines of the Church,” added Martin. “None of us stands alone. We stand on the shoulders of giants, the foremost giant being
Christ. Our sufferings and sacrifices can be parlayed into actual assistance for the holy souls because of his suffering and sacrifice.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">In many ways, he continued, our relationship to those in purgatory is simply an extension of “the logic of love,” where “You extend yourself so that another might have
an easier time of it. And that principle isn’t bound by death.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">It’s also not bound by time. The Church teaches that purgatory operates outside of space and time as we on earth experience it. Which means we should never stop praying
for those we’ve lost.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">“No prayer is ever wasted,” Tassone said. “The prayers we pray for our loved ones throughout the entirety of our lives play a part in helping them enter into heaven.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: rgb(212, 20, 45);">6. The holy souls intercede for us.</span></b></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: rgb(212, 20, 45);"> </span></b></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">The souls in purgatory can’t do anything for themselves, but the Church has long believed that they can do something for us: They can pray for us, helping obtain for us
the graces we need to follow Christ more perfectly.</span></div>
<table style="width: 2.5in; margin-bottom: 4.2pt; margin-left: 6pt;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNormalTable" border="0" cellSpacing="3" cellPadding="0" width="300" align="right"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 1.8pt;" rowSpan="1" colSpan="1">
<div style="line-height: 115%;" class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 10.5pt;"></span><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 10.5pt;"></span></div>
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<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">“We have such great intercessors in the holy souls,” said Tassone. “They’re interested in our salvation. They want to help ensure that we understand the malice of sin and
the importance of conforming our lives to God’s will, so that we can go straight to heaven when we die.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">The same is doubly true, she continued, of the souls now in heaven, whom our prayers helped.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">“Those souls become like our second guardian angels, taking us under their wing,” she explained. “That’s because the gift we helped give them was the Beatific Vision, which
is the greatest gift of all.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: rgb(212, 20, 45);">7. The Church’s teachings on purgatory are rooted in Scripture.</span></b></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: rgb(212, 20, 45);"> </span></b></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">If you’re looking for scriptural evidence for purgatory, start in the Second Book of Maccabees (12:45), where Judas Maccabee orders prayers and sacrifices for fallen soldiers
who committed idolatry shortly before their death.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">“Their beseeching implies there is hope even beyond the grave for those who defiled themselves,” Martin said.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">In the New Testament, St. Paul likewise hints at the cleansing fires of purgatory when he writes, “If any man’s work is burned up he will suffer loss though he himself
will be saved” (1 Cor 3:12-15). He also seemingly prays for the soul of Onesiphorus in 2 Timothy 1:18.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Moreover, according to Corzine, the existence of purgatory is the only way to make sense of scriptural assertions such as, “No unclean thing will enter [heaven]” (Rv 21:27),
as well as commands like “Be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48).</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">“Logic demands purgatory,” Corzine said. “Without some process of purification after death, the population of heaven would be infinitesimally small, comprised of only the
few who allow God to perfect them in this life.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: rgb(212, 20, 45);">8. Purgatory wasn’t an invention of the medieval Church.</span></b></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Although the Church didn’t begin to officially define the doctrine of purgatory until the high Middle Ages (starting at the Second Council of Lyons in 1274), the belief
in a purgative state after death is as old as the Church itself.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">“The uninterrupted witness of Church history tells us that Christians have always prayed for their dead,” said Corzine. “Even before people used the word ‘purgatory,’ they
recognized the need to offer up prayers and have Masses said for those who’ve left this life.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">That uninterrupted witness includes the writings of Church Fathers and Doctors from the first century onward. It also includes records of Catholics commemorating the anniversaries
of departed loved ones with Masses and prayers, the inclusion of burying the dead among the spiritual works of mercy, and centuries of Christians who left money in their wills for Masses to be said for their souls.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Said Corzine, “Since the damned cannot benefit by our prayers and the blessed in heaven have no need for our prayers, that enduring witness implies another place or state
where souls exist who can benefit from them.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: rgb(212, 20, 45);">9. Purgatory is like spiritual summer school.</span></b></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: rgb(212, 20, 45);"> </span></b></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">How’s that?</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">To start with, just as sitting in a classroom during January is easier than sitting in a classroom during July, doing the suffering and sacrificing it takes to grow in
holiness is easier on earth than it is in purgatory.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">In part, that’s because “on earth we still have our physical bodies,” Father Longenecker said.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">“Our task is to become conformed to Christ,” Father Longenecker told OSV. “That’s a task we’re supposed to do here, and it’s a task for which we’re supposed to use our
bodies. It has a physical dimension to it.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Which is to say, with our bodies we can do good works that break us of attachments to sin and self. We can take a meal to the new mom across the street, buy a coffee for
the homeless guy downtown, fast from chocolate for all of Lent, and go on pilgrimages to holy places. Without a body, all those corporal works of mercy — all those ways of loving and serving others, as well as atoning for sin — are impossible.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Even more fundamentally, purgatory is like summer school because, just like summer school, no one has to go there.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">“Purgatory is not supposed to be the norm,” concluded Corzine. “God gives each and every one of us all the graces we need in this life to become saints. We can do all the
work necessary to become holy here. We just need to make use of the graces he gives us now.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv3035549618MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: gray; font-size: 10.5pt;">Emily Stimpson is an OSV contributing editor.</span></div>
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