Purgatory Is Real - Pray For All Souls

Among those throughout the history of the Church who have written and spoken about purgatory, many have emphasized the sorrows or pains. They have done so rightly, since the sufferings of purgatory are real. 

However, I think it’s safe to say some have over-emphasized the pains of purgatory, such that many have lost sight of its joys. It’s important that we find a happy medium.  

St. Francis de Sales taught, “If purgatory is a species of hell as regards suffering, it is a species of paradise as regards charity. The charity which quickens those holy souls is stronger than death, more powerful than hell.” 

The Italian mystic St. Catherine of Genoa writes, “I believe no happiness can be found worthy to be compared with that of a soul in purgatory except that of the saints in paradise.”

Let’s now turn to that sweet joy of purgatory and see what might give a suffering soul reason to say with Paul, “I rejoice in my sufferings” (Col. 1:24).  

A Keen Awareness of God’s Love for Us  

The first thing we can say is that in purgatory, we become ever more aware of God’s love for us. Just as a thing is blocked from the forever shining rays of the sun due to it being covered, and the more the cover is removed, the more a thing is exposed to the sun’s rays, so too the souls in purgatory are more and more exposed to the divine love as impediments to entrance into heaven are removed through purification. 

Catherine of Genoa explains it this way: “Day by day this happiness grows as God flows into these souls, more and more as the hindrance to his entrance is consumed.” With this influx of God’s presence within the soul, there comes a growing awareness of God’s love for the soul.  

A Keen Appreciation for God’s “Order of Justice”  

Another cause for great joy is the keen awareness and appreciation of God’s “order of justice”. On this side of the veil, we don’t perceive just how wise and good God’s order of justice is, so we might perceive punishment for disrupting that order as unfair or unjust.  

But in purgatory, we will have already received our judgment according to what we did in the body, whether good or evil (cf. 2 Cor. 5:10). From that judgment, we will see the perfect justice in the debt of temporal punishment due for our sins.  

St. Catherine explains, “So intimate with God are the souls in purgatory and so changed to his will, that in all things they are content with his most holy ordinance.” There is no room for resentment of God’s order of justice in a soul that is confirmed in God’s love.  

Moreover, the holy souls realize that their purgatorial pains are a manifestation of God’s order of justice. And since they love God, they desire the glory of that order to be upheld and manifest. This is why they willingly submit to such purgatorial pains for the discharge of the debt of temporal punishment.  

An Intense Love for God and Neighbor  

A third cause for joy is the intense love the suffering souls have for God and neighbor. Joy and love go hand in hand. For example, right after listing love as a fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22, St. Paul lists “joy” and “peace.” The Catechism lists joy as a fruit of charity itself (1829).  

Joy is often defined as “the pleasure taken in a good possessed.” God is the ultimate good. Whoever loves God possesses him in some measure. The souls in purgatory are confirmed in their love for God. Therefore, they possess God in some measure, even though they won’t fully possess him until they enter the beatific vision. This possession of their ultimate good, God, although imperfect, is a source of joy.  

Furthermore, the souls’ love for God in purgatory is more intense than in this life because the heart’s affection is not divided. 

Since the heart’s affections are less divided in purgatory, it follows that the love is more intense. From that intense love for God comes greater joy. Commenting on this love for God, St. Catherine of Genoa writes: 

[God] gives [the soul] a burning love, which draws it to himself, which is strong enough to destroy it, immortal though it be . . . Unceasingly he draws it to himself and breathes fire into it, never letting it go until he has led it to the state whence it came forth, that is to the pure cleanliness in which it was created.

In the same chapter of her treatise, she further articulates this love:  

When with its inner sight the soul sees itself drawn by God with such loving fire, then it is melted by the heat of the glowing love for God, its most dear Lord, which it feels overflowing it. And it sees by the divine light that God does not cease from drawing it, nor from leading it, lovingly and with much care and unfailing foresight, to its full perfection, doing this of his pure love. 

With such love for God, it’s impossible for the soul not to have a joy that’s beyond this world.  

There’s not only an intense love for God that dwells in the suffering soul, but also an intense love for neighbor. Like their affections for God, their affections for other members of the mystical body of Christ will not be pulled in different directions. And inasmuch as love and joy go hand in hand, their love for neighbor will be a source of joy.  

This neighborly love will also be a source for joy when they “see” other souls complete their purification and enter into heaven. As St. Thomas Aquinas teaches, love is “to wish good to someone,” “just as he wills good to himself.” So when a fellow soul is released from its temporary delay from heaven, the souls in purgatory rejoice in the good that their companion attains as if it were their own good. That gives rise to joy.   

The holy souls also take great delight in the prayers and works of satisfaction offered on their behalf, whether generally by the Church or specifically by loved ones here on earth. The knowledge of being loved so greatly can’t do anything but give rise to joy in the soul.