Category Archives: Purgatory

2012/11/03 · 19:08

Cemetery indulgence — Hermitage progress — Laudie learns to fly

This is the new Catholic section of one of the hundreds of local cemeteries, this being one of the larger cemeteries around, though you couldn’t tell it from this picture. In the first days of November, there’s a particularly easy plenary indulgence you can get for the Holy Souls: here.

This is the last big bit of plastic that served as a wall for the hermitage for the past year. It’s just been dropped to the ground from on high since — you guessed it — just about the last section of non-wall has been replaced with something more substantial (plywood and 2x4s).

That bit of plastic was not tossed or even put away. It’s now serving as a way to keep the kindling dry.

Kindling… Some of those branches are 4 inches thick. I’ll have to use the saw on them again to get them down to size. Here’s another pile about three times as large. I’ve yet to cover it up.

I’m distracted by a certain Laudie who thinks she can fly if she just flaps her ears fast enough.

Since she’s putting on weight, and she thinks she can fly, why don’t I just call her Dumbo after, you know…

Such distractions! I’ll have to get back to writing about Genesis. Lot’s of animals in that account as well.

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2012/11/02 · 11:34

All Souls Day — Titular Feast of Holy Souls Hermitage

All Souls Day — Holy Souls Day — is the titular feast of Holy Souls Hermitage.

The hermitage is especially given over to helping priests and bishops through the purgatory of this life and the next. So, there is an emphasis this month on getting priests and bishops out of purgatory.

I’m not alone in this intention. For instance, from a priest who visited Holy Souls Hermitage recently:

May the goodness and kindness of our Lord fill your hear this All Saint Day and following into your special feast day, All Souls Day!

I will offer three Masses tomorrow. One for all the faithful departed, with particular mention of your charism and hermitage, one for those deceased in my own family, and one for the Holy Father.

If you would like to celebrate with Holy Souls Hermitage, take up the Holy Souls Hermitage Holy Souls Challenge in this month of November, getting as many priests and bishops out of purgatory as you can.
Read about it especially HERE but also HERE.

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· 09:07

How not to go to purgatory: This is really cool (so to speak)

This is the gargantuan wall mural taking up a very large section of the Dominican community’s chapel at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, where, besides other universities and institutes, I spent many years. This was a work which drew me into the chapel frequently. Yikes!

The best way not to go to purgatory is, of course, to go through on this earth the purgatory which would have otherwise awaited us after we die.

I mean, I certainly would not want to be in purgatory until even, say, the end of the world. I would rather go straight to heaven. But, you know, I know that if our Lord, in His goodness and kindness, saves me from the jaws of hell crushing me until I’m dragged even further into hell…. if our dear Lord saves me from that, I’m thinking that I would in fact be in purgatory until the end of the world. And, get this, I think that without hardly even having an inkling about just how evil I have sometimes been in my life. I can hardly begin to know just how lacking in generosity in following the Lord I am now.

So, what to do? What to do?

I know! Two things, really…

(1) Be faithful to the Lord in absolutely every circumstance no matter what, depending on His grace. In conjunction with this, keeping us with the sacraments, Confession and Holy Communion.

(2) Pray for the souls in purgatory.

The souls in purgatory can’t help themselves, but silently await our prayers. A deafening silence. They are tugging at our hearts and souls. You know all that “moment of silence” stuff during times of catastrophe, etc.? That’s came about in Catholic Ireland in the days of yore when, with all Catholic pedagogy, had people pray for those who had no voice anymore, that is, precisely, the souls in purgatory.

Our prayers for them are extremely efficacious before the throne of God because it’s a gratuitous act of charity for those who are in desperate need.

And… and… our prayers in the end really aren’t so gratuitous, because we ourselves gain immensely. We grow in charity and cut our time in purgatory, even, in our Lord’s mercy, cutting out our time in purgatory altogether.

I think this cutting down of any time in purgatory also has to do with those we’ve delivered from purgatory by our prayers. They are just so very anxious to greet us to thank us that when we die, they are just so right in the face of our Lord and our Blessed Mother interceding with them that we be allowed straightaway into heaven, because, you know, they can’t wait to greet us, to thank us, even though we would then have all eternity to get acquainted! Hah! And away we go into the pearly gates. I love that. Heaven is heaven, after all.

So, that’s really cool, that kind of purgatory here on earth, I mean, you know, compared to the fire-like purgation after this life.

And, just a reminder, we have a Holy Souls Hermitage Holy Souls Challenge [Link fixed!] going on for the month of November: See if you can take up the challenge. Get those priests and bishops out of purgatory!

Also, just to say, if you ever have something you want to storm heaven about, pray for the Holy Souls. They will just so take up that cause should it be in the will of our Lord. Really! I mean: Yikes! Like that. Yikes!

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2012/10/31 · 20:40

Holy Souls Hermitage Holy Souls Challenge for November

Holy Souls Hermitage Holy Souls Challenge for the month of November, which is dedicated to praying for the Holy Souls in purgatory:

Do a plenary indulgence every day for a priest or bishop of our Lady’s choosing every day during November. You will rejoice when they greet you at the pearly gates to drag you right in to heaven.

The conditions for a plenary indulgence are well summarized by EWTN:

The following “General remarks on Indulgences” from Gift of the Indulgencesummarizes the usual conditions given in the Church’s law (cf. Apostolic Penitentiary, Prot. N. 39/05/I):

1. This is how an indulgence is defined in the Code of Canon Law (can. 992) and in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (n. 1471): “An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints”.

2. In general, the gaining of indulgences requires certain prescribed conditions (below, nn. 3, 4), and the performance of certain prescribed works ….. [in this case, those granted for the Feast of Mercy]

3. To gain indulgences, whether plenary or partial, it is necessary that the faithful be in the state of grace at least at the time the indulgenced work is completed.  [i.e. one must be a Catholic, not excommunicated or in schism.]

4. A plenary indulgence can be gained only once a day. In order to obtain it, the faithful must, in addition to being in the state of grace:

  • have the interior disposition of complete detachment from sin, even venial sin; 
  • have sacramentally confessed their sins;
  • receive the Holy Eucharist (it is certainly better to receive it while participating in Holy Mass, but for the indulgence only Holy Communion is required);
  • pray for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff.

5. It is appropriate, but not necessary, that the sacramental Confession and especially Holy Communion and the prayer for the Pope’s intentions take place on the same day that the indulgenced work is performed; but it is sufficient that these sacred rites and prayers be carried out within several days (about 20) before or after the indulgenced act. Prayer for the Pope’s intentions is left to the choice of the faithful, but an “Our Father” and a “Hail Mary” are suggested. One sacramental Confession suffices for several plenary indulgences, but a separate Holy Communion and a separate prayer for the Holy Father’s intentions are required for each plenary indulgence.

6. For the sake of those legitimately impeded, confessors can commute both the work prescribed and the conditions required (except, obviously, detachment from even venial sin).

7. Indulgences can always be applied either to oneself or to the souls of the deceased, but they cannot be applied to other persons living on earth.

==========

Prayers for the intentions of our Holy Father can be, for instance, the Creed and the Our Father.

The Work can be, for instance:

  • 30 minutes of reading Sacred Scripture or
  • the rosary either in a group of whatever size and/or before the Blessed Sacrament (not necessarily exposed for adoration)
  • For the Via Crucis, the Way of the Cross, see the norms in the comments of this post.

There are some other options for the first days of November as well:

§ 1. A plenary indulgence, applied exclusively to the souls in Purgatory, is granted to the Christian faithful who:

1° on every single day, from the first to the eighth day in November, devoutly visit a cemetery and, even if only mentally, pray for the faithful departed;

2° on the day of Commemoration of All Faithful Departed [November 2] (or, according to the Ordinary, on the preceding or subsequent Sunday, or on the day of the solemnity of All Saints) piously visit a church or oratory and there recite the Pater and the Credo.

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2012/08/26 · 19:22

Purgatory, that totally awesome… um… “place!”

[Note on the mural in the Angelicum chapel above: The Angelicum is Dominican. I note some Dominican nuns in purgatory, but the Fathers only appear in heaven!]

Surely I’ll get in trouble with saying that purgatory is a “place”, since there are those who won’t bother to see the scare-quotes (” “) hugging “place” right to death, even purgatory, to suffer for it’s misdeeds of pretending to be in the physical universe. Just to say, this “place” bit is just an understandably human way speaking, you know, to avoid long metaphysical discourses about “where” disembodied spirits are. It’s like saying, “What a beautiful sunrise!” without disagreeing with heliocentrism in our little solar system. It’s just a figure of speech! Both John Paul II and Saint Thomas Aquinas tackled this common way of speaking. So, O.K. Anyway…

In the scene above, in the oratory of the Angelicum University in Bella Roma, it appears that the fires of purgatory (“fires” being a rabbit hole) and the fires of hell are very similar. There is a sense of truth to that. I mean, we could add more fire in heaven, that fire of God’s charity, which warms up the refrigerium, the coolness of heaven.

You have to understand that God shares the fire of His love with all His creatures, good or bad. It depends on what they do and what they’ve done with their free will as to how they appreciate that love:

  • For the saints in heaven, it’s the cause for rejoicing.
  • For the holy souls in purgatory, it’s an inviting love of purgation, purifying…
  • For the souls of the damned, it’s an incrimnation of their  selfish egoism, and the cause of the most horrific self-inflicted suffering.

In all these cases, God is just being God, letting the fire of His firey love shine out on all. Now, the souls in purgatory are a special case. In the title of this post I called purgatory an awesome “place”. That needs some explanation.

You have to understand, first of all, that the holy souls are holy. They are filled with sanctifying grace, with the indwelling of the Most Holy Trinity. Secondly, they know for an absolute certainty that they are going to heaven when they are judged ready to say the most adequate thanksgiving that they can to our Heavenly Father, through, with and in Jesus, by the… wait for it… the firey love of the Holy Spirit. Thus, they are immensely thankful for having made it this far. They are thankful for the most tender solicitation by which our Heavenly Father has them purified. They know that it is for their own good and they desire this to proceed.

The purification, the purgation, cannot proceed except with our prayers, we who are in the Church Militant upon this earth. You see, it’s all about thanksgiving, and the reason why they are in purgatory is because they were not sufficiently thankful for the prayers of the entire mystical body of Christ while they were alive, which would have been witnessed had they prayed for the members of the Mystical Body of Christ in this Church Militant on earth and for those in purgatory, that is, in the Church Suffering. But they didn’t do that to any great degree. When we pray for them, they find out what it means to be thankful. But they also are reminded — horrifically — about just how unthankful they were while they had the chance to be upon this earth. This lack of generosity hits them hard. They look to the wounds of Christ. They know more acutely that they were responsible for those wounds. However, this is also an invitation for them to be thankful to our Lord, who has done so much for us. And they grow in thanksgiving. The  more we pray, the more they learn about thanksgiving to the members of the Mystical Body of Christ and to Christ Jesus Himself.

Of course, there is no prayer that goes for their benefit without this already having been asked by our Blessed Mother, who interceeded for us under the cross that we might pray, that we might be thankful, that we might enjoy the firey love of the Holy Spirit beginning in this life, and then in heaven (hopefully skipping purgatory!).

The best way to avoid purgatory is to ask our Lord the grace to go through purgatory in this life. What we are asking, in that case, is to have the grace to pray for those in this Church Militant and for those in the Chuch suffering, those in purgatory. What we are asking is that we learn to offer our very lives, in all their sometimes glorious and sometimes totally horrific circumstances, always our very lives being offered as acts of intercession, in all thanksgiving, for all who need this storming of heaven, whether in this life or in purgatory.

As we learn to be drawn by our Lord to Himself in this way in this life, is this not awesome? Is this not cause for thanksgiving? Yes, purgatory, whether in this life or in the life to come, is totally awesome.

Of course, it’s a immeasurably better to go through purgatory in this life than in the next. In this life, such spiritual growth is meritorious, that is, we are drawn more deeply into the firey love of the Most Holy Trinity’s firey charity. Those in purgatory do not grow. They simply learn to be thankful. That is a joy in itself, and culminates in heaven, but it is much better to go through this learning process here, for here, in this Church Militant, we grow in sanctification, in grace, in the indwelling of the Most Holy Trinity. God has a “place” in our souls, that is, a place, truly a place here, where our souls are united with our bodies. As Saint Paul says, our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, of the Holy Spirit’s firey love!

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· 18:32

Hey! What about the Holy Souls getting a mention in the Emergency Chaplet to the Immaculate Conception?

I mean, it’s like I hear the silent cry for help from the Holy Souls in purgatory:

“Hey, what about us! What about a mention in the Emergency Chaplet of the Immaculate Conception? Aren’t we an emergency all the time? Hey!”

I agree. But what to do?

I remember that for all the many sets of years I was resident at the Convitto Internazionale San Tommaso adjacent to the Angelicum (regardless of which university or Institute I was attending for studies), the post-lunch thanksgiving prayer was the usual Agimus tibi gratias…, which was then concluded, to the point, with:

Fidelium animae per misericordiam Dei requiescant in pace. Amen (May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen).

And, I mean, I do offer the chaplet for the repose of the souls of the faithful departed, that is, a lot! So, I mean…

Just another suggestion to think about…

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2012/06/22 · 08:49

A flower of innocence for the Immaculate Conception on behalf of our dead

On behalf of my priest friend who committed suicide the other day, I would like to say a word of very heartfelt thanksgiving for all the prayers and Masses offered for the repose of his soul. All the Holy Souls are grateful for our prayers, and pray for us, and will welcome us into the eternal habitations when it is our own turn to meet the Lord. And should those for whom we pray be in heaven already, know that there are a multitude of other souls who will receive the benefit of those prayers.

Oh Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee! Hail Mary…

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2012/06/10 · 10:20

Spider Heaven at the purgatory of Holy Souls Mountain [and a rant on praying for the souls of the faithful departed]

Holy Souls Mountain (which name reminds one of purgatory) is Spider Lovers Heaven (of course!). I’m always interested in the multitudinous variety of spiders, which you don’t even have to find, since all of them will surely find you. I don’t go looking for spiders; they come to me.

The first thing I look for is if this or that spider is a Brown Recluse. Then I look to see what kind of fangs it has. Of course I do! The venom delivery system is always fascinating. Let’s take a closer look:

As you can see, unlike the fangs of a snake, there is no need for the entire “syringe” of the spider to pierce the body of it’s victim. Instead, just the “needle” if you will. It’s curved, I suppose, so that there’s a good grip. No venom will be wasted. You can also see the amount of venom they carry around is rather sufficient for the day of battle.

The beady eyes are the third thing I look for. There are different numbers of eyes, variously arrayed.

The fourth thing I look for are the chickens. They love to eat spiders.

And… and… spiders are delicious in the form of a chicken egg!

Did I mention purgatory? Orthodox Jews and — how else to say it? — Catholic Catholics pray for the souls of those who have died. Too bad that in the “Reformation”, the very biblical doctrine of purgatory was thrown out with so many books of the bible, along with so many other doctrines, even those spoken very plainly by the mouth of our Lord. Who will pray for the repose of the souls of such non-Jews and non-Catholics?

It’s really terrible to go to a Catholic funeral, only to find out that no one is interested in praying for the repose of the faithful departed. They are “celebrating the life of” whoever it happens to be that our Lord called to judgment then and there. Celebrating? Grieving comes from love. So, celebrating…?

If anyone was ever so foolish as to want to celebrate my life, DON’T DO IT! I don’t want anybody celebrating anything about me, except how the Lord has deigned to grant me this or that mercy. I want prayers for the repose of my soul! I don’t want to be in purgatory until the end of the world, thinking the whole time — and that might be a very, very long time — how useless it was for people to celebrate my life! What a purgatory!!!

If there are those who would want to celebrate my life, I think I’ll ask our Lord to send spiders into their lives, you know, the kind with huge fangs and lots of venom, that is, until repentance is had and prayers for all the faithful departed become a way of life. O.K. Not that. But I might ask the Lord to inspire them to pray for repose of the souls of all the faithful departed, including me. That, I think, He would do. Perhaps the souls of the faithful departed wanted our Lord to inspire me to write this post, so that a pray or two from the readers might head up to heaven along with the souls of many who were, until that moment, in purgatory. Think about it. What a great act of charity that one little prayer is that you say: Hail Mary…

But Father! But Father! You’re such a meanie! You’re so judgmental! Stop saying that Hail Mary! STOP IT! We’re going to celebrate the lives of those who have died. They were so nice. And they’re not dead anyway! They’re still as alive as ever in memory! And I have a good memory! Nyeah nyeah nyeah nyeah nyeah!

Sigh. And when you die, and your memory with you? Whoever started and continues to push this “nice memory” bit is guilty of shoving the most depressing, despair inducing attitude down the throats of people who are already hurting enough. It’s good to have good memories, but don’t reduce life to a passing thought! What a fright that acts as a catalyst for only the darkest thoughts.

It’s not thinking ill of the dead to pray for the repose of their souls. Who among us absolutely perfectly always and in every way was generous enough to live the will of our Lord with no selfishness, ever? Nobody. So, we pray for everybody. It’s a great act of charity.

Also, if you think you need a selfish reason to pray for the souls in purgatory, know that they pray for those who pray for them. It is they and they only who will welcome you into the eternal habitations. If you have no one to welcome you, will you dare to approach the gates of heaven? Think of their situation from their perspective. They cannot help themselves. They depend on us. Totally.

There are dozens of stories of the souls of the faithful departed accomplishing favors for those who pray for them. So, just to say, if you’re having difficulties with spiders, you might just ask them for their intercession as you pray for the repose of their souls. :)

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2012/03/17 · 08:18

Why would any priest go to purgatory?

Aim at heaven, not purgatory, and you might not see hell from the inside in the life to come! Aiming at heaven is looking to our Lord and following Him, keeping His commandments, all by way of His grace. Living His grace takes utter childlike simplicity. It can be done. It is the work of the Lord.

Trouble is, we can think it is our work, that we have to work our way into heaven under our own power. That’s exactly the way not to go straight to heaven when we die. Trying to work our way to heaven is, in fact, the easiest way to go to hell. And this is the biggest reason why any priest might find himself in purgatory after this life. To put it a different way: priests will find themselves in purgatory in the next life for not having been totally generous in faithfully living through the purgatory of this life. But let me be more specific:

A priest is called upon by our Lord to be crucified by his fellow priests, that is, by this or that Judas-priest. The faithful priest is called upon not only not to cave in to the pressure to reject the doctrine and morality and praxis of Holy Mother Church, but also not to cave into bitterness against this or that Judas-priest who is having him crucified. Any giving in to battling flesh and blood instead of the fallen spirits is a failure that prohibits one from seeing just how good and kind Jesus is in having come into this world of Judas-priests. Instead of seeing Jesus’ goodness and kindness, only one’s own bitterness is visible. Not good. This must be purged before such a priest can go to heaven, for there is no other way to be able to have the joy of thanking our Lord in heaven than to see first of all how good and kind our Lord is in not being bitter with all of us, with each of us, with you and with me.

Is it possible to do this, to see the Lord’s goodness and kindness instead of our own bitterness for the crucifixion we can be put through by this or that Judas-priest? No, it is not possible for us of ourselves, but it is possible with the grace of our Lord. We are weak. He is strong. We boast of our weakness to that we might see Jesus’ strength shining through us, recognizing that His grace is sufficient for us, that His grace draws us through the purgatory of this life so that we might skip the purgatory of the next life and immediately be on our way to heaven so as to thank the Lord for His goodness and kindness.

Also see: Why would a nice priest go to hell? This post has been updated with the research of one of our readers.

Also see: The Purgatory Page

Next up: Why would a priest go to heaven?

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2011/11/21 · 12:08

Day 21 – HSH November Daily Plenary Indulgence Project for Deceased Bishops and Priests

Join anytime. Although I’ve been 30 minutes of reading of the Sacred Scriptures (much of this being from Saint Paul!), there are many other ways to gain a plenary indulgence for those in purgatory. Here are some:

  1. 30 minutes of reading of Sacred Scripture
  2. Stations of the Cross
  3. 5 decades of the rosary recited recited without interruption in a church or oratory or when it is recited in a family, a religous community, or a pious association, meditating on the relative mysteries of the rosary
  4. 30 minutes of adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament

There are many others which are special to this occasion or that day, but those listed above can be gained every day of the year, once a day, either for oneself, or, what we’re interested in here, for the souls of those in purgatory.

Every day of November at Holy Souls Hermitage, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered for the repose of the souls of all deceased priests and bishops.

Father Z has a good article on attitudes…

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2011/11/13 · 11:26

Day 13 – HSH November Daily Plenary Indulgence Project for Deceased Bishops and Priests

Join today. Every day of November at Holy Souls Hermitage, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered for the repose of the souls of all deceased priests and bishops.

Today’s Plenary Indulgence, for me, involves 30 minutes of Scripture reading.

I’ll try to plow through more of Saint Paul. Very wondeful.

Father Z has a good article on indulgences.

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2011/11/07 · 14:43

Day 07 – HSH November Daily Plenary Indulgence Project for Deceased Bishops and Priests

Join today. Every day of November at Holy Souls Hermitage, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered for the repose of the souls of all deceased priests and bishops.

Today’s Plenary Indulgence, for me, involves 30 minutes of Scripture reading.

This time, back to the Gospel of Luke in Greek! Very wonderful. Makes me want to do my own translation!

Father Z has a good article on indulgences.

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2011/11/06 · 12:42

A note on the helplessness of the Holy Souls in purgatory. Hah!

A question came in the other day on the helplessness of the Holy Souls, it being understood that they cannot help themselves:

“If the last two people die on earth and go to purgatory, how will they ever get out?”

Coincidentally, an email came in with this:

“As I was doing the Nov 1-8 cemetery plenary (hoping) indulgence for the Holy Souls today, I wondered if the saints can help the Holy Souls. I’m thinking maybe not because they’d be able to do it much better than we can and the Souls would all be out of purgatory. What odd things come to my mind sometimes.”

Yikes! O.K.

Here’s the answer to the first: In our Lord’s providence, those who remain till the Lord comes will, as Saint Paul says, be caught up in the twinkling of an eye, much like the Immaculate Conception, a twinkling of an eye which does not exclude the “death” that might be described with the transformation of our earthly bodies to the bodies we will have in heaven, which will be able to see God face to Face.

Here’s the answer to the second: Although the Holy Souls (the Church Suffering) are not excluded from the solidarity of the saints in heaven (the Church Triumphant), nor even from each other (for they are holy), it is most fitting that they depend on the prayers of those on earth (the Church Militant).

The reason for this is that they themselves were a bit slack in getting to know what our Lord did for us while He walked this earth, while He was nailed to the Cross. They were not as generous with their souls in getting to know the truth of reality. They were a bit selfish, a bit cowardly, a bit too given to looking at the cross instead of to our Lord, frightening themselves and others. They surely did not concern themselves much with the relief of the Holy Souls in purgatory.

It is wonderfully fitting in justice that they learn a bit of humble thanksgiving by being on the receiving end of those who offer prayers for their relief, for their entrance into heaven, from the Church Militant. In this, they see the goodness of the Lord in such souls of the Church Militant, which is astounding to them, as they did not know this to any greath depth in their own lives. They cannot yet see the saints in heaven, but they visit those on earth to request prayers. And they see how far our Lord had to reach into this hell on earth to grab such souls as pray for them, and they learn to be in humble thanksgiving not only to our Lord, the Head of the Mystical Body, but also the members of that Mystical Body. This is necessary for them to be able to go to heaven, where, because everyone has learned this about each other and the Lord, the rejoicing is at fever pitch!

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2011/10/18 · 15:35

Lest we forget…

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2011/10/11 · 15:12

002 HSH Purgatory Series

DECREE CONCERNING PURGATORY — THE COUNCIL OF TRENT — SESSION XXV — DECEMBER 4, 1563:

Since the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Ghost, has, following the sacred writings and the anceient tradition of the Fathers, taught in sacred councils and very recently in this ecumenical council, that there is a Purgatory, and that the souls there detained are aided by the suffrages of the faithful and chiefly by the Acceptable Sacrifice of the Altar, the Holy Council commands the bishops that they strive diligently to the end that the sound doctrine of Purgatory , transmitted by the Fathers and sacred councils, be believed and maintained by the faithful of Christ, and be everywhere taught and preached.

This is a major apostolate of Holy Souls Hermitage.  As you can see from the Mass Page, the Acceptable Sacrifice of the Altar will be offered in the Extraordinary Form Tuesday, 1 November, 2011, through Wednesday, 30 November, 2011 (the month when we especially pray for the dead), for all deceased priests and bishops.

 * * *

I hope TAN Books doesn’t mind me taking some excepts, which I might comment upon, and then heavily advertising them! To get a catalog of TAN books, call in the USA 800-437-5876 or 815-226-7777, or go to http://www.tanbooks.com — eTAN Books | PO Box 410487 | Charlotte, NC 28241

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2011/10/08 · 11:18

001 HSH Purgatory Series

Since D.W. sent HSH Purgatory Explained by the Lives and Legends of the Saints by Father Francis Xavier Schouppe, S.J., and since this is Holy Souls Hermitage[!], I thought I might do well to put up a series on the subject. There is much more that can be said about this in Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture and in the Magisterial Teaching of the Church, and I hope to cover all these subjects as well.

I hope TAN Books doesn’t mind me taking some excepts, which I might comment upon, and then heavily advertising them! To get a catalog of TAN books, call in the USA 800-437-5876 or 815-226-7777, or go to http://www.tanbooks.com — eTAN Books | PO Box 410487 | Charlotte, NC 28241

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CANON XXX – SESSION VI – THE COUNCIL OF TRENT – JANUARY 13, 1547

If anyone says that after the reception of the grace of justification the guilt is so remitted and the debt of eternal punishment so blotted out to every repentant sinner, that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be discharged, either in this world or in Purgatory, before the gates of Heaven can be opened, let him be anathema.

I would think that the anathema would refer also to the fact that it is just the wrong question to proffer. The mercy of the forgiveness of the guilt of the sin does not go contrary to the justice of having to undergo the consequences that were freely chosen with that sin. Because of original sin we have weakness of mind, weakness of will, feelings and emotions all over the place [what a cross!], sickness and death. Those things are to be carried as our cross in this world, or, if not carried well, we’re to face those things in purgatory as the just consequences of sin. To carry those things well, we’re to recognize fully that they exist, not run away from them, but shoulder them as the cross, not looking to them to condemn ourselves and get depressed and despair, but looking to Jesus, who, although He commanded us to carry this cross, also commands us to look to Him, to follow Him, to trust in Him, to agree in His grace that His power will shine through our weakness, that His grace will be sufficient for us. In this way, seeing all the hell that He saved us from as He drags us through hell to to Cross, to Himself, we now know fully how far He had to reach to get us, and so can have the joy in heaven to thank Him, knowing what we are saying in our thanksgiving, making that thanksgiving, in heaven, super joyful, for eternity.

If we are slack in lettting ourselves be drawn through hell to the cross, to Jesus, in this life, we’ll have to do that in Purgatory. But we won’t grow in friendship, just remain where we are at, depending on the prayers of others.

A great way to begin is to pray for the Holy Souls. If we do, when it is our turn, it is they who will welcome us into the eternal habitations, as our Lord says. Hail Mary…

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