Thanks to Anonymous who sent in the directory of the priests in the diocese. This is a great aid to praying for priests by name!
This page will be about purgatory and the special place of priests in the purgatory of this life and the next. Not what you might expect. This will be rather glorious. I think people have the wrong idea of purgatory altogether, perhaps because of the “Reformation” or recent moves to do away with limbo, etc. But, we will see. Stay tuned!
Here are some preliminary thoughts I’m beginning to jot down:
(1) Purgatory is about being enlightened as to just how much the Lord loves us. Pope Benedict XVI speaks of this as Christ’s gazing upon the soul which has just passed from this life to the next. Indeed. I can only imagine that if we have not been generous with the Lord, it will be rather excruciating to look into the eyes of the Lord, before whom there is no untruth. In beginning to lift our eyes, we will see the wounds on the feet of the Lord. Sure, we will perceive those wounds as an invitation to thank Him, not as a sign of our condemnation. There is much to go through for the soul that has not been generous with the love of the Lord. In lifting our eyes further, we can see His wounded hands, streached out to us. He loves us. Lifting our eyes further, we see His open side, His open Heart. How generous the Lord has been with us, giving His very life! How lacking in generousity we have been. We do not deserve His love. We learn to take our eyes off ourselves and look to Him, beginning to learn to thank Him. Then we see His eyes, which demonstrate His love, but which also seach into the deepest places of our souls. This is where the soul is humbled — finally, wonderfully — to know its place before Jesus, in humble thanksgiving. Purgatory in this life is much the same, teaching us how to be in humble thanksgiving before the Lord, how to be generous with His love, by His grace.
(2) The difference between the purgatory of this life and the next is that…
(3) Those who are priests in the purgatory of this life and the next are in a rather unique situation, for the very state of one’s priesthood demands that…
(4) Praying for the sanctification of priests in the purgatory of this life or the next is so very important, for this sanctification involves not just the priest himself, but those…
(5) …
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(A) Some Scriptural notes on purgatory…
(B) Some doctrinal notes on purgatory…
(C) Some controversy on purgatory…
(D) What Holy Souls Hermitage on Holy Souls Mountain has to do with all this…
(E) The Holy Souls Hermitage Priests’ Purgatory Project …
(F) …
* * *
2. From an email from a priest:
I am wondering about your thinking there are priests in Purgatory. Yes, there must be…and they are going to be there for a long time, probably…but you can change that. But I was just thinking of what St. John Chrysostom and others say…that most priests go a little further down than Purgatory. Yikes. I am working hard to prevent that. But it is a two-edged sword… A priest cannot just save himself or lose his soul…he always takes a train load with him in either direction.
“Most”… I’ll have to look up the original languages… For those thinking about a vocation to the priesthood, don’t be scared off by this. Trust in Christ Jesus, our Savior, who is so good and so kind.
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops, deacons & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. Prayer and sacrifice go up, of course, for both Benedict XVI and the next Successor of Saint Peter. 
to whom great gifts are given, great responsibility also entails…
most priests likely either go straight to heaven (or spend but little time in purgatory) or go to hell, BECAUSE they are entrusted with so very very much…
they are also especially targeted by evil
but when they do fall from grace, it tends to be … spectacularly bad.
this , of course, is why we should pray for them.
Please, I want to know how to avoid purgatory completely. Not even spending a minute there. I an scared of going to purgatory… And how also do I prevent a Priest from going to purgatory. Thank you.
Angela: Be a saint! That’s what we all MUST DO. Our Lord does not command the impossible. What is impossible for us — and being a saint is just that — is made very possible for us in grace.
Keep up with the sacraments, and don’t play a mind game with holiness. You can’t get there from here, he draws us from there. Look to Him with the love He provides. Trust in Him. Be at peace in Him. He’s the Prince of the Most Profound Peace, even if and while we are thrown about in this world, as in purgatory, in all weakness of mind and will and emotions. Let such consequences of original sin be a training ground for you as was the case with all the saints.
Everyone must do their own purgatory, whether here or in the next life. If you don’t do it here, you’ll do it there.
If you want to keep others, even priests[!], out of purgatory (thank you for that!), pray for them and be there for them if they need help and encouragement, not smothering them with attention, which will turn them off immediately, but appropriately, and in perhaps a hidden way.
Thank you!
Okay — firstly: “Purgatory: Not Just For Dead People” (!) Best title for a book, ever.
Secondly: I’m sure you are aware of the new seminary in the works in NC. The Te Deum Foundation and the PCPA are great personal friends. What a treasure. They have many resources for praying for priests, supporting seminarians and (one item I own, have had blessed, and use often) offer a 6-decade Rosary for the souls of the priests in Purgatory. Haven’t checked to see if they are in your benefactors sidebar, but if not they’d be a great addition! Only seminary in the entire SouthEastern US. Very exciting to start breaking ground.
Ave Maria! I am new here and new to blogging and wonder why I can’t read 2-5 in their entirety? Any help would be appreciated. This is one of the best blogs I have found. God reward you Fr. for your sacrifice for souls, especially those of priests!
mystical: Not written yet!