Catholic:What are the various means to relieve the Suffering Souls in Purgatory?

Question

Could you give me your favourite choice of devotions to relieve these souls? Are the Suffering Souls in Purgatory grateful to their benefactors?

Answer 1

Purgatory
I. Introduction: Purgatory Defined

What is purgatory? Where is it located? What are the sufferings of the Holy Souls? Can we pray for them or to them? Can they pray for us? How can we avoid purgatory? These are questions that come to mind. It is for this purpose the Catholic Church gives answer to these questions, so that we may grow in love and devotion to the souls in purgatory.

First, what is purgatory? Purgatory is a state or condition of purification in which the souls of the faithful departed are purified of their sins and faults after death. For according to the Book of Revelation, "nothing impure can enter heaven" (Rev 21:27). In other words, we can say that the word "purgatory," properly speaking, stands for the "condition of souls which, at the moment of death, are in the state of grace, but which have not completely made reparation for their sins, nor attained the level of holiness necessary to enter heaven."

And so, when talking about purgatory, it is important to be aware that the Church has officially stated only two truths that must be believed as dogma. These are as follows: one, that there is a purgatory; and two, that the souls in purgatory can be helped by our prayers and sacrifices. All we know with certainty, then, is that purgatory, in fact, exists. For the "church has defined nothing about the nature, place, and duration of purgatory."

Now, there are several places in Scripture that indicate the existence of a place of purification after death. The most well-known passage in the Old Testament about this truth is found in the Second Book of Maccabees. The passage is a little long, but it is worth quoting at length because it is so important:

Judas Maccabees and his men went to gather up the bodies of the slain (after the battle) and bury them with their kinsmen in their ancestral tombs. But under the tunic of each of the dead they found amulets sacred to the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear. So it was clear to all that this was why these men had been slain… He then took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to 2,000 silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice. In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way… It was a holy and pious thought. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from sin." (2 Mac. 12:39-40, 43, 45-46)

In the New Testament Christ warns us that "we will not be released until we have paid the last penny" (Mt 5:26), and St. Paul states in his First Letter to the Corinthians that "if someone’s work is burned up… the person will be saved, but only by fire" (3:15). Now the doctrine of purgatory alone can explain this passage of St. Paul’s. Karl Keating, a well-respected apologist, explains, "this ‘loss’ that he speaks about cannot refer to hell, because no one is saved there; and it cannot refer to heaven, because there is no suffering by fire there."

II. Location of Purgatory

Purgatory, then, without doubt exists. But where the Holy Souls suffer is open to question. St. Robert Bellarmine, however, who is a Doctor of the Church, strongly states, as do many of the Fathers of the Church, that purgatory is located under the earth, in a place not far from hell. Dante, one of the greatest writers of all time, in his inspiring work, The Divine Comedy, depicts in graphic detail the sufferings of the poor souls in the various regions of the underworld. Besides this, St. Thomas Aquinas, among others, teaches that God "assigns a special place of purification to the Holy Souls on earth and even permits them to appear either to instruct the living or to obtain prayers for members of the faithful departed." Further, there are revelations, as Fr. Faber points out, that tells us how some Holy Souls pass "their purification in the air, or by their graves, or near altars where the Blessed Sacrament is, or in the rooms of those who pray for them, or amid the scenes of their former vanity and frivolity." It should be noted here, however, that "pure spirits are not in a place except in virtue of their acting upon it in some way. Thus, the poor souls who are pure spirits are not contained by any place, but can be said to be in this or that place because of some kind of action with respect to a particular place or person."

III. Suffering In Purgatory

Next, a question that concerns all of us is of great importance: What are the pains of purgatory like? And most important of all, is there fire in purgatory? The Church has not made a statement on this question. The Greek Orthodox Church, however, positively teaches that there is no fire in purgatory. But "most of the early Fathers of the Church speak of a cleansing fire, though we cannot tell whether this means actual or spiritual fire." And besides this, "St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure teach that the flames of purgatory resemble earthly fire." Nevertheless, it is generally agreed among the saints and spiritual writers that the Holy Souls undergo the pain of sense as part of their purification, and this may well include the pain of fire.

Before going further on this point, it must be stressed that there are two views on the pains of purgatory. One sees purgatory as simply a hell that is not eternal, and the other sees it as a kind of peaceful prison. Typical of the first position is that of St. Cyril of Alexandria. He states that "it would be preferable to suffer all the torments of earth until judgment day rather than to pass one day in purgatory." And St. Thomas Aquinas held that the least pain in purgatory was greater than the worst that could be experienced in this life. However, it should be stressed here that it does not follow, as St. Bonaventure and St. Robert Bellarmine have pointed out, that the least pain in purgatory surpasses the greatest earthly suffering. What this actually means is that "for one and the same sin, the smallest suffering in purgatory is greater than any corresponding suffering on earth."

Now getting back to the question of fire. There are solid reasons to believe that the Holy Souls are, in fact, purified by fire. First of all, several of the Fathers of the Church, namely, St. Gregory the Great, St. Augustine, St. Cyprian, St. Basil, and St. Caesarius, as well as St. Thomas and St. Bonaventure, believe that there is fire. Besides this, there is the testimony of St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:15 and also the many private revelations of the saints over the centuries that tell us of the flames in purgatory.

It is agreed, however, that the greatest suffering endured by the Holy Souls is not caused by fire but by the pain of loss. For when the soul leaves the body in a state of grace, it automatically and overpoweringly conceives an intense desire to be with God and do His will. However, at the same time, it sees its sins and faults in full detail. And so it "would rather," as St. Catherine of Genoa puts it, "fling itself headlong into a thousand hells rather than to present itself before God with any stain."

At this point, the departed soul is almost torn in two. On the one hand, it sees that "there are no gates to heaven, and that as far as God is concerned, those who wish to enter may do so." But on the other hand, it realizes for the first time in its life the gravity of its sins and how much it has offended God. This condition produces in the soul an all-consuming hunger for God.

St. Catherine of Genoa explains their hunger by using the following analogy. "Let us suppose," she says, "that there was only one loaf of bread in the world. Further, (let us suppose) that even the sight of this one loaf would (be enough) to satisfy the hunger of every person on earth… Now the souls in purgatory have the certain hope of seeing this unique loaf and of satisfying their hunger." But they cannot eat it because they are too sick with sin.

The Holy Souls, then, have a burning desire to see God–a desire, however, that cannot be satisfied and which grows stronger every day. To get some idea of what they suffer, we need only consider that "even here on earth an unsatisfied desire may cause a pain that is greater than any torture caused by physical hurt. For example, the loss of a mother or father, or of a wife or husband or child, the loss of honor, a humiliation by an enemy, the shame before a friend, a sharp word of contempt, the ingratitude of those whom we love. All of these things hurt more than any bodily pain."

"It is true, then, that the sufferings of purgatory are so great that the most intense pain in this life cannot be compared with them." But at the same time, as St. Francis de Sales expresses, "the Holy Souls enjoy a peace which no earthly happiness is comparable. For they are in perpetual union with God; they are completely obedient to His will, or rather their wills are merged in His, so that they desire nothing but what He desires. And so even if the gates of heaven were open to them they would rather plunge into hell than appear before God’s face with the sins that they see in themselves."

In fact, they desire to suffer as much as possible and as long as God wishes, for they are sure of their salvation and know that their hope cannot be disappointed. In other words, we can say that "amidst an ocean of bitterness they dwell in profound peace."

"Purgatory, then, not unlike heaven, is a place of rest. For no cell in a monastery is more tranquil, and no seclusion in a convent is more absolute than the stillness in purgatory. For we are just left alone with God."

St. Catherine of Genoa, again, offers us some valuable insights on the suffering souls. For she had many visions and experiences of purgatory and is considered by many as one of the greatest authorities on purgatory. And she has gone so far as to state that "apart from the happiness of the saints in heaven, there is no joy comparable to that of the souls in purgatory…For an incessant communication with God," she says, "renders their happiness daily more intense. And this union with God grows more and more intimate the more they are purified."

And so it can be said that the Holy Souls "suffer in purgatory more than the martyrs ever suffered on earth." But on the other hand, it must be stressed that "they suffer with greater joy and patience." However, "their absolute peace and submission to God’s will does not prevent them from feeling, at the same time, agonies of pain at being separated from God."

Now one aspect of the suffering of the Holy Souls of which there is much confusion and misunderstanding is the duration or the length of time of their punishment. This fact arises because purgatory is measured by what is called "discontinuous time." And so because of this, "one spiritual instant in purgatory may last several days of our solar time according to St. Thomas Aquinas."

Practically speaking, what this means is that the punishment for the Poor Souls "will be longer and more intense according the expiation required. For suffering corresponds to guilt, and its duration corresponds to the degree that the sin is rooted in the soul. For this reason, then, one soul may suffer a long time, but with considerable less pain than another, whose more intense suffering brings with it an earlier release from purgatory. For example, punishment on earth, say scourging, may be very severe but brief, whereas imprisonment may be long and less severe." Now applying this analogy to purgatory we can conclude that "suffering for a mortal sin may be brief but severe, while for sins less serious but more deeply rooted, the suffering may be longer and milder."

IV. Prayer for the Poor Souls

The suffering of the Poor Souls in purgatory is without equal: not only because of their pains, but also and above all because they are completely helpless. For they depend entirely on the prayers of the living and the grace of God for relief from their pains. And so because of this, we have a grave duty to pray for the Poor Souls. In a way, they are like the paralyzed man in the Gospel who laid thirty-eight years beside the healing waters of the pool of Bethesda because nobody would take the trouble to help him into the water. However, if we do not take the initiative and move the Poor Souls to the pool of God’s grace by our prayers and sacrifices, they will languish for years and maybe centuries in the fires of purgatory.

The importance of praying for the faithful departed, therefore, cannot be overestimated. In fact, as St. Thomas Aquinas points out, "prayer for the dead is more pleasing to God than is prayer for the living. For the dead are in the greatest need of it, and cannot help themselves as the living can." In other words, "as there is no hunger, no thirst, no poverty, no need, no pain, no suffering to compare with what the souls in purgatory endure, so too, there is no alms more deserving, none more pleasing to God, none more meritorious for us than the alms, the prayer, and the masses we give to the Poor Souls."

For this reason we cannot "lose," you might say, by praying for the Poor Souls. Since "they cannot be lost, our work for them must bear fruit." As Fr. Faber puts it, "we speak, and a deed is done; we love, and a pain is lessened; we sacrifice, and a soul is delivered."

We can help the Poor Souls, then, by "means of prayers, masses, alms, and other good works. This is an article of faith laid down by the Council of Lyons in 1274, the Council of Florence in 1439, and was confirmed by the Council of Trent."

Now, prayer for the Poor Souls, it should be noted, is not a one-way street, for they can help us just as much or more than we can help them. St. Augustine and the other Fathers of the Church teach that "either by God’s direct revelation, or indirectly through their guardian angels, the souls in purgatory may receive information regarding the prayers which we offer for them, as well as the favors we ask of them." And so even before their release, the Holy Souls can help us. This was officially declared at the Provincial Council of Vienna in 1858.

"We owe unspeakable gratitude to God, therefore, for allowing us to do more for our departed friends and relatives than to merely mourn over their graves. For by helping them, we obtain for ourselves a right to the special protection of God, and the angels and the saints, who rejoice whenever they can welcome a newcomer into their midst. Most of all, however, we gain friends among the Holy Souls themselves, and when they reach heaven, they will surely remember and help us."

Now at this point, the various means of helping the Poor Souls should be listed. They include: One, having masses said for them and attending mass for their intentions. Two, giving alms and making sacrifices for them. Three, saying often the short but powerful prayer: "Eternal Father, I offer you the most precious blood of Jesus, in union with all the masses being said throughout the world this day for the souls in purgatory." Four, joining the Association of the Holy souls, which is run by the Dominican Nuns of the Perpetual Rosary at Pius XII Monastery in Fatima. (Their address is: Rua do Rosario 1, 2495 Fatima, Portugal.) Five, making the Heroic Act of Charity. This consists in offering to God, all our good works and the prayers we will receive after death for the Poor Souls. Doing this, however, it must be stressed, does not prevent us from praying for our own special intentions. Six, gaining plenary indulgences and applying them to the Poor Souls. Now on this final point, it should be noted that the Church "applies indulgences to the Poor Souls–not by an act of jurisdiction, for the Church has no jurisdiction in purgatory, but rather by an act of intercession and sacrifice. That is to say, the Church does not have the authority to remove the punishments of the poor souls, but simply requests that God the Father, through the merits of Christ his Son, reduce them. In other words, we cannot automatically and always conclude that we can release a poor soul from purgatory by merely gaining a plenary indulgence for it.

V. How to Avoid Purgatory

The final and most important question about purgatory that needs to be discussed is: How can we avoid it? The answer to this question cannot be overestimated for many people have "the unreasonable belief that practically everybody must go to purgatory and that only the saints go straight to heaven." This is a dangerous view of the afterlife because it can easily lead us into despair and lukewarmness. For we can all too easily conclude that if purgatory is inevitable, then why try to avoid it, and why try to become a saint?

And so, it is important to be aware that "it is not true that the avoidance of purgatory is only the reward of highest sanctity. Rather it is true to say that the avoidance of purgatory is independent of any particular degree of holiness. For not only exceptionally holy persons avoid purgatory, but also persons who die without venial sins."

In fact, "it has been maintained with some show of reason that a person who died in greater sanctity, with greater merits to his account, and with greater final glory to come might pass a longer time in purgatory than another person, less in grace and in future glory, but who after a life of sheltered virtue died an early death. For example, an infant or even an adult who died shortly after being baptized would go straight to heaven. But their final resting place in heaven, we could easily conclude, would be lower than a priest or sister that converted several hundred or several thousand persons, but had several faults and sins that needed to be purified in purgatory before entering heaven." In other words, we can say that innocence and holiness are not exactly the same thing. For the "condition for avoiding purgatory is a negative, not a positive one; there simply must be no sins and no remnants of sin to atone for. And this negative condition is possible in persons even with a low level of holiness."

To avoid purgatory, then, we should, first of all, be aware that it is possible to do so. Next, we should preserve ourselves from falling into sin and from any disordered attachment to the things of the world. And finally, we should remove the temporal punishment due to sin, if we should be so unfortunate as to fall into sin.

And so we should pray and receive the sacraments often, especially the sacraments of the Eucharist and Penance. Above all, however, we must pray. For as St. Alphonsus Liguori tells us, "Those who pray will be saved and those who do not will be damned."

The Sacrament of Penance, of course, is indispensable if we want to avoid purgatory, for it can forgive sins as well as remove temporal punishment due to sin. What is not generally known about this sacrament, however, is the fact that temporal punishment due to sins (especially mortal sins) already forgiven in the past, can be reduced or removed, if we re-express our contrition for these sins (or sin) in confession.

The Sacrament of the Eucharist also removes sin and temporal punishment. At the penitential rite in the celebration of Holy Mass, venial sins can be forgiven and temporal punishment removed.

The Sacrament of the Anointing of the sick also removes venial sins and temporal punishment, and even mortal sins can be removed if the recipient is unconscious or unable to make a confession but, nevertheless, has contrition for his sins. The power of this sacrament to remove the debt of punishment should never be underestimated, though it often is. We must be aware, then, that confession and the Anointing of the sick are the complements of Baptism: Confession removes the guilt of sins, while the anointing removes a large portion of the debt due to sin. For this reason, the Sacrament of the Anointing of the sick has been called by some as "the sacrament of the plenary indulgence.

One of the most effective means of removing temporal punishment, though, is the practice of gaining indulgences, especially plenary indulgences. Gaining them, however, is not an easy task. For besides fulfilling the normal conditions specified for plenary indulgences, perfect detachment from all sins, even venial sin, is required. But if this can be achieved, great progress can be made in a short time. For St. Alphonsus Liguori has taught the only thing we need to do in order to become a saint is to gain as many indulgences as possible. Some of the more common ways of gaining a plenary indulgence are: making the stations of the cross, reading the Bible for one-half hour, praying before the Blessed Sacrament for one-half hour, and praying the Rosary by yourself in a church or with at least one other person outside or inside a church.

The patient acceptance of the trials sent to us by God, and especially the patient acceptance of our death, is another powerful means of making reparation for sin and avoiding purgatory. Almsgiving is also very effective. St. Raphael tells us in the Book of Tobit "almsgiving saves one from death and expiates every sin" (Tobit 12:9). And similar to giving alms is the practice of charity. For St. Peter reveals to us that "charity covers a multitude of sins" (1 Pt 4:8).

Every year, fifty million people die. That comes to about one million per week or about 150,000 every day. Every day, 150,000 people die. Many, if not most, of the people who die or will die have not prepared themselves for death. Many will go to hell. Many will go to purgatory. If we prepare ourselves well now by prayer, by receiving the sacraments, by living a holy life, and by having a strong devotion to the Holy Souls in purgatory, we will not only dramatically increase our chances for avoiding purgatory altogether, but we will also relieve the sufferings of the Holy Souls and help them to enter into the joys of heaven.

Answer 2

I think this is a beautiful prayer.

Prayer of
St. Gertrude the Great

Our Lord dictated the following prayer to St. Gertrude the Great to release 1,000 Souls from Purgatory each time it is said.


"Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen."


St. Gertrude's life was the mystic life of the Cloister – a Benedictine nun. She meditated on the Passion of Christ, which many times brought a flood of tears to her eyes. She did many penances and Our Lord appeared to her many times. She had a tender love for the Blessed Virgin and was very devoted to the suffering souls in Purgatory. She died in 1334. Her feast day is November 16th.

Answer 3

Purgatory is not a Bible teaching. The Bible truth regarding the dead is this: The dead in the graves are in the condition of nonexistence. God’s promise concerning those in the memorial tombs is that they shall be awakened out of death. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is a guarantee that those dead shall be raised up again, as Jesus himself promised at John 5:28, 29. Had any of such dead been in purgatory, Jesus certainly would have said so. Resurrection means a raising up again to life. If the creature or soul were in purgatory, there conscious and suffering, he would have to be alive. If alive, there could be no resurrection, because a live creature cannot be resurrected. Therefore religion’s doctrine of purgatory makes void the Word of God concerning the resurrection of the dead. The happy truth is that there is no purgatory and that the resurrection is God’s hope for the dead.

Answer 4

The Prayer of Saint Gertrude the Great, releases 1000 sould from Purgatory each time it's prayed:

Have mercy O gentle Jesus on the souls detained in Purgatory. Thou Who for their ransom didst take upon Thyself our human nature and suffer the cruel death. Pity their sighs and the tears they shed when they raise their longing eyes toward Thee; and by virtue of Thy Passion cancel the penalty due to their sins. May Thy Blood, 0 tender Jesus, Thy Precious Blood, descend into Purgatory to solace and refresh those who there languish in captivity! Reach forth Thy hand to them, and lead them into the realms of refreshment, light and peace. Amen.
We pray Thee 0 Lord, relieve the souls detained in the punishment of Purgatory, whom by Thy Most Precious Blood Thou redeemest.

Answer 5

Prayer is really the only means.

And yes, the suffering souls are most grateful to their benefactors, and will return the favor when given the opportunity.

Answer 6

I offer up my sufferings for the poor souls.

Answer 7

prayer, mainly.

offering up your sufferings to ease theirs. My mom and I have bad knees, it hurts us to kneel. mom went to rome one year and there are these stairs that when you go up them, you're supposed to kneel and pray on each step. the pain was emence to my mom, who was in tears by the time she got to the top and could barely stand for the rest of the day. She offered her pain up to help the souls in purgatory.

as for being grateful, I think they are.

Answer 8

If there is a Purgatory, then how did the thief on the cross get to be with Jesus in Paradise the same day he died? If anyone should have to have his sins purged, it would have been him. He had been a thief all of his life.
Luke 23:43 Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, TODAY you will be with me in paradise."

Answer 9

The doctrine of indulgences are closely related to Purgatory and also rejected by most of our Protestant brothers in Christ. The abuses of indulgences in the middle ages contributed to the Protestant Reformers separating from the Catholic Church. The Church at various times sold indulgences to raise revenues. Pope Leo X (1513-1521) used the money from indulgences to construct St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. There were abuses by people like Friar Tetzel who claimed that "a soul is released from purgatory and carried to heaven as soon as the money tinkles in the box". Martin Luther could not accept abuses like Tetzel's and started the Reformation.

In response to these abuses, Cardinal Cajetan (1469-1534) condemned those preachers who were using indulgences for commercial purposes and not following the true teachings of the Church. Also, the Council of Trent (1545-1564) provided Catholics with a teaching on indulgences and what to do when problems occurred. It commanded bishops to record all abuses "and report them to the next provincial synod" (Sess. 25, Decree on Indulgences).

Today, most Catholics give less thought to indulgences than they do to Purgatory. It is widely believed that the Church abolished indulgences and they were just a primitive revenue generating scheme of the Church from the Middle Ages. Indulgences exist today as they did in the past and it will be explained exactly what they are.

We will be begin with a parable. A mischievous child was one day walking by the home of a man who treated him very badly, or so he thought. With his immature sense of justice, the child felt that he should punish the man by throwing a rock and shattering one of his windows. So he picked up a stone, hurled it, and watched with glee as it flew through the air and broke the glass. As soon as he heard the glass breaking, he began to think that this probably was not the wisest thing to do. The enraged home owner running out of the house towards him felt the same way as well. The child, in an act of perfect contrition, begged for forgiveness. The man, being very merciful, accepted his forgiveness and promised not to tell his parents what he did, thus sparing the child another painful lesson in morality. But the man said that even though he forgave what he did, the little rugrat would still have to pay for the damage.

When we sin and repent of our sin (repentance means asking for forgiveness with the intent of not repeating the sin), God will forgive us but we still have to pay for the damage we caused due to the sin. The damage is the "stain" we leave on our souls when we sin. Even though we are forgiven, the stain remains.

It should be understood that when we sin, it produced two effects on our souls: the debt of guilt and the debt of pain. We are both guilty and deserve pain (or chastisement). When we repent of our sin, the guilt is removed but the pain remains. The souls in Purgatory do not have any stain of guilt, but they have the stain of pain which must be removed in order to enter Heaven.

An indulgence, therefore, is the remission of the penalty due to sin, or in other words, it is a "payment" to remove the stain of pain from our souls. The payment is not in a monetary sense because we cannot purchase our salvation, but it can be made through prayers, acts of charity, and acceptance of the suffering one endures throughout their lives.
There are two types of indulgences: partial and plenary. A partial indulgence is the easiest one to obtain. It will remit a part of the penalty of the sins we have committed, while a plenary indulgence will remove all of the stains of sin in our soul.

In order to get a partial indulgence, we must have the intent of obtaining the indulgence, we must be in a state of grace (repent of all of our sins), and say the prayer or perform the act which would lead to an indulgence. We are permitted by the Church to get as many partial indulgences each day as we wish.

A plenary indulgence is more difficult to obtain. In addition to the conditions attached to a partial indulgence, we must go to Confession and receive Holy Communion. We must also pray for the intentions of the Pope, which include world peace, the growth of the Church, and conversion of non-Catholics to Catholicism. A plenary indulgence can be obtained only once per day but those who are in danger of dying may receive a second plenary indulgence in the same day.

Now, here comes the interesting part. We can apply the indulgences to pay for the sins we have committed, OR we can apply those indulgences to remit the penalty of sins for the souls in Purgatory. When we give our indulgences to the holy souls, it will shorten their stay in Purgatory, give them some comfort, and may release them from Purgatory if their soul is completely purified from the stains of sin.

A partial indulgence given to the poor souls in Purgatory will shorten their time there, while a plenary indulgence has the great grace of completely purifying the soul and allowing them to immediately entering Heaven. Unfortunately, in order to be granted a plenary indulgence, we must be completely free from the stain of sin which is difficult to do. But we should try anyways. If the indulgence is not granted, it will at least be partial and will provide some benefit for the souls.

It is a great act of charity and mercy to pray for the dead. The holy souls will not forget what we have done for them and they will repay us a thousand times over for all we do. May God have mercy on them and may we pray for them every day.