what happens to you in purgatory?

Question

and what is hell and heaven like

Answer 1

Your sins are supposedly cleansed before you get into heaven. You know that the Church recognizes 2 different kinds of sin: venial, lesser, and mortal, serious.

Die with a mortal sin on your soul or enough venial sins (don't ask me how much equals "enough"), and you'll go straight to hell and endure fire and stench and having to listen to republican doublespeak and other torments forever.

Die with a venial sin, and you have to spend a couple of milennia in purgatory (I'm exaggerating -- I have no idea how long you have to stay) and get "purged." Hence the name.

Heaven and hell: heaven is union, with God and others. Hell is separation from God and others. In a nutshell.

Answer 2

hmmm not real sure about the true answer, but an opinion? I'll give you mine, based on my childhood and my family's beliefs. When i was raised, I was taught that purgatory was where you paid for your 'sins'. but, purgatory was on earth, during your lifetime. Kind of a Cause and Effect type situation. My great grandmother had a hystorectomy for the sole purpose of being able to have extramarital relationships and not get pregnant. I was taught, that since she'd done that voluntarily, she lived her purgatory on earth for cheating on her husband because the surgery went all wrong, and for 50 years she had surgery after surgery to remove different pieces of medical equipment, and for some reason, each surgery someone else left something else in her. She died at age 90, living only 3 months of each two years in her own home. cooincidence? who knows. So, according to my family, since she lived her pergatory, she'd already paid for her sins and would have an equal chance at heaven when she died. At that point, it was all up to her, weather she accepted Jesus and God or not. Her answer, determined which direction she moved next.

As for what heaven and hell are like? (personally, i don't beleive in Hell) No one living truly knows. ;)

Answer 3

You atone for your sins, waiting for judgment day when you will be allowed into the formlessness of Heaven and the gaze of God. Purgatory's shape is like an upside-down funnel, signifying the ascent of the souls into salvation. Hell's shape is exactly the opposite.

At least, according to Dante.

Answer 4

Well, no one really knows what heaven and hell are like. The bible talks about heaven, saying basically whatever you hold true on earth will be held true in heaven, so heaven is what you want it to be. Hell - well, according to Dante's Inferno, a book by a man apparently obsessed with the idea of hell, you are punished in different areas for different "deadly sins" - gluttony, sloth, lust, pride, greed, envy, and wrath. Each area has to do with the sin. It's pretty graphic how he described it. But, he was also an author and just that. Hell, if it exists, is probably just a compilation of every horrible thing there is.

Purgatory? Also a concept publicized by Dante. It's basically nothing. It's like you didn't do anything good enough to get into heaven, or anything bad enough to get you into hell. You are in absolute nothingness. You basically just float, without sensation, without anything. Nothing happens to you.

Answer 5

Nothing it does not exist. It was invented by the catholic church so they could sell indulgences which were supposed to lessen your time in purgatory. Some bishops got very rich doing just that. Of course it only really shows how stupid the whole thing actually is

Answer 6

There is no purgatory was a man made device to generate revenue fro Catholicism. Hell I will never know full of torment lake of fire but little on it. Heaven we have little to go on streets paved with Gold(was a way to relate to people of Biblical times!) We know it will be wonderful and stand and praise God at what he is!

Answer 7

The Bible doesn't teach "purgatory". It doesn't exist. It's a human fabrication.

Answer 8

Have not found purgatory in the Bible. Jesus is in Heaven and he is not in Hell.

Answer 9

Purgatory doesn't exist.
Currently, only God, Jesus, the angels, and a few humans who were translated early are in Heaven.
No one is currently in Hell, because it won't exist until 1,000 years after Christ returns, and then will only exist for as long as it takes to completely burn up all trace of sin and sinners from this planet.
The dead are asleep in Christ until He returns, at which time the saved will be resurrected back to a perfect, physical body. The wicked will remain dead until the 1,000 years are finished, at which time they will be judged.

Answer 10

"All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but, after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of Heaven. The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned." (Cf. No. 1030-32). From this basic teaching, we must always remember that (1) a person’s stay in Purgatory is temporary, (2) purgatory is different from Hell, and (3) a person in Purgatory undergoes purification for venial sin and the hurts caused by sins.

What does this purification entail? Like Hell, there is the pain of loss and the pain of sense: however, the severity of these pains between Hell and Purgatory is vastly different.


The pain of sense involves some sensible suffering. While not defined, traditionally this pain of sense has involved some purifying fire, which causes torment. In the Book of the Prophet Zechariah, the Lord spoke, "I will bring the one third through fire, and I will refine them as silver is refined, and I will test them as gold is tested" (13:9); the School of Rabbi Shammai interpreted this passage as a purification of the soul through God's mercy and goodness, preparing it for eternal life. A similar passage is found in the Book of Wisdom (3:1-9): "The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. ...Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of Himself. As gold in the furnace, He proved them, and as sacrificial offerings He took them to Himself."

God makes man pass through such an interior purgatory of his sensual and spiritual nature in order to bring him into union with Himself. Here we do not find ourselves before a mere tribunal. We present ourselves before the power of love itself. Before all else, it is Love that judges. God, who is Love, judges through love. It is love that demands purification, before man can be made ready for that union with God which is his ultimate vocation and destiny."



Christ refers to the sinner who "will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come" (Matt. 12:32), suggesting that one can be freed after death of the consequences of one’s sins. Similarly, Paul tells us that, when we are judged, each man’s work will be tried. And what happens if a righteous man’s work fails the test? "He will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire" (1 Cor 3:15). Now this loss, this penalty, can’t refer to consignment to hell, since no one is saved there; and heaven can’t be meant, since there is no suffering ("fire") there.

Why would anyone go to purgatory? To be cleansed, for "nothing unclean shall enter [heaven]" (Rev. 21:27). Anyone who has not been completely freed of sin and its effects is, to some extent, "unclean." Through repentance he may have gained the grace needed to be worthy of heaven, which is to say, he has been forgiven and his soul is spiritually alive. But that’s not sufficient for gaining entrance into heaven. He needs to be cleansed completely.