Saturday, November 11th at 4:00 at the King’s home
** I am also leading a rosary for the diocese for souls in Purgatory on Wednesday, November 8th at 7:00 p.m. in the Catholic Cemetery on Wheaton Street. Please join us if you are able.
What is meant by the final purification? Understanding the Catholic notion of purgatory requires knowing the difference between a temporal consequence and an eternal consequence; this difference has nothing to do with damnation and salvation. Some people reject the idea of purgatory because they misunderstand its purpose. In this video, Fr. Mike explains why purgatory is needed and straightens out some of those misunderstandings.
I recently read the book, Hungry Souls, and it was not just eye-opening, it was life-changing. It’s an easy read, and I now recommend it to anyone and everyone. The souls in Purgatory, also known as the Church Suffering, are yearning for our prayers. Though they are in Purgatory as a result of God’s mercy in a purification process in order to be with him in heaven eternally, they are truly suffering. Hungry Souls pools together revelations from souls from Purgatory reaching out to people in this life. It is fascinating and horrifying. The pain the souls are in is real, and we here in the Church Militant on Earth have it within our capabilities to help them, to really help them, journey to heaven and leave the place of suffering.
A Lutheran minister, no believer in Purgatory, is the puzzled recipient of repeated visitations from “demons” who come to him seeking prayer, consolation, and refuge in his little German church. But pity for the poor spirits overcomes the man’s skepticism, and he marvels at what kind of departed souls could belong to Christ and yet suffer still . . .
Hungry Souls: Supernatural Visits, Messages, and Warnings from Purgatory recounts these stories and many other trustworthy, Church-verified accounts of earthly visitations from the dead in Purgatory. Accompanying these accounts are images from the “Museum of Purgatory” in Rome, which contains relics of encounters with the Holy Souls, including numerous evidences of hand prints burned into clothing and books; burn marks that cannot be explained by natural means or duplicated by artificial ones. More than just a collection of “Catholic ghost stories,” Hungry Souls also discerns from these accounts important truths about the afterlife, about God’s mercy, and ultimately, about the urgent necessity to pray and perform sacrifices for our brothers and sisters in purgatory, and to reform our lives so as to shorten our own stay in that place of real and awful suffering.
“Many are heading straight on for purgatory. They live until their last hour, even though they are seriously ill, even on their deathbed, as if everything is all right. Exclusively directed to the earthly, they don’t think at all about calling upon the mercy of God. Although by doing so they would be spared at least a severe purgatory. For God is infinitely merciful for all who call upon Him and trust Him.”
—Hungry Souls, p. 120
And, because actually learning what goes on in Purgatory can be depressing, below is a video on how to skip on to Heaven. I’m also putting a link to one of the stories from Hungry Souls from the chapter about souls reaching out to people from Hell. It is chilling and sobering to realize how easily the path to hell can be chosen.
“A Soul in Hell: The Story of Annette” (24 pgs.)
Words of a soul from Hell, telling how she became eternally lost.
Taken from a reading given on an Ignatian Retreat https://www.sicutincaelo.org/downloads/HELL_read.pdf
We all want to be saints, but the struggle against sin and selfishness can feel overwhelming. There may be days where we might feel satisfied simply making it to purgatory rather than entering the pearly gates. But is this lukewarm path the only way to make it to heaven? Today Fr. Mike delves into the reality that in this life, we are given every opportunity to prepare our souls for God’s presence. Embracing the sufferings of this moment purifies us the way the refining fire of purgatory would. In this way, we can prepare ourselves in this temporary world to live alongside our Lord in the everlasting world.
| It’s easy to forget about Purgatory and those who dwell there. We don’t see or hear them or the pains they are currently enduring to enter Paradise as pure souls. But sometimes, these souls are permitted to manifest themselves to the living—to ask for prayers, to warn the living of the reality of Purgatory and Hell, and to encourage them to amend their lives. |
| Padre Pio was visited by one such soul as he prayed in the oratory of the friary. He heard a noise in the church and, not thinking it to be anything unusual, went on praying. Suddenly, he heard a vroom noise and the candles on and around the altar came crashing down. Going to the Communion rail, Pio saw the eerie form of a deceased friar. Frightened, Padre Pio yelled out, “What are you doing in the dark?” The friar said that he was in Purgatory atoning for carelessness with his duties in the church. Padre Pio promised to offer a Mass for him. Later, he asked one of his fellow friars to check behind the altar. They found several broken candles there—proof of the friar’s neglect. On certain occasions, these suffering souls have left us tangible reminders of the dreadful pains of Purgatory which we, the living, often take far too lightly. At the Museum of Purgatory in the sacristy of the church of the Sacred Heart of Suffrage in Rome, you can see many of these reminders: burned fingerprints in prayer books; a burned handprint on a table; a hole burned in a nightcap; a copy of a ten-lire note left at a monastery as a stipend by a deceased Italian priest who desired Masses to be said for him. One of these items is a photocopy of a burned handprint on a nightshirt sleeve. The shirt belonged to a Belgian man who, in 1789, heard frightening, ghostly noises in his house for eleven straight nights. He was then visited by the ghost of his mother, who reminded him of his obligation to have Masses said for her and reproached him for his dissolute life. The man obeyed, founded a pious lay society, and died in sanctity. |
“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.”
Farm to Jesus 