Hi Brenda,

Trying to completely define a mystery of faith is not an easy task.

Dogmatically speaking, the Church holds that Purgatory exists, that the souls in Purgatory suffer as they are purified, and that the living can pray for the souls in Purgatory as they can pray for us.

That said, different models have been used to describe Purgatory along with Heaven and Hell. Now remember, human beings are limited by the three dimensional universe we perceive so we think in terms of places, and we also think in terms of time, as we know it and understand it.

But God invented both time and space. Hence, Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory are not limited by the same time-space continuum we experience. So we grasp to explain mysteries that are revealed. Often times, in our efforts in doing so, our explanations fall short or lead to misunderstandings.

Purgatory, Heaven and Hell, can all be both places and conditions. Time is relative because we are talking about eternity.

The best explanation I’ve heard, and again this falls under theological opinion and not doctrine, goes as follows:

God is love. God loves all souls. The souls, completely free of worldly attachments, are free to experience God's love in its full ecstasy. That would be Heaven.

Those who die in friendship of God, but not having achieved the selfless love God calls us to, also experience God’s love. They still experience joy, but they also experience pain, because God’s love is like a burning fire that burns away the last traces of selfishness. The pain is a healing pain.

Those who reject God still experience God’s love, but it is a source of anguish and pain, because they’ve closed themselves off to God. God loves them no less than He loves those in Heaven, but the greater the sinner, the greater the love that causes them anguish.

Whether this is:

• all one place, or
• three places with Purgatory being limited by time

— these are all mysteries. Several great minds under the guidance of Holy Mother Church have put forth different ideas.

We do know that the need for Purgatory ends with return of the Lord, so Purgatory does have a temporal limitation in terms of its existence but whether or not the soul is there for one second or one century is conjecture. The important thing to know is that it purifies, and since it stands outside of time as we know it, our prayers assist all those in Purgatory.

John DiMascio

Hi Brenda,

The children's Catechism used to say Purgatory is:

"a place or state of being. . ."

Purgatory is something that happens! Because the soul is spiritual, Purgatory is an event or process that is not confined to our experience of space and time, which are properties of matter. However, since the soul is oriented to the body, there is probably some way in which the departed soul is still connected to the material world, and thus may experience some aspect of space and time. So, yes and no — as the wise old Catechism said, "a place or state of being."

Purgatory is required by God's holiness and by our imperfection so it is necessitated by our sins and faults, not something God decides to send us to, or not. Rather, it is a process that we realize we need to undergo. Purgatory is generally thought of as the anteroom of Heaven, the place where you are given your wedding garment if you don't arrive with one. It was sometimes conceived as the highest point of Hell, but if Hell is the abode of the damned, and those in Purgatory are not damned but rather are assured of salvation, then of course Purgatory belongs to Heaven.

C.S. Lewis imagined that Purgatory was the purifying effect of Paradise upon us. He conceived of Heaven as so real, so intensely beautiful and good, that it is painful to the imperfect soul, much as bright light hurts the eyes of people long in darkness. However we want to imagine it, the important thing is that love covers a multitude of sins on this earth, and it is far easier to grow in charity on this earth, than to be purified passively in Purgatory.

Purgatory is a work of God's mercy, and a cause for joy.

Hope this helps,

Mary Ann

Hi, Brenda —

For other readers of this posting, this is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church states on the issue:

III. The Final Purification, Or Purgatory

1030 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.

1031 The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire:

As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.

St. Gregory the Great, Dial. 4,39:PL 77,396; cf. Matthew 12:31.

Mike