Purgatory is a place or state of purification prior to entering Heaven.
It is reached by those who have some remnant stains of sins they committed on earth, because in Heaven arrive only the pure. Therefore it is reasonable to suppose that purgative souls are gradually purified.
And that is what explains the existence of levels in him, as has been revealed.
Numerous saints and seers have visited purgatory with Our Lady or have had visions of it.
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And they have spoken of those levels and of the purification and the sufferings that there are in each one.
Obviously, our knowledge of purgatory is limited.
Because human beings are incapable of fully understanding God.
Only He knows how much He must purify us because only He knows the secret corners of the soul.
And only He knows how He should do it .
But we can assume that the situation is harder for those who are in the lower levels of purgatory.
A PLACE OF PURIFICATION WITH VARIOUS LEVELS
The Catholic Church believes in the existence of purgatory as a place
or state after death, where we are purified of some spots, to be able to
enter the sky pure.
It was revealed to her that the main pain suffered by the poor souls in purgatory is the longing to be with God.
And she has said that purgatory has three levels.
The lowest level is a fiery sea where people have sufferings related to the sins they committed.
The intermediate level is less rigorous but also has its unpleasant parts.
And the highest is a level of expectation, because it is populated by those who are closest to being liberated.
Some mystics have said that the people in purgatory see us when we pray for them and strengthen themselves with this vision .
There have been several saints who have liberated souls from purgatory through prayers, sacrifices, and offerings of Masses. Among them we can name San Luis Bertrand, San Malaquías, San Vicente Ferrer, Santa Teresa de Ávila, San Padre Pío.
And many seers have been visited by souls in purgatory to ask for prayers for their liberation, such as Mary Simma.
“The lowest level is the closest to hell, where suffering is the most intense.
“The highest level is the closest to Heaven, and there the suffering is the least.
“The level you are in depends on the state of purity of your soul.
“The lower the level of people in purgatory, the less they can pray and the more they suffer .
“The higher the level a person has in purgatory, the easier it is to pray, the more he enjoys prayer, and the less he suffers . “
Our Lady has also informed you that,
“The more you pray on Earth, the higher your level will be in purgatory.”
And also she has asked, “Let us pray for the souls in purgatory. They are unable to pray for themselves.
“Through prayer, we on earth can do much to help them.”
He also revealed that Christmas Day is when the greatest number of souls leave purgatory for Heaven.
IN THE EARTH OF THE EARTH
The information given by Drythelm, a monk to whom hell was shown, is that in the lower reaches of purgatory, in the bowels of the earth, there are those who have seriously offended God and who should have gone to hell.
But they did not because of last minute mercy, last minute regret, last minute respite.
At the
low level there are probably murderers, occultists, abortionists,
rapists, child molesters, thieves, tyrants, sadists, and those who
participate in various criminal activities.
It is very likely that repentant adulterers, sodomites, and idolaters will also be found .
No matter the sin, if a person repents he is saved from eternal fire, and instead finds his way to the fire of purgatory. But with everything that fire implies! It has always been described as hotter than any earthly fire.
There, an hour of torment is more terrible than a lifetime of suffering on earth.
Said Drythelm:
“I
have seen souls that are in a well covered with fantastic heat and there
are testimonies of souls of the dead who return as apparitions and did
things such as leaving a mark of a burned hand on a wooden door, as if
it had been made with hot iron.”
There was a valley of all fire on one side and all ice and snow on the other, on one hand embers and cauldrons of fire, in the other the most intense cold and the explosion of a glacial wind.
This mysterious valley was full of innumerable souls, who, shaken as by a furious tempest, threw themselves from one place to another.
When they could no longer withstand the violence of the fire, they
sought relief in the midst of ice and snow; but they found only a new
torture, and they threw themselves back into the middle of the flames.
It may surprise you that there is fire in purgatory, but as it is mentioned by many mystics, God purifies with his fire.
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And the lower levels of purgatory are similar to Hell.
The soul may even have a disfigured or bestial quality but unlike hell those who are at any level of Purgatory have the consolation of knowing that their souls are safe and that one day they will be admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven.
No matter the intensity of a person’s suffering (and it is very intense) there is the consoling reality that God exists and that one day they will be in His Presence.
A PLACE OF FOG AND DARKNESS
The fog formed a barrier that kept her prisoner and it was as if she were in space but without any stars.
What comes to mind again are the “outer darkness” that Christ refers to in Matthew 8:12, because of the fog like mass of mist — “it seemed to be formed of molecules of intense darkness” — and the woman, Angie Fenimore, of the state of Washington, saw men and women of all ages, but not children.
People were squatting or wandering and it seemed that there was a darkness that flowed from the depths of their being. They
were paralyzed by the fog. They were so absorbed with her, so trapped
in their own affliction, that they could not prove their mental or
emotional state.
From the Soviet Union came a similar testimony of a man whose sin was atheism .
Like suicide, atheism robs God of His role as creator.
The man, a doctor named George Rodonaia, descended to a very scary place when he “died” in 1976 after being run over by a car.
Dr. Rodonaia (now deceased, but who became a Christian minister) had died for hours, until a pathologist started cutting his abdomen during an autopsy!
Just as Angie had found herself in a realm of total darkness, he said the darkness was absolute, “darker than any darkness, blacker than any black color, “ and he was both surprised and horrified.
He was surprised that he existed without a body and horrified by the emptiness he was in.
It was only when he turned from his negativity that the Light of God broke that horrible darkness.
AT THE LOWER LEVELS THE PRAYERS DO NOT ARRIVE
In 1873 a holy nun identified only as Sister M. of LC in a French convent began to hear prolonged sighs at her side.
The strange noises of an invisible presence continued and came closer and closer.
In February of 1874, after much prayer and many Communions, the presence finally identified Sister M as the spirit
of a second nun whom we will call Sister O, who had also been in the
convent, but who died several years before and I was now in purgatory.
“The great sinners who were indifferent to God, and religious who were not what they should have been , are in the lowest stage of purgatory,” revealed Sister O.
“While they are there, the prayers offered for them do not apply to them.
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“Because they have ignored God during their lives, He now in their turn
leaves them abandoned in order that they may repair their negligent and
worthless lives.
“While on earth you can not truly imagine what God really is, in purgatory we can know and understand what He is.
“Because
our souls are freed from all the bonds that bind us and that prevent us
from realizing holiness and seeing the majesty of God, and His great
mercy.
“We are martyrs, consumed, so to speak, by love.
“An
irresistible force draws us to God, who is our center, but at the same
time, another force throws us back to our place of atonement.
“We are in a state of not being able to satisfy our desires.
“Oh, what suffering implies, but we desire it and there is no murmuring against God here.
“We want only what God wants .
“You on earth, however, can not possibly understand what we have to endure. I am calm, since I am no longer in the fire.
“Now I only have the insatiable desire to see God ,
a cruel suffering enough in fact, but I believe that the end of my
exile is near and that I am ready to leave this place, where I leave for
God with all my heart.
“I can talk to you about the different degrees of purgatory because I’ve been through them.
“In the great Purgatory there are several stages.
“In
the lowest and most painful, it is like a temporary inferno, there are
the sinners who have committed terrible crimes during their lives and
whose death surprised them in that state.
“It was almost a miracle that they were saved, and often it was through prayers of holy fathers or other pious people.
“Sometimes
they do not even have time to confess their sins and the world thought
they were lost, but God, whose mercy is infinite, gave them at the time
of death the necessary contrition for their salvation because of one or
more good deeds that led out during life.
“For
these souls, purgatory is terrible. It is a real hell, with the
difference that in hell God is cursed, while we bless him and thank him
for saving us.
“Next to these come the souls, that although they did not commit great crimes like the others, they were indifferent to God.
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“They did not fulfill their Easter duties and they also became the moment of death.
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“Maybe they were unable to receive Holy Communion.
“They are in purgatory for the long years of indifference.
“They
suffer unknown pains and are abandoned, either without prayers or if
they are said to be for them, they are not allowed to take advantage of
them.
THE LEVELS SUPERIOR TO THE LOWEST
“In the second purgatory are the souls of those who died with venial sins that were not completely expiated before death.
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“Or with deadly sins that were forgiven, but for which they have not fully satisfied divine justice. In this part of purgatory, there are also different degrees, according to the merits of each soul.
“Finally, there is the purgatory of desire that is called the threshold.
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“Very few escape from this .
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“To avoid it altogether, one must ardently desire the Heaven and the Vision of God.
“That’s strange, more so than what people think, because even Godly people are afraid of God and do not, therefore, have enough desire to go to Heaven.
“This purgatory has its very painful martyrdom like the others.
“The
deprivation of sight of our beloved Jesus adds to the intense
suffering. It is a continuous martyrdom. It makes me suffer more than
the fire of purgatory.
“The sky is so beautiful. There is a great distance between purgatory and Heaven.
“We have the privilege sometimes to glimpse the joy of the blessed in paradise, but it is almost a punishment.
“It makes us want to see God.
“In
Heaven everything is pure delight; in purgatory, deep darkness. Oh, how I
want to go to Heaven. What a martyrdom we suffer once we have seen
God!”
SATAN CAN STILL ATTACK THE SOULS
Maria Simma says that in the lower levels satan can still attack souls, and that it does not happen in the higher levels.
It is true that we are tested here on earth and that the test stops with our death. However,
the souls of the deepest purgatory have to suffer for the sins they
have committed before taking advantage of our prayers, our Masses, and
our good deeds. The continuous attack of Satan is part of this
suffering.
The
levels of purgatory are as different as our diseases on earth can range
from a simple inflammation of a nail to diseases capable of consuming
the body like fire.
There
is this fire only in the lower levels of purgatory. His suffering is
more serious, especially in the third level, the lowest.
It is not fair, what many theologians teach today, that Heaven, purgatory and hell are only conditions.
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The three are also places.
Some souls remain there only half an hour and others for the rest of the time, until the last day.
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The souls say that the average time is around forty years.
When we
are told that a soul must suffer for a time due in purgatory, it is
only because we can not understand the pain that can not expressed in
terms of time.
They say they do not realize they do not have their body.
They have a transfigured body that can appear recovered and dressed.
FOR EVERY MORTAL SIN, A PAYMENT OF 7 YEARS
But as horrible as it was, Francisca said it was not as hot as hell.
As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could see the bodies submerged in what appeared to be a cauldron of fire that enveloped them in flames, pulling them down .
He was told that these were souls who had
been guilty of committing serious sins, had confessed and were absolved
of their sins by the priest, but had not satisfied the harm caused by
their actions against God.
In this vision, he was told that for every mortal sin committed and
forgiven, there was a payment of seven years of reparation in purgatory
because it was necessary to erase it from the soul. [Others say true
contrition and humility can erase any sin, and that there are no set
“sentences.”]
Since the damage caused by each mortal sin affects the world differently, some more deadly and lasting, the amount of time and punishment is different.
The type of pain and suffering that each of these souls had was
proportional to the type of sin, the damage done by the sins, and the
number of wounds inflicted on the Sacred Heart of Our Lord for these
sins.
At this level, he met the poor souls of lay people and religious, alike.
Those of the laity were souls who had led a life of sin, and they were converted towards the end of their lives.
The conversion to the Lord and his Church is a gift from God for us, since only the Holy Spirit can convert the hearts of men.
Since they had not paid their debt on earth, they had to make up the Lord’s bill here in purgatory.
The souls of the religious were those who had not kept the vows they had professed.
As soon as this was explained, San Francisca saw the soul of a priest who was very well known.
He had a cover on his face, to try to hide the ugly stain he had left.
Now, this priest had led a truly priestly life, as a good steward of the Sacraments and as a shepherd of his flock.
His only sin had been an uneasy gluttony over food, instead of seeking his reward in God’s Creation.
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