Purgatory is a mysterious place that God created in His infinite mercy. Many see it as this terrible place and truly it is not a country club experience. But the truth is, if Purgatory didn't exist, most of us would deserve and go to Hell with how sinful a life we lead in thought, word and deed. So Purgatory is a HUGE gift from God. Every soul that makes it into Purgatory is guaranteed to go to Heaven. A Priest once said that 'Purgatory finishes what we refused to do with God on earth. (repent, repair, purify, detach from sins and things). Why do we need Purgatory and can't go straight to Heaven? God reveals this in the Book of Revelation 21:27 which says, "But nothing unclean will ever enter it (Heaven), nor anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful—but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life". While we know less about Purgatory, than Heaven and Hell, because those two are detailed throughout Holy Scripture, Catholic Mystics and Saints have been there or seen visions of it and bring us many details. The stories below take the veil off of the relationship between the Church Militant (us) and the Church Suffering (the Holy Souls). Read as many accounts as you can below as well as our FAQs page: https://purgatoryproject.org/faq. It was these types of detailed accounts that stirred my heart to create this website. Please note: The answers below are from two people. 1. Andrew, the creator of PurgatoryProject.org and 2. Spencer an Admin of the largest Purgatory Facebook page with over 250K members. Neither of us are clergy, we are lay folks who have studied Purgatory much of our adult life. The answers are based on hundreds of Private Revelation accounts from books on Purgatory we have both read and come from Catholic Saints and Mystics who have either been there or had visions of it. The Catholic Church does not require you to believe in Private Revelation. I believe these answers to be true but they are not approved by the Catholic Church nor infallible. Some of the questions come from questions that were asked by users of the Facebook Purgatory Page.

The Holy Souls in Purgatory suffer greatly. From Purgatory they cannot pray for themselves or ease their sufferings. But we can. Purgatory Project is a website that was built for one simple purpose: for anyone on earth to take action and help provide the Holy souls in Purgatory much needed relief and finish their purification and get to Heaven faster. Purgatory Project was born out of a compassion toward, and realization of what the Holy Souls go through in their sin purification process. Although no one on earth can fully know exactly what each soul experiences, private revelation has filled in a lot of gaps with details that at times can be overwhelming to read about. One example is that St. Thomas Aquinas says that the least torture or purification in Purgatory is worse than the greatest torture on earth. And it’s continuous. Imagine that. This and hundreds of other tidbits about Purgatory were researched, studied and collected over 2 decades, moved the heart of a Web Designer named Andrew who decided to act and make this website where Catholics, Christians or anyone can go to view and pray for the souls they knew (and didn’t know) on earth and actually help them in direct and tangible ways. As well as, help ALL of the Holy Souls as well. Based on what private revelation and the Church teaches, the Purgatory Project website offers about 50 tangible ways to provide them relief including Masses, prayers, almsgiving etc. to provide purification to the souls in Purgatory and speed up their path to getting to Heaven. Saints have also said that souls on earth that help or pray for the Holy Souls, receive additional mercy from God, when they themselves get to Purgatory. Also as we pray for the souls in Purgatory, they also can pray for and help us as well!

In Roman Catholic doctrine, Purgatory is a place or state of suffering inhabited by the souls of sinners who are expiating their sins before going to heaven. Saints and mystics have seen actual burning flames of fire that are slowly burning off the sins and purifying the souls. There are many other types of punishments too that are specific to the person's sins and faults but the fires are a main theme in Purgatory. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines Purgatory as a “purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven,” which is experienced by those “who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified” (CCC 1030). It notes that “this final purification of the elect is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.” (CCC 1031). The purification is necessary because, as Scripture teaches, nothing unclean will enter the presence of God in heaven (Rev. 21:27) and, while we may die with our mortal sins forgiven, there can still be many impurities in us, specifically venial sins and the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven. Said in a more simple way, the only souls that are allowed into Heaven are completely pure. No stain of sin at all. Very few people / souls when they die, are perfectly pure in their souls. Purgatory prunes away your sins until you are pure and go to Heaven. And most of us, still have attachment or tendency toward sins or things when we die. A further impurity that is not allowing us straight into Heaven upon death. Purgatory may sound harsh but it is actually Our Lord’s gracious mercy, because without it, many purgatorial souls would most likely have been damned for eternity to Hell.

Yes. It is GUARANTEED that ALL souls that make it into Purgatory and avoid Hell, are guaranteed they will make it into Heaven. That is why even though Purgatory is not necessarily a joyous and fun place to be because of the pains and purifications that the souls experience, the souls actually do have joy because they know that they are slowly progressing toward being with God forever in Heaven.

No one really knows however based on some Purgatory books, some detail that most souls stay for 40-60 years. Now there are no years, hours or days in Purgatory because Purgatory is a dimension outside of earth. It does not have time like we have time. But this is the way the souls explain it so we could understand. It is more like a certain number of acts, prayers, sacrifices etc that God deems appropriate for each individual soul is the number. In one example, one soul needed 107 Holy Communions to be offered for that soul to go to Heaven. Another soul needed 7 more Masses to be said for them by a Priest on earth. Again, each soul has its own individual punishment based on each soul's individual sins. There are apparently ancient souls that will stay in Purgatory until the end of time / the Final Judgment because they have no one praying for them. We have heard estimates that only between 1-2% of souls that die each die go straight to Heaven. These are souls that were incredibly close to God and did their sufferings and purifications and penances on earth.

Now regarding whether after one passes they are sent to purgatory, no it is not always the case. At the time of death everyone experiences individual/particular judgement. According to mystics like Maria Simma who was visited by souls, they are given few moments to accept God and St. Michael is present. Some might still have unconfessed sins (those who died sudden deaths and had no time to confess) and in those few moments they are shown their life's past deeds and their judgement is based on that. If they are truly remorseful, repent and accept God they are saved. If they continue to reject God's love and mercy they are damned. Those who have confessed before death and have made penance and have no more sins to atone for go directly to heaven which is very few. Those who confessed but did not do enough penance to atone for their sins are sent to purgatory. Those who after death still refuse to accept God are damned eternally in hell. It all depends on the person's state of soul at the time of its death and whether at its individual judgement it was sent to purgatory which we will not know unless the soul by God's permission manifests itself to us and tells us where it is, which is in extremely rare cases. If they died in a state of grace but have not yet made proper reparation for unatoned sins which they had confessed and the guilt removed they will be saved and pass through purgatory. Those who die with unrepentant sins and continue to reject and curse God, they will go to hell and extremely few people go directly straight to heaven after death. Purgatory is only mandatory if you die in a state of grace but have not fully paid the satisfaction due for sins or done enough penance while still alive. God does not always remit the whole punishment due to sin together with the guilt. God requires satisfaction and the sinner failing to do penance in this life will have to make atonement in purgatory to be completely purified from the effects of sin which still cling to the soul after its sin is forgiven and the guilt removed. When we confess we are forgiven for our sins, but remember that after the guilt and sin is removed there is still a temporal punishment we suffer because sin has its consequences and leaves a mark on the soul. The sins we commit often naturally lead to negative consequences and unfortunately for us the effects continue. Temporal punishment is not the same as guilt. Our sins and guilt of sin are cleansed away entirely by the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. However, the damage to our souls is what still needs to be healed and repaired because of the attachment to sin which still clings to it. That damage is healed by repentance, penance, indulgences, and if we did not make enough of expiation through penance for the spiritual scars which remain due to the consequence of sin on our souls while we were still on earth after our sins were forgiven we will be sent to purgatory for final purification.

The fire of purgatory is not physical fire, it is a consuming fire that burns and it refers to some kind of burning of spiritual pain which is their longing to be with God. The souls in purgatory undergo the pain of sense spiritually. The holy souls at the moment of their death they saw God in a brilliant light though a bit obscure and that itself made them want to accept their judgement and cast themselves into purgatory because they realised how defiled they were and needed to be spotless to enter the divine presence which created in them a longing a yearning for God which itself is painful and it is the grace of the holy spirit is what the souls experience the flame of God’s love in a way that is painful or afflictive. In purgatory, the soul remains separated from its body, so it can only suffer spiritually, not physically. That’s not to say, however, that the flames of purgatory aren’t real, they are. For indeed our God is a consuming fire." [Heb 12:29] The 'fire' as used in this context is not a literal fire, but the fire of God that burns out the imperfection of the soul. The fire by which they are purified is an interior burning for the love of God. They saw his love, His goodness. They burn for it, with a yearning that surpasses the heat of any earthly fire. In other words, the primary pain endured by those in purgatory is the loss of the sight of God. They suffer from what is called a spiritual fever. It is a moral thirst which torments the soul. There is in Purgatory, as in Hell, a double pain – the pain of loss and the pain of sense. The pain of loss consists in being deprived for a time of the sight of God, who is the Supreme Good, the beatific end for which our souls are made, as our eyes are for the light. It is a moral thirst which torments the soul. Purgatory is an inner burning 'spiritual fever' for the love of God. As that fever rages, it separates the soul from sin, a process almost equally painful. To the extent we’re attached to our sin, becoming detached from it hurts. The "fire" of longing for God must be what purifies them of any remaining attachment to sin. It is what prepares them for final union with Christ in heaven. And surely all this happens within them by the power of the Holy Spirit, who is described in the New Testament as the "fire" that came down upon the Church at Pentecost, the fire that St. John of the Cross once referred to as 'The Living Flame of Love.'

Based on many different descriptions of Heaven from a multitude of Saints, it appears the consensus is that there are 3 levels in Purgatory. No one can really know but we have not heard of another number so we assume this is true. There are very detailed descriptions of the 3 levels on the Indulgence page of the PurgatoryProject.org website. Here is an even more in-depth account of the 3 levels.

The duration a soul remains in Purgatory is determined by the impurity in which the soul is found in the personal encounter with God at the end of its earthly life and depends on the gravity of sins and grievous faults it committed during life which only God knows and though after confession its guilt and sins were forgiven its effects continue and the consequence of sin remains and leaves a mark on the soul. We have to pay the debt of suffering which is consequences for our wrong actions and in order to attain perfect holiness the soul has to be completely purified because nothing unclean can enter heaven and since it has not fully paid the debt of temporal punishment due for those sins of which the guilt has been forgiven it will have to remain there till it satisfies the temporal punishment. There are many forsaken, abandoned and neglected souls who are forgotten like the souls of our ancestors, our protestant brothers and sisters who did not believe in the existence of purgatory and so their families will not pray for them because they too don't believe, souls of orphans, priests and religious who have no one to pray for them and whose memory is lost and if no one prays for them they can be in that holy prison till the end of the world because the penalties of purgatory are not eternal (as are those of hell) but they will definitively cease the day of the Last Judgment. So it depends on the state of the soul at the time of death and the gravity of sins and attachment to sins, and how much it needs to be cleansed and when God feels it is completely purified and worthy to enter His kingdom and behold His beatific vision He will release it. Some souls can remain there for a few hours, some few days, weeks or years calculated according to earth time. Some saints have said souls have been there thirty, forty years or more and some centuries if no one prays for them and some are even sentenced till the end of time depending on the gravity of their sins. The souls in purgatory live in eternity and discontinuous time.

Purgatory is a transitory state located in the center of the Earth, where we pay the debt of temporal punishment and where we are purified from the effects and consequence of our sins which leave a mark on our souls. For which we have to expiate and make atonement and God who is merciful sends us there if we died in a state of grace after confessing our mortal and venial sins before death, and according to the gravity of our sins which we need to expiate for, we are given a sentence until we are completely purified. Purgatory has different levels (also known as degrees of suffering) according to the revelations of the saints or mystics who have had visions of purgatory and during their ecstasies some of them have been led into purgatory by their angels and they give us a first hand account of the sufferings the holy souls go through. The lower they descended into purgatory which they termed as a 'prison' or 'dungeon' they said it gets hotter and hotter the purifying fire burns the souls more and so the sufferings of the souls increase and the pains are intense, excruciating and unbearable since the lowest level is bordering hell and is in the vicinity of hell. Some souls have to atone for grave confessed mortal sins and faults so they are not even allowed to benefit from prayers offered for them, while others though they benefit from our prayers, they have to remain in the lowest levels suffering unbearably for many years until they make satisfactory expiation depending on the gravity of their sins. Also depending on how much they have been cleansed they are moved up to the higher levels where the suffering is not as intense as the lowest level. At the topmost level for those who are on the threshold of heaven their greatest suffering is their longing to behold the beatific vision of God and may need just a single prayer, mass, good thought word or action for their release. But having said that there are some souls who are sentenced in purgatory till the end of time, like Amelia whose sentence was confirmed by our lady of Fatima to the three Shepherd children. Once they are released into heaven they are extremely grateful and they prostrate themselves before the throne of God and pray unceasingly for all those who prayed for them. Before the coming of Christ there were two areas of hell. 1. The Abode of the Just known as the Bosom of Abraham(Lk 16:22-26) on the border of hell, which was a temporary state where righteous souls known as the patriarchs of the Old Testament were kept until Christ's soul descended into it by his death through crucifixion and freed them since Christ was the first to rise from the dead. This is where they awaited their promised deliverance. 2. Gehenna (Greek): This is the lake of Fire of Eternal damnation (Mt:18:9) where the wicked are damned. Those who died in friendship of God the Just were in (Abraham's Bosom), the wicked and evil when to Gehenna.

Indeed we don’t know at all. That is 100% theologically correct. No one knows where a soul is after death. In fact, it is said that besides Jesus, we only know where two souls are after their death and that is the Good Thief on the Cross next to Jesus as He said to the thief on the cross, “On this day you will be with me in Paradise.” And the other is Our Lady who assumed straight into Heaven after her death because she was sinless.. However, Private Revelation and a vast myriad of Saints who have seen visions of Purgatory and in some cases literally visited Purgatory physically saw enormous seas of souls there. Private Revelation also tells us that as little as 1-3% of souls go straight to Heaven with no Purgatory time at all. What is amazing about God is that if you pray Purgatory prayers for someone you knew and at that point they are already in Heaven, God still uses the prayer for another soul who is in need. God is so good!

Souls that make it into Purgatory start a period of 'purgation' or purification of their sins. A soul must be completely clean with no sin and no attachment to sin when they die to enter Heaven and spend eternity with God. This is because God is sinless, pure and full of light. These souls have some darkness in their souls due to sin, but with the start of the purging of their sins, they are holier at this point then when they died, therefore 'Holy Souls'. The Catechism tells us that a soul that makes it into Purgatory is guaranteed to eventually make it Heaven. When this happens, they'll go from Holy Souls to Saints. The souls retained the friendship of God and referred to them as 'Holy Souls'. The souls in purgatory are definitely considered holy because they can no longer sin but as they wait to be in perfect union with God they have the promised hope of heaven at the end of their purification. The souls in purgatory are assured of heaven. Thus they are called 'holy' souls. But since they are still in transit to heaven, they need our prayers and because they are in a state of holiness, souls in purgatory can and do pray for those of us who remain on earth. Whereas the souls in hell are not assured of Heaven and therefore they are not considered 'holy.' In hell they continue to curse and mock and blaspheme God and hate Christ. The souls in purgatory have not yet achieved perfect holiness yet but they are known as holy souls because they have died in God’s grace and are in a state of holiness and they will attain heaven and the beatific vision after their purification is complete. Their eternal salvation is assured. They are also called poor souls because they cannot pray for themselves in their current state and can do nothing to lessen their pain or duration. In the St. Gertrude's prayer given to the saint by Jesus Himself it says to pray for the souls in purgatory and if they had not achieved some form of holiness after having died in God's grace why would the Lord Jesus in His prayer given to St. Gertrude mention 'Holy Souls' as part of the words in the prayer? The holy souls are called 'holy' because they can no longer sin and are saved from the eternal punishment of the damned and their assurance of going to heaven is guaranteed.

That is complicated to answer in a short way for a FAQs section but based on attachments to sin and sins that were not atoned for, God in His just mercy, saves a soul from going to Hell and instead gives them penances or purifications in Purgatory that slowly cleanse the soul over time based on the state of their soul at the time of death. There are close to 25 descriptions on the left side of each Purgatory Project web page throughout the entire site which detail what happens to a soul in Purgatory by Saints and Mystics that have actually visited and seen visions of Purgatory. One thing that is for sure, each soul’s experience is not the same as the next soul in Purgatory and that is because no two souls live the exact same life of sin. Once a soul in Purgatory has purified every last stain of their soul in Purgatory, they ascend into Glory (into Heaven) for eternity. Here is just one account of Purgatory that was seen by 14th Century Mystic, Saint Romana. This account matches many others that we have read.

Well with our constant prayers said for the souls anything is possible with God if it be in accordance to His holy will. In Amelia's case that is her sentence probably due to the gravity of her sins and there may be many souls like her who have also received the same sentence. There is nothing we can do to reduce her sentence because our lady has confirmed her sentence and it will remain as She has said, but since we have been told to pray for the souls in purgatory Amelia is one of them and our prayers will give her and other souls who are facing the same sentence relief and consolation. Now regarding other souls God desires us to pray for their release and our prayers do have an effect because according to various saints and mystics who have either had visions or have been taken to purgatory in ecstacy have said that purgatory has certain degrees of suffering out of which the lowest is Great Purgatory which is at the depth where the most guilty souls are making expiation without relief from prayers said for them and some of them are not allowed to give any sign of their torments and are not allowed to benefit from prayers said for them until they have made the necessary expiation needed to be moved to a higher degree or level in purgatory. They suffer unheard of pains and are abandoned either without prayers or if prayers are said for them, they are not allowed to benefit from them and so while they are there, the prayers offered up for them are not applied to them, because they have ignored God during their life, He now in His turn leaves them abandoned in order that they may repair their neglectful and worthless lives. Even if we prayed more they will not be any more relieved until God wills it thus. If He wants you to pray more He will inspire you to do so. Once they have made the necessary expiation needed to get out of that level they are in, then they will be allowed to benefit from all the masses and prayers said for them and little by little their souls become purified, their sufferings will be changed and they will get relief and slowly be delivered to a higher level. God makes our prayers known to them and there have been cases where God even allows certain souls in purgatory to ask the living for prayers by letting them manifest themselves to the someone to beg for prayers. St. Gertrude in her revelations states that those who have committed many grave sins and have not done due penance may not share in the ordinary suffrages of the Church for a very considerable time until God deems it thus. So we have to continue praying for the souls because we do not know the state of the soul at the time of its death or which sentence it received or whether it is in purgatory or which degree of suffering it is undergoing and like I mentioned before, for those souls who are allowed to benefit from prayers said for them, once they have made the necessary expiation they are moved to the higher levels where there is less suffering until they reach the threshold of heaven and are finally released. So our duty is to keep praying and if the soul we are praying for is already in heaven it receives 'Accident Glory' (increase in its intimacy with God and an increase in its intercessory power) and God applies our prayers to other souls. So we have to keep on praying for them with faith no matter what the outcome of our prayer may be and leave everything in God's hands.

There are two types of time to be defined in order to understand the real time in purgatory. It is not like our time. There has been confusion about this in the past, as people think that when they make an indulgence which merits 30 days, that means 30 days off of purgatory—not so. It means that the prayer is equal to a physical penance which should last 30 days, as in the old times, when priests would give a 30 day pilgrimage as a penance, or 30 days without meat. The indulgence takes the place and is equal by the merit of the Church to those physical punishments. Purgation takes time, so the time in purgatory is not short, unless one has made the Five First Saturdays, for example, or gained other purgatorial indulgences, such as the Divine Mercy indulgence. A person’s time in Purgatory also depends on several things, such as the weight of sin, the indulgences they obtained in life, the sacrifices made on their behalf by the living Theologians in Catholic teaching shows us that there are two types of time regarding purgatory. The first is “eviternity,” which means eternal duration or eternal existence. It is not the same as “eternal time,” which is the experience in heaven or hell. Eviternity is an in-between concept, between time as we know it by minutes, hours, days and years, and eternal time, both of which we understand. Eviternity has a beginning, so it is not eternal but is also known as “the perpetual present,” which means a present moment which lasts a long, long time. Discontinuous time is the time experienced by true mystics in ecstasy and the angels. Such persons can have a thought which lasts hours, but is only one spiritual instant. Both eviternity and discontinuous time are what the souls in purgatory experiences. All of us live in continuous time. God dwells outside of time. He is Not Limited By Time. He existed before there was such a thing as time. Consequently God dwells in eternity, not in time. God and the saints in heaven live in eternal time. The souls in purgatory live in eviternity and discontinuous time. However, one can judge how long a soul may be in purgatory in terms of earthly time. I have read about holy souls appearing to mystics and stating that the some souls experience purgatory for 40 years or more. If certain people had special graces for example priests and religious and they abused those graces by committing grievous sins then they will be held more accountable then the lay people and their souls could be in purgatory for three or four centuries. Some people, especially those who had death-bed conversions from lives of serious sin could be in purgatory for a very long time but again to us it may seem a few years but they are out of earthly time and to them it may seem thousand of years or centuries or more. In one revelation bishop St Antoninus records the story of a sick man who was given a choice by angel to suffer in purgatory.... A religious man suffering for a long time from a painful malady, allowed himself to be overcome by discouragement, and entreated God to permit him to die, that he might be released from his pains. He did not think that the prolongation of his sickness was a mercy of God, who wished to spare him more severe suffering. In answer to his prayer, God charged His angel-guardian to offer him his choice, either to die immediately and submit to the pains of Purgatory for three days, or to bear his sickness for another year and then go directly to Heaven. The sick man, having to choose between three days in Purgatory and one year of suffering upon earth, did not hesitate, but took the three days in Purgatory. After the lapse of an hour, his angel went to visit him in his sufferings. On seeing him, the poor patient complained that he had been left so long in those torments. And yet, he added, you promised that I should remain here but three days. How long,” asked the angel, “do you think you have already suffered? “At least for several years,” he replied,” and I had to suffer but three days. Know, “said the angel that you have been here only one hour

Yes I had read that a Spanish theologian from the late Middle Ages once argued that the average Christian spends 1000 to 2000 years in purgatory, but he was using earth years as a measure for a concept that doesn't apply in the afterlife, as the time spent in purgatory is not measured in the same way as on Earth. Besides no one knows for sure how long a soul can be there only God. According to the church, only God knows the exact amount of time a person must spend in purgatory before attaining a state of purity. It depends on the malice and deliberation with which the sin was committed and the gravity of one's confessed faults and the severity of one’s punishment. Theologians in Catholic teaching shows us that there are two types of time regarding purgatory. The first is “eviternity,” which means eternal duration or eternal existence. It is not the same as “eternal time,” which is the experience in heaven or hell. Eviternity is an in-between concept, between time as we know it by minutes, hours, days and years, and eternal time, both of which we understand. Eviternity has a beginning, so it is not eternal but is also known as “the perpetual present,” which means a present moment which lasts a long, long time. Discontinuous time is the time experienced by true mystics in ecstasy and the angels. Such persons can have a thought which lasts hours, but is only one spiritual instant. Both eviternity and discontinuous time are what the souls in purgatory experiences. All of us live in continuous time. God and the saints in heaven live in eternal time. The souls in purgatory live in eviternity and discontinuous time. I have read about holy souls appearing to mystics and stating that the some souls experience purgatory for 40 years or more. If certain people had special graces for example priests and religious and they abused those graces by committing grievous sins then they will be held more accountable then the lay people and their souls could be in purgatory for three or four centuries. Some people, especially those who had death-bed conversions from lives of serious sin could be in purgatory for a very long time but again to us it may seem a few years but they are out of earthly time and to them it may seem thousand of years or centuries or more. Some saints have said souls have been there thirty, forty years or more and some centuries if no one prays for them and some are even sentenced till the end of time depending on the gravity of their sins. The souls in purgatory live in eviternity and discontinuous time.

There is private revelation about this which shows how wonderful Our Lord is. Not only is Purgatory a huge act of mercy for us because many souls would be damned to Hell without it, but it has been said that a Mass or prayers or sacrifice offered for a soul that is actually now in Heaven, the grace is then diverted to a soul that needs it so the holy act does not go to waste. But God still blesses the soul that offered it.

There is a distinction between the souls in purgatory and the souls in hell. The souls in purgatory are saved and they are definitely going to heaven after they complete their purification. The souls have to be purged of every last attachment to sin which cling to them, it is the burning love of God that consumes and purifies them of their defilements and by the grace of the holy spirit the souls experience the flame of God’s love in a way that is painful or afflictive. The primary pain endured by those in purgatory is the loss of the sight of God. They suffer from what is called a spiritual fever. It is a moral thirst which torments the soul. There is in Purgatory, as in Hell, a double pain – the pain of loss and the pain of sense. The pain of loss consists in being deprived for a time of the sight of God, who is the Supreme Good, the beatific end for which our souls are made, as our eyes are for the light. It is a moral thirst which torments the soul. Purgatory is an inner burning, a “spiritual fever,” for the love of God. As that fever rages, it separates the soul from sin, a process almost equally painful. To the extent we’re attached to our sin, becoming detached from it hurts. They suffer willingly and gladly, with no self-pity and always eager to return to their sufferings until the last speck is consumed. In their eagerness they endure their suffering as they know they are bound for glory. Their fate has been sealed, and ultimately it’s a blessed fate. Therefore, the time they spend in purgatory, whether short or long, is a time marked not only by suffering, but also by joy. Anything worthwhile requires pain to make progress, but it’s pain with a reward at the end. Whereas the souls in hell are forever cut off from the grace of the Holy Spirit. A soul in hell does not have the light of grace from the holy spirit to feel contrition. The souls in hell are not assured of Heaven and therefore they are not considered holy but these are the souls of poor sinners who are eternally damned. When a soul dies and enters hell it is over for that soul. That soul will never leave hell. Hell is the place and state of eternal punishment for souls who can never leave. In hell they scream and yell in pain, with rage and anger because they suffer eternally. In hell they continue to curse and mock and blaspheme God and hate Christ. The souls in purgatory are in a state of holiness because they died in God's grace and are saved from the eternal punishment of the damned and their assurance of going to heaven is guaranteed. They are also considered holy because they can no longer sin but as they wait to be in perfect union with God they have the promised hope of heaven at the end of their purification. Their eternal salvation is assured and thus they are called 'Holy' Souls. But since they are still in transit to heaven, they need our prayers and because they are in a state of holiness, souls in purgatory can and do pray for those of us who remain on earth. They are also called poor souls because they cannot pray for themselves in their current state and can do nothing to lessen their pain or duration.

Purgatory exists and there are scriptural passages in the bible I have read to prove. Although the protestants rejected and excluded these books by calling them Apocrypha books saying they were not divinely inspired and so had them removed because these books contain the primary teaching of purgatory and praying for the dead, and got rid of the entire teaching on purgatory. And they did this by removing these books which strongly teach it. The word “Purgatory” is not found in the Bible but neither are the words 'Bible,' 'Incarnation' or 'Trinity' too not mentioned in the holy Bible but there are references to them and those doctrines are clearly taught in it. For 'bible' (scripture), 'Incarnation' 'Word made flesh' 'Trinity' 'Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.' The Holy Scriptures are full of references to Purgatory. Though the term “Purgatory” was a name that Christians came up with after the Bible was written, that was after the coming of Christ, it is very clear that the notion of a place of cleansing before entering Heaven has always existed. (Heb. 12:23 "You have come to the assembly of God's firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God himself, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect.)" They do not necessarily arrive perfect. They are made perfect after their death. But those in heaven are already perfect, and those in hell can no longer be made perfect. These spirits are in purgatory. (Esdras 9 7:8 7 "Some people will escape destruction and be saved by their good works or by their faith. All of them 8 will survive the dangers I have described and will enjoy the salvation provided in the land that I have set apart from eternity as my own). (Esdras ch 9 verse 22. So let them perish - all those people who were born only to be lost. But let my chosen people be kept safe - those for whom I worked so hard to bring to perfection). A person who is in hell doesn't need prayers because they rejected or cursed God and not repented and had no love for him, cannot be saved through prayers, so obviously we pray for the dead who are in a place we now call purgatory today and before Christ was known as Hades. The person still dies in a state of grace with confessed mortal sins that they either failed to pay penance for or venial sins they failed to confess before death. Purgatory is not hell because hell is for those who have never repented and placed their trust in Christ nor is it heaven because Purgatory is a transitory state of transition from there to heaven. The time spent there is to purge or cleanse them from the remaining sins that were unatoned. (Matthew 5 25:26 25 “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny). (In Chapter 12 of Second book of Maccabees in the Old Testament (2 43 And making a gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection, 44 (For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead,). 45 And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them. 46 It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins). We read Scriptural proof for Purgatory and evidence that the Jews had sacrifices offered for those of their brothers who had lost their lives in battle. The fact that the Jews prayed for the dead shows that they believed in a place where they could be helped (which we now call purgatory) and that the prayers of their living brothers and sisters could help them in that place. Nothing unclean thing shall enter heaven as stated in (Rev 21:27). Malachi 3:3 he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, till they present right offerings to the LORD Matthew 12:32 And whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. which means that If this sin cannot be forgiven after death, it follows that there are others which can be, and this must be in purgatory: 1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Luke 12:47 And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. 1 Peter 3:19 In which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison Peter 4:6 6 For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit. 1 Corinthians 3:13 Each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 2 Peter 2:9 Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going Genesis 37:35 All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him. Not only has God used the Catholic Church to clearly define for us that Purgatory really exists, but He has also inspired numerous Saints like St. Padre Pio, St. Antonius, St. Catherine, St. Nicolas of Tolentino and many more, who have been visited by the souls themselves to pray for their release into Heaven. Even an ordinary simple, humble like Maria Simma was visited by the holy souls begging her for prayers so that they will be released. Our Lord Jesus Himself appeared to St. Gertrude gave her a prayer to pass on to us which would release a vast number of souls from purgatory each time it was said. For centuries, there have been many miracles and visions of Purgatory. Frequently, souls in Purgatory have left physical evidence of the reality of their suffering when they have been permitted to appear to someone on earth to beg for help. In Rome there is a purgatory museum which is a room that is filled with scientific evidence of Purgatory. The church is along the Tiber River and is called “Chiesa del Sacro Cuore del Suffragio” or in English, the “Church of the Sacred Heart of Suffrage” relics such as Fingerprints burned into a prayer book. A clearly visible charred hand print on a wooden table. Similar marks on shirt sleeves, a night cap, and aprons. These are among the relics left behind by the poor souls who visited people on earth begging them to pray for their release. At Fatima when Lucia one of the three children asked our lady about 2 of her friends, Maria das Neves and Amelia who had died from the same village if they were in Heaven , our lady replied that Maria was in Heaven, while the other friend Amelia who was aged about 18 or 19 years would have to remain in purgatory till the end of the world. Which means probably due to the gravity of her sins she has been given this terribly long sentence and would have to suffer unbearable and excruciating pain in the purifying fire of God's divine justice till the end of time. There may be many souls like her who have also received the same sentence and our prayers will at least give them some consolation and relief. We have been told to pray for the souls in purgatory and Amelia too is one of them. There is nothing we can do to reduce her sentence because Our Lady has confirmed her sentence and Our Lady's word will remain as it is, but our prayers will give her relief and consolation in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison.

Yes, God who is so merciful at the moment of death He gives souls a final chance to accept Him or not. They may seem unconscious to us but God is trying His best to get them to accept His saving grace by reaching into the depth of their souls to try to get them to repent. So no one knows for sure whether just at the moment of death they were saved or not. Once a bereaved woman whose husband had committed suicide. She went to Padre Pio to inquire as to the state of her beloved husband’s soul and Padre Pio responded “He’s saved. Between the bridge and the river he repented.” So by this we can come to the conclusion that it is possible that at the moment before a person's death God can move the person and touch them with the grace to repent and be saved.

These are the main 8: 1. St. Nicholas of Tolentino (Patron Saint of holy souls) 2. St. Odilo Of Cluny (Who instituted All Souls Day) 3. Blessed Mary of Providence 4. St. Catherine of Genoa 5. St. John Macias 6. St. Padre Pio 7. St. Gertrude the Great 8. St. Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary Papczynski Saints who had visions or were taken to purgatory in ecstacy.. St. Faustina St. Frances of Rome St. Mary Magdalen de pazzi St. Lidwina of Schiedam St. Teresa of Avila through her prayers helped a priest enter heaven St. Louis Bertrand saw a vision of his father entering heaven St. Malachy prayed for his sister in purgatory it lessened her suffering St. Vincent Ferrer sister appeared to thank him for the masses he offered before her entrance into heaven There are many more canonized Saints who have been great helpers of the suffering souls. Besides the most well known mentioned above there are others, St. Augustine, St. Dominic, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Sister Adèle Marie of the Five Sacred Wounds, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Gregory the Great, St. Bridget of Sweden, St. Ambrose, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Efraim, St. Peter Damian, St. Josemaria, St Gemma Galgani, Blessed Henry Suso a German Dominican, Blessed Anna Maria Tiagi, Blessed Eugénie Smet.

After final judgement there will be no purgatory. Our Catholic faith teaches that immediately after death, our soul separates from our earthly body and we stand before God for our individual judgement. We are then sent to heaven, Purgatory or hell according to our fate, the life we led and the decision we make at the final moment of death to accept God or reject Him. The Catholic Church teaches that humanity will face two judgements: Individual judgement Final judgement Individual judgement, which is also sometimes called particular judgement, happens at the moment of death in the presence of St Michael who then escorts the soul to its fate. The moment of death is when each individual will be judged on how they have lived their life. Final judgement will come at the end of time. This is when all of humanity will be raised and each person's body and soul will be reunited. Here, everyone will be judged by Christ who will have returned in all his glory. The teaching on judgement is reflected in the Gospels. His second coming. It was foretold by the angels as He ascended: "This Jesus who is taken up from you to heaven, will come in the way in which you saw Him going into heaven" (Acts 1:11). At the end of time (final judgement) our Lord will come again to judge the living and the dead. All souls will be rejoined with their bodies, and those in Purgatory will be joined to the blessed in heaven. According to CCC 1022, upon death the immortal soul immediately enter into one of possible 3 states (as particular or individual judgment): The blessed who lived their lives in accordance with God's will are sent to heaven immediately; they are the ones whose love for God has been perfected in this life are taken straight to heaven, where they enjoy endless happiness in the face to face vision of God. They are saints. Those who die in God's love and grace but still love Him imperfectly must be purified in the intermediate state of purgatory. They are the ones who were forgiven for confessed faults and mortal sins but have not expiated their faults yet are sent for purification to purgatory Those who reject God's love by mortal sin and die without repenting are condemned to the everlasting torments of hell. These are the damned who continue to reject and curse God and have to suffer in everlasting and eternal fire of hell The final judgment will reveal in full the justice and glory of God for all to see. This is not accomplished in each man’s private and individual particular judgment. (see CCC 1040) The full implications of the good and evil that we do in our lifetime will not be fully realized at the time of our individual judgment Since we sin and perform virtuous acts as a body with soul composite, it is fitting that we be judged as a body with soul composite as well. This too does not occur at our particular judgment but at the final judgment. This is when Jesus, the Son of God, will judge the living and the dead before destroying the old heaven and earth, which are corrupted by sin. Before creating His new heaven and earth, God must do away with anything that could produce or bear sin into His new creation. Purgatory is not eternal. At the end of time, when Our Lord comes again at the final judgement purgatory will cease to exist, for all the souls within it will have been purified and its purpose will be completed. All the souls in purgatory will enter Heaven and when they do, purgatory will be no more.

Among her numerous private revelations were short glimpses into purgatory. One such vision is described in the book The Life and Revelations of Saint Gertrude and highlights the power of prayer for the souls in purgatory. According to tradition, St. Gertrude the Great was told by Our Lord that each time she piously recited the prayer He gave her it would release 1,000 souls (or a vast number) from their suffering in purgatory. It is generally accepted that she received personal revelations, which she recorded in journals but many of her writings were lost and her accepted writings do not contain the promise. It should be noted that this is not an officially indulgenced prayer, and the Vatican has declared that promises to obtain the release of a specific number of souls from purgatory with the recitation of a specific prayer should be rejected. We on our part should simply pray with fervor, and let God release as many souls as He wishes in accordance to His will. St. Gertrude saw Jesus lift souls from purgatory to Heaven according to the number of prayers offered for them. She beheld our Lord descending into purgatory with a golden rod in His Hand, which had as many hooks as there had been prayers for their souls; by these he appeared to draw them into a place of repose. She understood by this that whenever any one prays generally from a motive of charity for the souls in purgatory, the greater part of those who during their lives have exercised themselves in works of charity, are released. The book 'Prayers, Promises, and Devotions for Holy Souls in Purgatory' by Susan Tassone and also the book 'Read Me or Rue it' may contain this prayer but no promise for the amount of souls to be released each time the prayer is said is mentioned.

Light is a gift from God, probably the first gift ever. Yet there are no gifts in hell, only unquenchable fire and darkness. Even if you could see, the smoke and sulfurous fumes of hell sting the eyes to such an extent that you cannot see, and the damned are like helpless blind men. But in purgatory, there is at least some light. This is one of the things that differentiates purgatory from Hell besides the duration, hell is permanent, Purgatory is temporal. In the monastery at San Giovanni Rotondo, where Padre Pio lived, there was a box on the staircase where priests would drop slips of paper containing numbers corresponding to the names of deceased individuals which corresponded to a list of the names of the deceased which were given by people for mass intentions for the month. Everytime padre pio passed the box he would pick out a paper with a certain number and then go to the list they put on the board with all the deceased names and would read the name which had the same number in the box and pray for that soul or offer a mass for that soul.

No, purgatory suffering is not the same as hell. Though souls in purgatory experience suffering, it is for a limited time and is accompanied by the joy and hope of eventually entering heaven. Pain in purgatory is a spiritual purification involving intense longing for God. The souls in purgatory go through different degrees of suffering depending on the sin they are making atonement for. Some have unspeakable torments while others less. While the suffering in purgatory is described as intense, it is also seen as a joyful pain that leads to a desired outcome, because they love God and they know that one day they are assured of heaven. Hell is very different. It is a place of no hope, but despair and regret. Souls know that they have been justly condemned for their grievous and unrepented sins, so they hate God and impotently rage against Him. It is a place of darkness and spiritual torment There are two circumstances that fundamentally differentiate Purgatory from Hell. The first is that purgatory suffering is temporary while hell suffering is permanent. Secondly a soul in purgatory is in the state of grace, who loves God and is loved by God. Their sins compel Divine Justice to purify them in this way. The soul goes to purgatory willingly because it loves God, recognizes it has to suffer what it deserves and knows that purgatory purifies it. It knows that it needs that to be able to appear before the purest presence of God. On the contrary, a soul condemned to hell hates God, is hated by God, and feels God’s wrath crushing it all the time. It feels the pain of hating its own Creator and has no hope of getting out of there. So the difference in situations and outcomes is incomparable. The pain is spiritual torment and the absence of God's presence, but with a quality of active hatred and impotent rage that is absent in purgatory. However, the situation in purgatory is also terrible depending on the degree of suffering the soul has to endure but the difference is that it is temporary. The Pains of Hell are endless suffering and despair, where the absence of God’s presence is the most unbearable torment of all. Every moment is a continuation of torment, no respite, no relief, and no hope for change and there are torments for specific sins. Beyond the physical and mental agonies, the text reveals that the worst pain in hell is the eternal loss of God. The damned, despite enduring every conceivable form of suffering, would bear even more if there were any hope of God’s friendship or love. The despair of knowing that one has permanently forfeited the source of true joy and perfect happiness is depicted as the most excruciating torment of all.

There are souls who are deprived of prayers because people do not pray for them falsely presuming that they are in heaven after their death. It happens in most cases if the deceased were family members or relatives or friends. People base their presumptions on the lives they thought the deceased person led, their conduct during their life or outer appearance which may have appeared holy, but what they don't realise is that people whether known or unknown to us may seem very good on the outside but we do not know the interior state of their souls or the particular judgement they received at the moment of their death which only God knows, so they put off praying for their souls, but never knowing instead that their loved ones maybe at the depths of purgatory in terrible agony waiting anxiously for even a good thought or a single prayer which will ease their suffering as they weep inconsolably calling out with unheard voices, raising and waving their hands trying to get our attention wondering why we abandoned and don't pray for them. According to mystics and saints who have had visions of the souls or have been visited by them, the poor holy souls biggest complaint is that they have been abandoned by their families and have been in purgatory for thirty, forty, fifty years or more just waiting for some prayer to obtain relief. St. Padre Pio said that even though they may be in heaven we should still pray for them as our prayers are never wasted but applied to other souls. We should never stop even if its been 20 years because our time is different from theirs and if the Holy Soul has been released and is now rejoicing in Heaven, your offering will be given to another holy soul. But if a soul's friends or relatives were praying for it then maybe it could complete its purification sooner. Whatever the case may be, in our charity, we can also direct our prayers to souls most forgotten by those on earth, asking God’s mercy to be showered upon them. There are many souls who do not receive any prayer at all because their families don't believe in purgatory like the protestants and therefore will not pray for them, so they are neglected. Some souls in purgatory don't have anyone to pray for them like orphans who had no one in this world or even those lost at sea or at war or those who died through natural disasters or unnatural means like being taken hostage etc and no one even knows they died or were killed and therefore they are abandoned lying totally forsaken without prayers. Sometimes souls in Purgatory who have no one to pray for them like orphans, or even protestants whose families do not believe in the existence of purgatory and won't pray for them are permitted by God to let someone on earth know that they need prayers. This is so that they may finish their purification and enter the Kingdom of Heaven with the assistance of some other part of the Church Sometimes, as a tangible sign of this, God even allows the souls in Purgatory to ask the living for prayers in a very direct way. Many people receive visits and signs from “beyond” indicating that someone needs prayers. Even if a prayer is offered for someone who has already reached heaven, then that prayer will be applied to another soul and if we keep praying for them they receive Accidental Glory. The reasons for their abandonment may be that those who love them have assumed that their loved ones are already in heaven and have ceased to pray for them or have Masses offered for them. These souls might be souls who, while on earth, made no friends and had no family. The common message from the Holy Souls is that instead of tears or flowers they need Holy Masses and prayers offered for them. The ONLY DAY that all the souls benefit from the prayers or masses or sacrifices made for them is All Souls Day. During the rest of the year when prayers are said or masses offered for the holy souls in purgatory in general it is also a belief that the souls benefit from our prayers, which somehow shorten the time they spend in purgatory, but it also depends to which souls God applies those prayers for their relief and release. In the unpublished Manuscript from purgatory a deceased nun appeared to a nun in her convent and revealed to her that it is only on All Souls Day when all the souls in purgatory without exception have a share in the public prayers of the Church, even those who are in the great Purgatory. Apparitions from souls in Purgatory.... 1. Sister M.G. (deceased sister soul):( unpublished manuscript)... On All Soul’s Day, many souls leave the place of expiation and go to Heaven. Also, by a special grace of God on that day only, all the suffering souls without exception, have a share in the public prayers of the Church, even those who are in the great Purgatory. Still the relief of each soul is in proportion to its merits… Many of the suffering souls receive this one help only in all the long years they pass here… Very few souls get any prayers, the majority are totally abandoned and no thought or prayers are given them on earth. 2. St. Malachy offered the Holy Sacrifice for his deceased sister and prayed much for her. In time, having many others to pray for, he neglected his poor sister. She appeared to her brother during his sleep. He saw her standing in the middle of the area before the church, sad, clad in mourning, and entreating his compassion, complaining that for the last thirty days he had neglected her. 3. A poor soul who appeared to the Austrian Mystic Maria Simma told her that it sees very clearly on the day of its funeral if we really pray for it, or if we have simply made an act of presence to show we were there and that tears are no good for them only prayer. Often they complain that people go to a funeral without addressing a single prayer to God, while shedding many tears this is useless.

Because that helps them get relief. Think of it this way. Imagine you are in a hot desert and you are stuck there with no one to help you and you are incredibly thirsty and about to pass out from the heat. Praying for the souls, having Masses said and doing alms and other sacrifices for them is like giving them a gallon of cold water out of the refrigerator. It provides them not only relief in that moment of the prayer but it cleanses them that much more so they can move toward Heaven faster. That is why it is key to pray for ALL souls in Purgatory. Because the vast majority of souls are forgotten about and have no one to pray for them.

The Church has always encouraged prayers that the deceased may be received into Heaven, but only in the second millennium of Western Christianity was a special liturgical day set up in the interest of the Poor Souls. Around 1030, Abbot Odilo set aside November 2nd as a day for the special commemoration in his own monastic community for the souls in purgatory. He started this as an observance for the monks of Cluny and all the other communities in the Cluniac family, requiring them, on the day following All Saints, to pray for deceased monks. He strongly exhorted all the monasteries under his jurisdiction to devote this date each year to Masses, acts of self-denial, and almsgiving on behalf of the souls in purgatory. The practice soon grew into the custom of saying three Masses for the souls in Purgatory. Eventually Rome officially extended to the whole Western Church in 1748. After the First World War it developed into a universal observance, with one Mass being said for a particular person or group or for all the dead, and one for the pope's intentions. Saint Odilo is often depicted with a skull and crossbones at his feet because he instituted the Feast of All Souls Day and he may also be shown praying for souls in purgatory, symbolizing his commitment to the deceased or shown saying Mass with purgatory open at his side or with angels releasing souls from purgatorial fire. This highlights his advocacy for the souls in purgatory and his efforts to help them through prayer, such as through the establishment of All Souls' Day. He is invoked as one of the patron saints on behalf of souls in purgatory.

No, the souls in p\Purgatory can be released at anytime of the year whenever we pray for them by offering masses or giving alms or performing some good works of charity. It depends on the efficacy of our prayers and the state of the soul at the time of its death and the amount of purification the souls need to be released and to which soul God applies the merits of our prayers to. The Catholic Church designated November as the month to pray for souls in purgatory, known as the "Month of the Holy Souls," due to its proximity to All Souls' Day (November 2nd) and its alignment with the end of the liturgical year and concludes with the First Sunday of Advent before Christmas. This late-autumn period, when nature shows signs of decay, serves as a somber reminder of mortality and the cycle of death and resurrection, making it a natural time to contemplate mortality, the hope of resurrection, and the transition to eternal life in God's heavenly reality. The ONLY DAY that all the souls benefit from the prayers or masses or sacrifices made for them throughout the year is All Souls Day November 2nd. According to tradition, there was a pilgrim returning from the Holy Land. He took refuge on a rocky island during a storm. While there, he met a hermit who told him that among the cliffs was an opening to the infernal regions where flames ascended and groans of the tormented could be heard. The pilgrim told Odilo, the Abbot of Cluny in France about this. The abbot then appointed the following day of Nov. 2, 998, as All Souls’ Day, a day to be set apart for “all the dead who have existed from the beginning of the world to the end of time.” This includes all those in purgatory. The date was standardized by Saint Odilo, Abbot of Cluny, who, around the year 1000, decreed that the monasteries dependent on his abbey would observe an annual commemoration of all the faithful departed on November 2nd. The date, which became practically universal before the end of the 13th century, was chosen to follow All Saints’ Day. Having celebrated the feast of all the members of the church who are believed to be in heaven, the church on earth turns, on the next day, to commemorate those souls believed to be suffering in purgatory. Catholics can earn a plenary indulgence for the souls in Purgatory by fulfilling specific conditions: 1. Visit a cemetery between November 1st and 8th and say a mental prayer for the poor souls; you can do this once a day, every day during the 8 days. 2. On November 2nd, you can visit a church or an oratory and pray an Our Father and the Creed praying for the holy father's intentions. A plenary indulgence can be acquired only once in the course of the day. If you can’t get a plenary indulgence, a partial indulgence can be obtained at any time by simply visiting a cemetery and praying for the poor souls in purgatory.

The First Means of avoiding purgatory is manifestly to remove the cause which sends us there, which is sin whether mortal or venial. We must use our best endeavors to break off habitual vices like deliberation which add seriously to the malice of sin especially grave sin which is mortal sin. The Second Means of avoiding purgatory is to satisfy for our sins in this life by doing penance. God does not ask us as a rule to do what is heroic. When He does, He gives us all the strength necessary as in the case of the Saints. Even the smallest act of obedience, the smallest sacrifice or mortification is precious in the eyes of Jesus. The Third Means of avoiding Purgatory consists in making a virtue of necessity by bearing patiently what we cannot avoid our sufferings. Everyone has to face sorrows and sufferings innumerable and infinite in variety. We should carry our crosses however light or heavy without complaining. Strange as it may seem, these sorrows which most of us would gladly dispense with are in truth God's greatest graces. They are the little share He offers us of His passion and which He asks us to bear for love of Him and as penance for our sins. Every pain, sorrow and disappointment in this life we must try to bear with patience and resignation no matter how severe it may be. Some saints take sufferings of other people on them. For example St Pio (Padre Pio). How does it work? Imagine there's a terminal cancer patient who asks for healing. Now another person, a saint asks God to take their health instead and to heal the patient. Again, this is very extreme and if you ask God to take someone else's sufferings, God will give them to you. Perhaps start with something easier than terminal diseases to make sure you are comfortable with that. This is an extreme gift of charity and sacrifice towards other persons. One needs to proceed with caution because God will hold their part of the deal. The Fourth Means by which we can avoid purgatory altogether is by receiving the sacraments of confession and the eucharist and frequently attending Mass. A perfect act of contrition applies to our souls the precious blood of Christ, wipes out our sins, gives us light to see their malice, fills us with horror of sin and above all it gives us strength to avoid it. In Holy Communion we receive the God of infinite mercy and love, the God of all sanctity who comes expressly to pardon our sins and help us to sin no more. By assisting at Mass we can apply all these oceans of graces to our own souls and that not once but every day. Let us try to make a committment to frequent the confessional, go to Mass and receive holy communion every day. We can do nothing better. One day with Mass and Communion is worth a hundred days without them. The Fifth Means of avoiding purgatory is asking God for this grace to avoid purgatory. God promises us in the most solemn and deliberate way (and He cannot fail to do what He promises) that He will give us everything we ask in prayer, if it is good for us. We must pray everyday with persistence and utmost faith asking God for the grace to live a life free from sin and attachment to worldly things, which would allow us to die in a state of sanctifying grace and avoid purgatory. This is achieved by praying daily, making a firm commitment to live in accordance with God's will, and asking for His mercy and forgiveness. A Sixth Means of avoiding purgatory is given to us by some great saints. They say that when a sick person becomes aware that he is dying and offers to God his death with perfect resignation, it is very likely that he will go straight to heaven, but to receive the plenary indulgence, a person must have received holy communion at least once. The indulgence is specifically for the hour of death. Death is the awful punishment of sin, and when we accept it, as of course we ought to do, with submission and resignation, our act pleases God so much that it may satisfy perfectly for all our sins. Pope St. Pius X granted a plenary indulgence at the hour of death to those who say at least after one Holy Communion the following prayer: "Eternal Father from this day forward I accept with a joyful and resigned heart the death it will please You to send me with all its pains and sufferings" It will be better still to say this prayer after every holy communion we receive. It is for our best interest to accept God's will in everything that happens to us in life and in death. Each time we repeat the Our Father, let us say with special fervour the words.... Thy will be done. In all our troubles, small and great, let us do likewise. Thus everything will gain us merit. By this simple act we change sorrow into joy, the worries of life into gold for Heaven. The Seventh Means of avoiding purgatory is Extreme Unction, now known as the Anointing of the Sick which is still valid and considered by Catholic teaching to prepare the soul for immediate entrance into heaven by purifying it of sin's remaining effects, thus potentially allowing a person to avoid purgatory. It is a sacrament administered by a Catholic priest to a person who is seriously ill, and its effectiveness depends on the recipient's proper dispositions, such as repentance for sins and their faith. The Eight Means of avoiding Purgatory are indulgences. God in His infinite mercy and compassion offers us a most wonderful and easy means for lessening or cancelling our purgatory. Fully aware of our weakness and knowing too how fearful many are of penance, He opens wide the treasury of His Goodness and offers us most abundant Indulgences in exchange for some small act of devotion. Besides an immense number of Partial Indulgences, there are very many Plenary (full, complete) Indulgences which may be gained during life and at the hour of death. These are specially given by the Church to enable us to avoid purgatory. These Indulgences can be applied to our own souls, and we shall thus directly make satisfaction for our sins. Or, we may apply them to the souls in purgatory who will see to it that we do not lose out by our generosity. So let us strive to gain all possible Indulgences. Plenary indulgence can help a person avoid all time in purgatory, but it requires a specific set of actions and a state of complete detachment from sin. To gain one a person must perform a specific indulgenced work (like visiting a church on All Souls' Day), be in a state of grace, receive Sacramental confession, receive Eucharistic communion, and pray for the Pope's intentions. \ St. James the Apostle gives another very effectual method of avoiding or lessening our stay in Purgatory. He says: "He who saves a soul, saves his own, and satisfies for a multitude of sins" God is grateful and ready to reward the person who saves one soul from Hell by praying constantly for their conversion. All of us may in a thousand different ways save not one but many souls from Hell by praying earnestly for them and giving them good advice. The Ninth Means of avoiding Purgatory is to forgive all injuries and offences, for in proportion as we forgive others, God forgives us. The Tenth Means of avoiding Purgatory is to avoid mortal sins and deliberate venial sins and break off all habitual vices. Then it will be relatively easy to satisfy God's justice for sins of frailty. Above all, avoid sins against charity and against chastity, whether in thought, word or deed, for these sins [and the expiation for them] are the reason why many souls are detained in Purgatory for long years. Do many little things, acts of kindness and charity, give the alms you can, cultivate regularity of life, method in work, and punctuality in the performance of duty, don't grumble or complain when things are not as you please, don't censure and complain of others, never refuse to do a favor to others when it is possible. These and suchlike little acts are the best forms of penance. To avoid purgatory we should live in a state of grace and seek purification in this life. We should strive to live a life of virtue and grace by frequently receiving the sacraments, by regularly attending Mass and receiving the eucharist, going to confession frequently (weekly is ideal) to receive God's grace and remain in a state of sanctifying grace, practicing penance, and making an effort to amend our lives by having the intention of avoiding sin especially mortal sin. Other methods include offering up suffering and small sacrifices for the purification of the soul, praying for a holy death, and practicing works of mercy and charity. Also visit the blessed sacrament pray for your conversion and the conversion of others. We must also accept life's sufferings and offer them up as well as cultivating good habits and intentions, but it is not easy and requires dying in a state of sanctifying grace while making satisfaction for temporal punishment due to sin during life. Repent, have faith, and be baptized. If you do these things, you'll be in a state of grace and as long as you remain in a state of grace you will go to heaven. Accept all of life's pains, sufferings and disappointments as coming from God and offer them up for purification. Avoid complaining when things are difficult. Perform acts of charity such as visiting the sick or helping the elderly and support works of social or religious benefit. Pray for the souls in purgatory, as they can in turn pray for you. Some final thoughts on this: A) There is a prayer to avoid Purgatory that is on our Contact Us page. B) Here is an excellent article on this exact topic that was written by a Priest and is worth a read: C) Seek the sacrament of Confession regularly. Also a general confession at least once in your life where you confess every Mortal and venial sin from past eras of your entire life is recommended. If you are in a state of grace after Confession, receive the Eucharist frequently. Go to Church weekly, if not daily. Pray daily and increase your relationship toward God. Do God’s will for your life. Avoid serious (mortal) and venial sins. Heal your wounds and forgive others, especially those who are difficult to forgive. Practice Plenary and Divine Mercy Indulgences to cancel the temporal punishments of Purgatory. Follow the 10 Commandments. Repent and change your heart toward God and others. Follow the #1 Commandment that Jesus gives us of loving one another. And finally, as Peter says in Scripture, Charity covers a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8:
“And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.” St Theresa of Lisiuex said “the way to avoid going to Purgatory is to love.”

Yes, it is true that purgatory effectively ends with Christ second coming and the General Judgment also known as the Final Judgement takes place. All souls will then be assigned to their final destinations (Heaven or Hell) after a final cleansing, meaning no one will need to go to purgatory anymore as its purpose is temporary purification before that final state. At the General Judgment, everyone who ever lived in heaven, purgatory, or hell will rise with their resurrected bodies, those from purgatory will have completed their purification and go to heaven, while those in hell remain eternally damned as the judgment confirms their eternal state, uniting body and soul for final, public revelation. The Last Judgment will not alter in any way the eternal sentence pronounced upon us at our own Particular Judgement. On the contrary, the Last Judgment will make our sins and the sins of every person in history known to everyone else. The general judgment will not change, but only repeat the sentence before the whole world. Christ will appear in glory and the truth of everyone's life will be revealed for all to see. Purgatory is a temporary state of purification for those destined for heaven, and it will cease to exist after the Final Judgment. Once Christ returns and the Final Judgment occurs, purgatory will end as all souls will have undergone their purification and those in hell had chosen eternal separation. After the Final Judgment, there are only two eternal realities, Heaven (with resurrected bodies) or Hell (eternal separation). Remember that Particular Judgement occurs immediately after an individual's death, determining if a soul goes to heaven, purgatory or hell. 'Particular', because one particular person is judged. The soul goes immediately to its reward or punishment. This judgment at the moment of our death will settle our fate forever. General Judgment known also as Final Judgement on the other hand is the final public judgment for all humanity, confirming the particular judgments and culminating in the resurrection of bodies. 'General', because every creature will be judged on that day, the angels of heaven, the devils of hell and all men, women, and children that have ever lived upon the earth. It also shows the crimes of sinners and the justice of their punishment and also that the saints may have all their good works made known before the world and receive the glory they deserve. So, while those in purgatory and hell are already in a fixed state after their particular judgment, they still participate in the resurrection and final judgment, which makes their eternal condition public and final for all time. Purgatory being a temporary state of purification will no longer be necessary and will cease to exist. If some are still alive at this time, they will skip their particular judgment. After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign for ever with Christ, glorified in body and soul. Thus, the General Judgment marks the definitive end of the current order and the beginning of the "New Heavens and New Earth," with all souls assigned to their final, permanent eternal dwelling.

Where has scripture been misquoted to serve a purpose? I have not forgotten what Jesus whilst dying told one of those being crucified beside Him. The good repentant thief humbly accepted his suffering, saying that it was justice. And he encouraged the other thief to accept his too. He had the fear of God, which means humility. The Roman centurions jeer at Jesus saying, "If you are King of the Jews, save yourself" (Luke 23:37). The bad thief who is being crucified next to Christ, adds to the ridicule saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us." The good thief however is one man who at first reviled Christ but later repented and speaks up in the Lord's defense. He, too, is being crucified with Christ. After the bad thief keeps on mocking Christ, this good thief sticks up for Him by rebuking the bad thief, saying, "Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing wrong. He too was dying but he turned to Jesus saying "Remember me when You are in paradise." His heartfelt sincere repentance immediately transformed his soul. The good thief admits his sin, accepts his suffering, and thus, opens his heart to the transformative power of Christ. He doesn't ask Jesus to take him down from the cross. He knows that the life he lived on earth deserves death. Still not having given up hope in the life to come, he asks, "Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom." Though the good thief only asks to be remembered, Jesus responds, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise so Jesus forgave him since he felt sincere remorse and admitted his sin. It could be that he died in a state of perfect contrition for his sins and received what we know as the apostolic pardon straight from Christ Himself, which means that Jesus could have absolved the repentant thief of both sin and of punishment. He being the “good” or “penitent” thief crucified alongside Jesus, and was promised Heaven by Jesus Christ himself, while on the other hand the bad thief did not want to acknowledge his guilt or that he deserved death; he wanted to be taken down from the cross to continue his bad lifestyle. Jesus did not say to the thief on the Cross today you will be in Heaven, rather He said this day you will be with me in paradise. Jesus’ response to the thief is one of compassion and grace. He assures the thief that he will be with Him in paradise, despite his past mistakes and sins. The thief went where Jesus went. Jesus did not ascend to Heaven that day as we read in the gospel of Matthew 12:40 Though Christ Jesus paid the ultimate price for our sins by taking the wrath of God on himself to save us from eternal punishment we deserved, there is still a temporal punishment we suffer because sin has it’s consequences and leaves a mark on the soul. Christ does not erase the temporal effects of sin, rather, our salvation guarantees that we will not face the Eternal consequences of sin. God forgives our wrongs, yet the sins we commit often naturally lead to negative consequences. Unfortunately for us, the effects of our sin continues even after the guilt is removed and we have been forgiven so even though our sins are forgiven, its effects continue. Temporal punishment is not the same as guilt. Our sins and guilt of sin are cleansed away entirely by the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. However, the damage to our souls is what still needs to be healed and repaired because of the attachment to sin which still clings to it. That damage is healed by repentance, penance, indulgences, and if we did not make enough of expiation for the spiritual scars which remain due to the consequence of sin on our souls while we were still on earth after our sins were forgiven we will be sent to purgatory for final purification. We keep sinning and the consequence of sin leaves a mark on the soul which needs to be purified before we enter heaven and that's the temporal debt we pay in purgatory. Jesus' sacrifice saved us from ETERNAL punishment second death giving us safe access to the Father while we are yet sinners but there is more to do not in the sense that Jesus did not do enough, His work at Calvary is complete. But there is also the working out of our salvation which is the temporal debt which is from the sins we confessed but which left scars of defilement on our souls and need to be removed because nothing unclean can enter the divine presence...There are many who think that because Christ paid the ultimate sacrifice to free us from eternal damnation and after death they will go directly to heaven if they die. It is not so easy, we cannot just keep on sinning and expect to reach heaven with defiled souls, it doesn't work that way. Jesus said in Matthew 7:21–23 “Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven." Regarding Christ’s perfect sacrifice, those who believe are no longer under God’s condemnation, but our nature is sinful and we continue sinning and He wants us to reconcile that is why He gave His apostles the power to forgive sins. After His resurrection, Jesus told the disciples, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:23), because not everyone who says Lord lord will go to heaven Matt 7:21 It is like this: you drop food (sin)on your clothes (soul) you rinse the food (confess) off your clothes but you still need to give it to the laundry (purgatory) to remove the entire stain and make it spotless. Besides this Our Lady thus affirmed the traditional Catholic belief in the existence of purgatory when She mentioned it at Fatima on the first day of her apparitions to the children when they asked about their friend Amelia who had died from the village. Now why would our lady mention purgatory in her apparitions at Fatima if Purgatory did not exist?

No, I do not think any saint would have said that, instead I am sure they would have said pray for the person that God has mercy on him or her. Don't worry we have to just pray with faith that God touched his heart with His saving grace to accept Him and with the will to repent before he breathed his last which only God knows and we have to pray for his soul and souls like him... Remember even if our sins are like scarlet God who is merciful waits for the person till the end and even if a person is unconscious and cannot respond He reaches into that person's heart and waits for the person to accept Him. Even in very sudden forms of death it is likely that there are some moments prior to the soul departing the body where one might repent. God tries His best to reach into the depths of that soul and may give them the sudden grace to regret their decisions and actions and turn back to Him and ask for forgiveness. Therefore this gives us hope that even the worst sinners may come to repentance in the very process of dying. For this reason, the Church has never officially declared that a particular individual is certainly in hell. So we must not give up praying for souls such as his with the hope that maybe by some miracle of faith just moments before he passed away that God may have reached into his soul to gain his acceptance and may have granted him the grace to cry out to ask for forgiveness with a heart of remorse and repentance. We can never understand and know the hearts and actions of others to the degree that God does and we will never and can never understand the mercy and peace of God because what seems impossible to us is possible with God no matter how big or small it is. We just have to pray with faith and God does the rest. This is a true story... A woman wanted to tell St. John Vianney (patron saint of priest and who was blessed with the mystical gift and grace of reading minds of confessors who approached confessional) that she was devastated because her husband had committed suicide. She wanted to approach the great priest at the confessional but his line often lasted for hours and she could not reach him. She was ready to give up and in a moment of mystical insight that only a great saint can receive, John Vianney exclaimed through the crowd, “He is saved!” The woman was incredulous so the saint repeated, stressing each word, “I tell you he is saved. He is in Purgatory, and you must pray for him. Between the parapet of the bridge and the water he had time to make an act of contrition). So this shows how in his final moment God granted this soul the grace of repentance and remorse.

Never presume that a person who passed away may have gone straight to heaven because at the moment of death only God knows the state of a soul and which judgement it received and where it is headed. No matter how good or bad a person was in our eyes, we cannot judge their final fate, but we must constantly pray for them and if they are in heaven we praise and thank God for that. Even if we feel a person is in heaven (which only God knows unless He allows the soul to manifest itself to someone and say where it is) we continue praying for them because they receive 'Accidental Glory' which is an increase in its intimacy with God and an increase in its intercessory power. But if a soul is in purgatory and we put off praying for them with the false notion that they are in heaven then we are depriving them of prayers and that causes them terrible agony and distress and if we continue not thinking they need our prayers we are doing them an injustice. Remember people known and unknown to us may seem very good on the outside but we do not know the interior state of their souls or the particular judgement they received at the moment of death only God knows. We all wish that our loved ones are in heaven and in most cases we put off praying for their souls, but you never know, instead they maybe at the depths of purgatory in terrible agony waiting anxiously for even a good thought or a single prayer which will ease their suffering and help deliver them sooner.

Yes he can hear you mentioning his name in prayer, because they not only see and hear us but know who attended their funerals to pray for them and who was there only to be seen by others. In my opinion if he has told you to stop praying it can only mean either one of these three things. Either he is in the greater Purgatory which is one of the lowest level where the most guilty souls are making expiation without relief from prayers said for them and some of them are not allowed to give any sign of their torments until the lord allows them to and he could be suffering there without allowance to benefit from prayers said for his soul. Remember if he is there in that level which is close to the vicinity of hell, he will not benefit from any prayers said for him till he has made the necessary expiation needed to be moved to a higher level in purgatory. Great sinners who were indifferent towards God and offended Him grievously are in the lowest stage of Purgatory. They suffer unheard of pains and are abandoned either without prayers or if they are said for them, they are not allowed to benefit from them and so while they are there, the prayers offered up for them are not applied to them. Because they have ignored God during their life, He now in His turn leaves them abandoned in order that they may repair their neglectful and worthless lives. Even if we prayed more they will not be any more relieved until God wills it thus. Once he has made the necessary expiation needed to get out of the level if he is there, then he will be allowed to benefit from all the masses and prayers said for him and little by little, as his soul becomes purified, his sufferings will be changed and he will get relief and slowly be delivered to the upper levels. Or if he is saved and is in heaven then his countenance in your dream will be very happy, Or if he appears sad and in a very bad state then he has not been saved and has been eternally damned.

Yes they benefit, but let me explain to the best of my ability on what I have read and know. In your personal prayers when you pray for souls it depends for which souls you are praying and the gravity of their fault they are making atonement for. If you are praying for souls in purgatory in general like at mass when the priest prays for the dead then it depends on which souls God applies those prayers to they may benefit to some extent but not as much as when you pray for a particular person or people by names. During the rest of the year when prayers are said or masses offered for the holy souls in purgatory in general it is also a belief that the souls benefit from our prayers, which somehow shorten the time they spend in purgatory, but it also depends to which souls God applies those prayers for their relief and release. According to the unpublished manuscript where a deceased nun appeared to another sister she said that there are levels in purgatory and the lower you go the souls suffer more and receive less prayer or no prayer at all till they reach a higher level after doing sufficient atonement for their fault. They suffer unheard of pains and are abandoned either without prayers or if they are said for them, they are not allowed to profit by them. There are souls suffering excruciating torments in one of the lowest levels known as greater purgatory where the most guilty souls are making expiation without relief from prayers said for them due to the gravity of their sins and some of them are not allowed to give any sign of their torments until the lord allows them to. They will not benefit from any prayers said for them till they have made the necessary expiation needed to be moved to a higher level in purgatory. Great sinners who were indifferent towards God and offended him grievously are in this lowest stage of Purgatory. They suffer unheard of pains and are abandoned either without prayers or if they are said for them, they are not allowed to benefit from them and so while they are there, the prayers offered up for them are not applied to them because they have ignored God by continuing in habitual sin most of their lives, He now in His turn leaves them abandoned in order that they may repair their neglectful and worthless lives. Even if we prayed more they will not be any more relieved until God wills it thus. If God wants us to pray more He will inspire us to do so. Once they have made the necessary expiation needed to get out of the level they are in, then they will be allowed to benefit from all the masses and prayers said for them and little by little, their soul becomes purified, their sufferings will be lessened and they will get relief and slowly be delivered to the upper levels. So based on this we can come to a conclusion that when we pray at mass or personally for souls in general they may not benefit because of the severity of their sentence and depending on who God applies the prayers to. Some are not even prayed for by their families because their families or friends thought they had gone directly to heaven, for example priests and religious or souls who during their lives we thought appeared to be very good on the outside. Some souls of orphans have no prayers said for them because they are not remembered by anyone. There are those for example like soldiers, wanderers, homeless, those lost at war or sea whose families do not even know that they maybe dead. Souls of protestants who families do not believe in purgatory and will not pray for them. It is only on all souls day that many souls leave the place of expiation and go to Heaven and also by a special grace of God on that day only all the suffering souls without exception, have a share in the public prayers of the Church, even those who are in the great Purgatory. Still the relief of each soul is in proportion to its merits… Many of the suffering souls receive this one help only in all the long years they pass purgatory the deceased nun revealed. Very few souls get any prayers, the majority are totally abandoned and no thought or prayers are given them on earth. According to Maria Simma (Austrian mystic), the greatest "complaint" of the souls in Purgatory is how they are almost completely forgotton by their family and loved ones--that rightly complain that they receive no spiritual help from those they themselves helped so much

Some people presume she was improperly dressed or immodesty and that's why she was given this sentence. But I think regarding whether our lady told Lucia and Jacinta and Francisco about why Amelia would be in purgatory because of improper dressing like some people presume I do not think it is right for us to pass comments when we do not know for sure and people have just added their own version of what they think her sin was, because in all the interviews with Sr. Lucia she was asked by Fr. Thomas McGlynn and others asked this question and this was her reply...."Amelia was eighteen years old, Father, and, after all, for one mortal sin a soul may be in Hell forever. I didn't ask Our Lady for a clarification, I was too young to think about that. But I have meditated a lot about this detail of the Message." It was later learned through a priest who had inquired in Fatima about Amelia that Amelia died in circumstances involving immoral behavior. So I don't think people should just make presumptions as to what her grave sin was as Sr. Lucia said she did not ask our lady what Amelia did since she was too young to think of asking our lady such a question, so I don't know why people just make up their own theories when Sr. Lucia herself did not know wat the sin was.

The Holy Souls rely on our prayers because they know the Lord has given us the grace to release them through our prayers, but to answer your question, Yes, the saints intercede for the souls in Purgatory when someone on earth requests that saint's intercession for a particular soul. In fact the catholic church itself invokes the saints in this way, during the funeral rite of final commendation at the funeral service or reciting the prayer at the graveside after blessing the coffin.... Saints of God come to his/her aid! Come to meet him/her angels of the Lord. Receive his/her soul and present him/her to God the Most High. So since the Church recites a prayer to implore the saints to come to the aid of the dead, then we believe that they can intercede for the holy souls if we ask them for their intercession.

During 1st to 8th November, a plenary indulgence can only be gained by visiting a Catholic cemetery to pray for the departed. Visiting a Christian or Non-Catholic cemetery does not apply for this specific indulgence, it has to be a Catholic cemetery to be valid and in addition to visiting the cemetery, you must also be in a state of grace, detached from sin, receive Holy Communion, and pray for the intentions of the Pope. Confession must be completed within about 20 days before or after the indulgence. A separate plenary indulgence is also granted for visiting a church or public oratory on November 2, but this indulgence is for the souls in purgatory and requires praying one "Our Father" and the "Apostles' Creed"

That is reminiscent of the past of buying and selling indulgences. We must pray for the dead and offer Masses because no one knows the state of the soul at the time of death except God and what particular judgement it received and where it was sent. So we just continue praying for them, offering masses and doing good deeds etc. If some church authority is practicing such a thing then they will have to be answerable to God and by selling an indulgence they would be committing the sin of Simony which is a very grave sin of selling something holy. The Catholic Church is the Body of Christ. It never sold indulgences. During medieval times, however, they were abused and corrupted into a moneymaking enterprise. Bearing the name Catholic, but acting contrary to the Church, certain administrative persons were guilty of this not the Church. The Church imposes a very heavy discipline on persons "trafficking" in indulgences. The three most highly praised actions in Scripture are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving like charitable contributions, combined with other acts, can help you earn one. The last one is giving goods or money to the poor or to some worthy cause. Can you see right here, how some people could interpret the last thing as “paying” for an indulgence? According to the canon law 945 any priest who celebrates or concelebrates a Mass may accept an offering to apply the Mass for a specific intention.The donation is a sacrificial offering from the donor. So by offering masses and paying that stipend it doesn't mean that it is referring to selling or buying indulgences, but people misunderstand this and jump to their own conclusions. In canon 946, which states that those members of the faithful who give Mass stipends are contributing to the good of the Church, for they share in the Church’s concern for the support of its ministers. Canon 947 notes that even the semblance of trafficking or trading in Mass offerings is to be entirely avoided; and someone who traffics in Mass stipends for profit may actually be punished with a censure (c.1385) An indulgence doesn't remit ones sin it remits the penalty of sin (debt of "temporal punishment for sins" that remains due after forgiveness has been pronounced in the sacrament of penance) after one has gone to confession and has been forgiven that is why we have to do our best to not only pray but offer masses for our deceased.

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Necromancy is communication with the dead in order to obtain hidden or secret knowledge beyond our ordinary human powers, whether about the future or current events. It is the practice of communicating with the dead especially in order to predict the future like use of the Ouija board to conjure and consult the spirits or perform séances, communicating with the dead in order to predict the future or other magic practices like witchcraft, sorcery, occult and black magic in general. Eliciting secret knowledge from the dead is what Deuteronomy 18:10-11 has in mind. Firstly the same verses also forbid “divination,” and seeking a “medium,” a “sorcerer,” and a “wizard,” all of which have to do with an attempt to gain knowledge beyond ordinary human intelligence. It is clear that the prohibition has to do with seeking hidden knowledge beyond ordinary human intelligence apart from God. And since conjuring up the dead (necromancy) is one way of doing that, God forbids it. We Catholics, when praying, request the saints in heaven to pray for us and simply have got nothing to do with consulting the dead to find out things, but while praying we ask their intercession on our behalf. There is no request for a transmission of information from the dead to the living. In fact, the flow of information is the reverse. It’s the living that make their requests known to the “dead” (those who are alive in Christ). Asking for their help and to pray with us is not the same as conjuring them for consultation or to predict future or current events. God did not say not to request for prayers. In Jeremiah 15:1–Long after their deaths, Moses and Samuel are depicted pleading for the Israelite people on earth. Revelation 8:3 – The prayers of the saints rise up before God, and then God acts on earth. The rich man in Jesus’ story asks Abraham to intercede, making two requests relief from his suffering in the “bad” part of Hades / Sheol (Lk 16:24), and to send Lazarus to earth to warn his five brothers to repent, so as not to end up in the same place and state (Lk 16:27-28). Abraham’s refusal to answer the prayer does not prove that he shouldn’t have been prayed to in the first place. Prayers can be refused. He never said, “You can’t pray to me! Pray only to God!” Thus we can only conclude that human beings in the afterlife can be prayed to, and that they have the power (delegated through God, using them as vessels or intermediaries) to fulfill the requests: in other words, exactly what the Catholic communion of saints / invocation of saints holds. And it is straight from our Lord Jesus.

Yes. We don’t want you to do that in case the soul is still in Purgatory. If you delete it, others who view the soul profile will not pray for them and help them. But yes, any Holy Soul profile that you create, you can edit or delete at any time. Login and go to ‘Edit Holy Souls’ in the upper right hand menu under your initials.

Yes. You do have to register to the website to use Purgatory Project but you can actually opt out of the part of the sign up where you add a Holy Soul profile. Then once you are done registering, you can view all of the current profiles and start praying for and doing Holy acts and sacrifices for them. It is very efficacious for your own soul to help all of the souls in Purgatory and especially souls you never knew yourself.

No. Absolutely not. That is why it is on us, the Church Militant (people in the living Church) to help the Holy Souls. They are suffering at every moment. The Holy Souls cannot pray for themselves or for other purgatorial souls. Their time of self-help grace ended when they died. I find all of this a little hard to believe. Where do you get all of these stories? God in his Divine love and mercy allows 2 types of Revelation on Purgatory. 1. On very rare occasions throughout time, God allows souls that are currently in Purgatory to appear in Apparition form to those who knew the soul when they are alive and reveal to them the exact amount of penances they still need and to communicate to that person that they are currently suffering greatly and to please do those penance for them. An example we use on this website is one soul needed 107 Communions offered. Another soul needed 7 more Masses said. Once those were completed, those souls went to Heaven. 2. On rare occasions, God will allow someone who is alive, typically it has been a religious sister or Priest or future living Saint to see a vision of Hell, Heaven and Purgatory (or sometimes just Purgatory if they are particularly devoted to Purgatory or knew someone on earth who is in there now).

Saint John Massias, known as the "Helper of the Poor Souls", offered three rosaries every night for the souls in Purgatory, praying for them on his knees despite bodily fatigue. Saint John also sprinkled holy water on the ground several times a day for the spiritual benefit of the suffering souls. During blessings of homes and other places we sprinkle holy water on walls, in rooms etc, some of it falls on the ground there is nothing wrong with it. We are not always in a cemetery or near the graves or coffins of those who have passed away, so if we are near a holy water font we can sprinkle holy water on the ground and say this prayer for the holy souls... O God, in Your Mercy multiply these drops into as many drops of Holy Water as there are souls in Purgatory, and allow them not to fear the pains of Purgatory, as long as the moisture of Holy Water is present. St. John Macias was not always in a cemetery wherever he was whether in the chapel or in his room he would sprinkle holy water on the ground and pray for the holy souls. When we take holy water and sprinkle ourselves or our surroundings with it, the prayer of the Church ascends to heaven, drawing down blessings upon us and on the objects that are sprinkled with it. Holy water may be used not only for the purpose of benefiting persons present, but may also be applied for the absent and especially for the suffering souls. In this case the prayers of the Church ascend to heaven in favour of the person or soul intended to be helped.

List souls that you knew on earth and pray for those souls as well as pray for ALL of the souls in Purgatory because a vast majority have no one praying for them because sadly most people stop praying for a soul 3 days after their funeral and think they are in Heaven. This is tragic because those souls are greatly suffering. However, this website was built by one person who has read books, articles and descriptions of Purgatory for close to 20 years. But he does not know everything about Purgatory and never will, nor would any of us who have not actually been there and experienced it. So I=if you have more ways to help the souls that are not in this site, contact and send us your sources of private revelation on how to help the souls and that information will be considered for adding to the website.

Sadly no. Hell is for eternity. There is only torture in Hell forever. There is no purification at all and souls that are in Hell cannot escape. They are there forever. They say God does not send people to Hell, that the soul chooses to be there when they were on earth because they chose complete separation from God there and even as they are dying. Any soul that is damned to Hell will remain there for eternity. However no one really knows which souls are in Hell. There are many stories of souls that denied God most of their lives and lead very sinful lives on earth but did some kind of heroic act of charity at some point in their lives and God had mercy on them and spared them to Purgatory. That is why at funerals, it is not prudent to assume a soul is in Heaven, Hell or Purgatory. Only God knows, and God can save a soul based on a hidden act. Also, conversely, someone who appears holy on the outside and goes to Church can lead a hidden sinful life and not go where someone thinks. Again, only God knows. The Catholic Church forbids us or the Church to say where a soul goes unless a soul is canonized as a Saint and is named in Heaven. Only souls that make it into Purgatory will eventually make it into Heaven after their purification is complete.

We cannot say where a soul goes after death. Only God can. But yes, many people who have rejected God their entire life and pursued a plethora of various sins and did not repent until their very last moments on earth certainly deserve God’s mercy. It is better late than never. Now a Catholic or Christian who attends Church regularly, receives the sacrament and works on their relationship with God weekly and most of their life can look at this with disdain and think to themselves, “I did all the right things, they do not deserve to get in.” However, we should always want God’s mercy for any soul, even those who rejected God the most. And the reality is, the Christian who repented and worked on their interior life and relationship with God their entire life certainly avoided more sins and repented of more sins than someone who repented as they were dying. Private revelation tells us that souls who mainly rejected God and did not repent but God saved them into Purgatory typically go to the lowest level of Purgatory where there are even Hell fires (but this is not destruction like Hell) and even demons tormenting them. And that soul will still have to pay and atone for those sins they committed during their whole life vs the Catholic that say tried to avoid sin, in theory would have less punishment overall in Purgatory. So it is not good to think, ok I can just live a life full of sin, skip Church and repentance and prayer and then go to Confession right before I die or on my deathbed. God’s justice is as perfect as His mercy. We get what we chose in the end and our levels of Purgatory punishment and cleansing will reflect this.

No one can know this answer for sure. What is known is that God’s justice rectifies these souls to get them ready for Heaven and that does mean purification and torture. Many souls have said that the biggest torture in Purgatory is not having God / Heaven and and that is so hard for them. And that the other punishments are secondary. Here is one list from Private Revelation which details some punishments by each type of sin. Again, this is not absolute. Each soul is judged individually. So even if two souls share a proclivity to the same sin, the quantity and intent of that sin and heart is judged by God individually. The souls with the highest quantity of sins in their lives will suffer the most time and in the harshest punishments in purgatory. And the souls that have the sin most deeply rooted in themselves l will suffer more as well so that is why you cannot guess or judge two souls that were fond of the same sin. Only God knows their interior history with that sin.

By far, have Masses said for a soul. This is the most effective relief for a soul. It has also been said that doing the Stations of the Cross for a soul is second to having a Mass said. And many Catholics who pray daily for the souls in Purgatory pray the St. Gertrude Prayer which was said to release 1000 souls from Purgatory and into Heaven each time it is prayed. Look throughout this website as every way to help a soul that was revealed in private revelation is listed as an option in this website. Private revelation tells us that the Guardian angel of a soul tells the soul, the minute that soul is being helped, and by who on earth.

Yes! In fact this is incredibly important. Catholics believe in Purgatory so they are more likely to pray for souls they knew that reside there such as in their family or friends. But Protestants and Orthodox and of course non-believers don’t believe in Purgatory so they are not less likely to pray for someone after they die. And many Protestants believe that they are ‘Saved’ or guaranteed Heaven at death. This is very dangerous thinking. They are missing a huge and monumental opportunity to help a soul that is suffering greatly.

If you were praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet for him at that moment it is believed according to what Jesus told St. Faustina that He would stand between His Father and the dying soul and plead for them to bring God's immense mercy on the dying person which offers a powerful spiritual defense against the devil and to ensure the soul receives grace at the moment of death, but it doesn't guarantee a direct path to heaven without conditions. Jesus appears as a merciful savior not a judge and placates God's anger, but the outcome ultimately depends on the individual soul at the time of its death and God's will. While profoundly powerful, the promise is about receiving God's mercy at the moment of death and protection, not a guarantee of immediate heaven for every person in every circumstance.

Yes. It is possible that their souls could be saved at the last moment and they are in purgatory. Given the fact that people who take their own lives often are very ill or under psychological stress, those factors can impede their knowledge and consent, making their actions tragic but not mortally sinful. Only someone who freely chooses to commit suicide with full knowledge of the gravity of the sinfulness would commit mortal sin by his suicide. Even then, between unconsciousness and final death, God might offer the person one final chance to repent, even if such an opportunity is not apparent to us. I have read stories where people were saved... 1: A widow of a man who died by suicide once inquired about the state of her husband’s soul, and Padre Pio replied, “He’s saved. Between the bridge and the river he repented.” 2: A woman went to Padre Pio to know about her brother, who had committed suicide after a financial difficulty. She went to his Mass but was unable to talk to him. She sat in church, crying and praying, while Padre Pio was confessing. At a certain moment she got a nudge and was told: “Padre Pio is calling you.” She turned towards the confessional. Padre Pio was making a sign to her with the hand, to approach the confessional. She did, and kneeled in front of him, and Padre Pio said: “Don’t worry, stay calm, he is saved.” 3. A woman who thought about the tragic death of her husband went to see the cure of Arcs the priest John Marie Vianney who is now a saint. She was very sad because she said her husband was not a believer, and she had lived in such hope of leading him to God. Now the time was up. He freely took his life and she believed that he was lost for all eternity. The saint still wearing his vestments appeared. He approached slowly with his head down. Suddenly he stopped before the woman who had knelt down with the rest of the crowd. He bent over and whispered in her ear, "He is saved." Surprised to the utmost, she stood up. Again the Cure of Ars stated, "He is saved. He is in Purgatory and we have to pray for him. Between the bridge railing and the water he had just enough time to make an act of contrition. Our Lady gave him this gift. Remember the month of Mary. In May, you always had a statue of Mary in your room, and your husband tolerated it. Although he did not believe, he sometimes united himself with your prayer. This gave him contrition and a last act of mercy." So we can still pray for these souls. Although they have already been judged, God is outside of time. There’s no past. There’s no future. Everything is present eternally at one moment to God. We rely on the mercy of God and God will have taken our prayers into account for such souls at the moment of their deaths. CCC 2283 ...We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives.

God's love and mercy are always available, and He hears the prayers of all people, including those in mortal sin. Prayer is a form of communication and a means by which God can grant "Actual graces" to stir your heart to repentance and help you return to Him. While your prayers are not ineffective, they are considered much more powerful and meritorious when offered in a state of grace. Being in a state of grace means you are in a closer, sanctifying relationship with God, which allows your prayers and good works to have a supernatural effect and merit. The very act of praying, even when in a state of mortal sin, is a step toward God and can be an occasion of actual grace that helps lead you to sincere repentance and the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession). The primary and most important prayer in this state is the prayer of repentance for your own soul. Do not stop praying for others out of fear that your prayers are worthless. They are not. However, your concern is a sign of a repentant heart. The best course of action is to go to Confession as soon as you reasonably can. This will restore you to a state of grace, allowing you to fully receive God's grace and making your prayers significantly more effective.

None of us is capable of such a sacrifice which brings reconciliation with God. When we are baptized into Christ, we are part of the body of Christ. Being part of that body is not simply metaphorical but actual and real. Through the Mass, Jesus continues to offer Himself to His Father as a living sacrifice, and He does so in what the Church specifically states is 'an unbloody manner' one that does not involve a new crucifixion. We offer His one time sacrifice at mass and in the prayers in remembrance of Him which allows us as Catholics to participate in the saving events of his passion, death, and resurrection which helps us receive the graces won by Christ which is forgiveness of sins and salvation. So it's this sacrifice which brings reconciliation with God the Father. Every sin we commit require reconciliation and offerings to God. And Christ's offerings (sacrifice) serves this purpose. "Do this in remembrance of me" can also be translated as 'Offer this as my memorial sacrifice.' We are called as Catholics to unite our sufferings to Christ's. So when we offer Christ's sacrifice and suffering to the Father we are offering only His suffering that can and does merit grace. In other words the reason we are able to offer Jesus' sacrifice is because it was done on our behalf (and because we are united to it and to Christ). Jesus gave me mercy through his sacrifice. So I offer that to the eternal father. The practice fulfills the Old Testament prophecy that a pure sacrifice would be offered to God in every place, as mentioned in Malachi 1:11. We apply its power or plead the blood of Jesus in prayer by faith as we pray for the needs of Holy Catholic Church, and as atonement for the sins of all Mankind and the release of souls in purgatory by applying Christs merits to them to purify them and shorten their time so that they can attain the beatific vision.

All Christians are united with the Church however impaired that unity is. They are in real, but imperfect communion with the Church. Baptism ties you to the Church, whether Catholic or Baptist, or Orthodox or whatever. So it is certainly not the case that Protestants are not saved simply because they are protestant. While the Catholic Church does teach that all salvation comes through Christ and His Church, it also recognizes that God's grace can reach individuals outside the visible Church in ways unknown to us. Protestants are not considered heretics for their beliefs, and the Church acknowledges that many Protestants are sincere and can be saved. The Church's stance, particularly in documents like Lumen Gentium from the Second Vatican Council, has evolved to emphasize God's universal salvific will and acknowledges that the Holy Spirit can work through non-Catholic communities to lead people to salvation. If someone who has never even heard the Gospel of Christ can potentially be saved if they seek to do God’s will, certainly Protestants, who have heard and accepted the Gospel (even if they disagree with some or many of the doctrines of the Catholic Church) are in a far better position. There is an ancient adage in the Catholic Church: lex orendi, lex credendi. It means “the law of prayer is the law of belief.” It means that you can learn a lot about what the Church teaches by looking at her liturgy. And what do we do in our liturgy when we accept a former Protestant into the Catholic Church? We don’t baptize them. Why not? Because we recognize that they have already been validly baptized. This speaks volumes to the original question of whether Protestants can be saved. If the Catholic Church didn’t think salvation was possible in Protestant communities, we would baptize every Protestant we receive into the Church. But we don’t do that. We recognize Protestant baptisms as valid, which means salvific grace is operative within Protestant communions. Protestants, who are considered separated brethren possess valid baptism, honor Scripture, believe in the Trinity, and have a relationship with Jesus Christ, so they are acknowledged to have some grace due to shared elements like valid baptism, but the Catholic Church holds that they lack full communion and a complete understanding of Christ's will as expressed through His Church. While salvation is through Christ, God's grace is available to everyone, even those who do not know about Christ The Catholic Church does not declare that Protestants are excluded from salvation. Instead, it holds that those who die outside of the visible Catholic Church may still achieve salvation through God's mercy if they are earnestly seeking Him and have not been fully instructed or have had their understanding of Christ obscured. we should offer our brothers and sisters in Christ all of the graces God makes available through his sacraments. God established the Church and gave us the sacraments for our benefit. They nourish us and strengthen us on the road to salvation. It would be a sin for us to know this, accept it for ourselves, yet refuse to offer these graces to others. In charity, we shouldn’t deny our neighbors all that the Church has to offer.

Yes. At the moment of death God give us few minutes to see our life and to accept Him. God wants all people to be saved, but He allows individuals to make their own choices, including the choice to oppose Him. Their actions and beliefs during life determine their eternal destination. It is a consequence of rejecting God's will, not a punishment that God actively inflicts at the moment of death. Ultimately, the decision of where a person goes after death is their own, based on their choices, rather than something God dictates. God doesn’t send people to hell. Hell is a choice we make by living a life in continuous sin. It’s a path we take. Right up till the last moment He tries to get people to repent of their mortal sins and if they still refuse then they are cast into hell by rejecting to accept God. Some people don’t love God and will never love God, no matter how much you preach to them. Many are Satan worshippers, there are those whose hearts are so hardened that they refuse to repent, and thus cannot be forgiven and are committing the unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit which involves a persistent and willful rejection of God's truth and grace. When a man rejects God, such a man has chosen a path unto destruction. Upon death the lost are immediately sent to the place of their choosing hell by refusing to repent. Maria Simma said in her interview that God grants a brief window of two to three minutes for the soul to make a final act of contrition and seek mercy, unless the person has knowingly rejected God until their last breath. This final opportunity is a chance for repentance, even for those who have died with unconfessed sins. This period is a final opportunity for the soul to seek mercy through a heartfelt act of love and sorrow, such as a prayer like, Lord have mercy on me a sinner. After death, each soul undergoes a personal judgment where its eternal destiny Heaven, Purgatory, or Hell is decided based on the state of their soul at the time of death. Hell is the eternal separation from God, reserved for those who have freely chosen to die in a state of unrepented mortal sin. To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called hell. Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost. God predestines no one to go to hell but if a person keeps willfully turning away from God (a mortal sin) and is persistent in it until the end refusing to repentant even in their final moments then they are cast into hell because they chose to live a lifestyle in continuous sin which leads to hell. The Church encourages constant vigilance and prompt repentance, warning against the danger of putting off conversion until the last moment, as the timing of death is uncertain. That is why God gave us the Sacraments by which He provides these means of grace so that believers can be consistently healed, strengthened, and guided throughout their earthly lives, actively cooperating with God's gift of salvation and not relying only on a potential last minute conversion. He keeps calling us to conversion and repentance. Souls who during life continued to live in a state of persistent sin refusing to convert are dead to grace. They are blinded in their catholic faith and may not be able to help themselves. Those who go to hell go there because they’ve chosen it by their own free will. They did not want to hope and they did not regret their deliberate offenses against God who created man with the capacity to choose. They suffer a kind of spiritual death which is often accompanied by "blindness," meaning a person is unable to perceive the spiritual realities of the faith or respond to God's call to repent. That is why we must be prepared and not wait till the last minute.

No please do not stop praying for his soul, he needs prayers because you do not know what state his soul was in at the time of his death. Remember we must always pray for the souls of those who have passed away no matter what lives we think they led, or how they died or where we feel they were sent based on their conduct and outer appearance or whether we considered them holy or not it is not for us to judge and to pray or stop praying. Remember people known and unknown to us may seem very good on the outside but we do not know the interior state of their souls or the particular judgement they received at the moment of death only God knows. We all wish that our loved ones are in heaven and in most cases we put off praying for their souls, but you never know, instead they maybe at the depths of purgatory in terrible agony waiting anxiously for even a good thought or a single prayer which will ease their suffering and they weep inconsolably calling out with unheard voices, raising and waving their hands trying to get our attention wondering why we abandoned them. According to mystics and saints who have had visions of the souls or have been visited by them, the poor holy souls biggest complaint is that they have been abandoned by their families and have been in purgatory thirty, forty, fifty years or more just waiting for some prayer to obtain relief. So please do not listen to those who falsely presume they have gone straight up which only the lord knows, but instead pray for them because as St. Pio said that even though they maybe in heaven we should still pray for them as our prayers are never wasted but applied to other souls. I would like to leave you with an experience I had regarding this and give you one such example... On a particular post a few months ago a lady wrote saying that a young teenage boy had tragically passed away and was certain he was in heaven and posted his photo, so I quickly wrote a prayer for him only to get a reply saying, "Thank you for the prayer, he is in heaven thankfully he needs none of us to intercede for him. He put his faith in God. It’s a wonderful thing that when we do that all of our sins are washed away and in God's eyes we are pure as snow. We don’t have to earn our way into heaven. We don’t have to do good to go to heaven. No one is that good! If you believe in your heart that Jesus is God’s son and came to this earth to die in our place and rose again then you will be saved just like he was. It’s a free gift. Simple as that." Immediately I wrote back to her telling her that if he is in Heaven, we thank and praise God, but must continue praying for his soul and other souls as well, because if they are in heaven which God alone knows unless He allows them to manifest themselves to us to make it known, our prayers are never wasted, God applies those prayers to other souls. Like St. Pio once told a lady called Carmela who asked him if she should still pray for her deceased parents, he replied, "Even if your parents are in heaven, we must always pray. If they no longer need prayers, they are applied to other souls.”. So please I urge you pray for your son's soul because many souls like the one mentioned above maybe deprived of prayers and if we continue not thinking they need our prayers we are doing them an injustice...Remember since we have been blessed with praying for the holy souls, more will be expected of us, we will be answerable and an account of our neglect will have to be given at the time of our particular judgement. Also even if we feel a person in heaven continue praying for their souls like St. Padre Pio told us too and based on St. Thomas Aquinas words..who called this “Accidental Glory.” The lesson is: Never stop praying for your dead. God is never outdone in generosity.... ST. Thomas Aquinas tells us that if a soul is already in heaven and we continue to pray for them, they receive ‘Accidental Glory,’ an increase in its intimacy with God and an increase in its intercessory power. †

Well! That is a good question which many ask and wonder if there is any truth in it that there are children in purgatory, but I see it this way that maybe it is possible that even though they are ignorant of sin and have done the act however small it was not knowing they have offended God, it causes a slight blemish on their soul which has to be purged and will have to remain in purgatory for a very, very short time before they go to heaven since only the spotless can enter heaven. St. Mary Magdalene de' pazzi had visions of children in purgatory being there due to sins committed because of ignorance and their guardian angels are with them and they do not suffer long. Maria Simma the Austrain mystic in her interview she mentioned a child was in purgatory as young as the age of 4...the souls told her...In her interview she was asked.. "I believe certain children have come to visit you; you were telling me the story of this little child, the youngest one you say, a little girl of four. But tell me: why was she in Purgatory? Maria Simma: Because she had received from her parents, as a Christmas present, a doll. She had a twin sister who had also received a doll. This little four-year-old girl had broken her doll secretly, knowing that no one was watching her, she went to put the broken doll in the place of her sister’s, swapping them, knowing full well in her little heart that she was going to upset her sister — and she knew very well too that it was a lie and an injustice, because of this, the poor girl had to do purgatory. In fact, children often have a more tender conscience than that of adults. It is necessary above all with them to combat lying. They are very sensitive to untruth.

Justification is like being declared "not guilty" in a court of law. It's God's declaration that we're righteous because of our faith in Jesus Christ. It's a one-time event where our sins are forgiven, and we're credited with Christ's righteousness. Sanctification, on the other hand, is the ongoing process of becoming more like Christ. It's like the journey of spiritual growth, where we become more holy, more loving, and more like Jesus. It's a process that starts at salvation and continues throughout our lives. So, justification is about our position before God (we're declared righteous), while sanctification is about our practice. Souls in purgatory are considered to be justified but are not yet fully sanctified. They are in God's grace and friendship, meaning they are saved, but they must undergo a final purification process in purgatory to achieve the holiness necessary to enter heaven