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Praying for the Souls in Purgatory
TDT
November 06, 2023
During the month of November, the Church commends the faithful to pray specifically for the souls in Purgatory. Apropos of this, I thought it may be helpful to share some of what the Angelic Doctor teaches about the Church Suffering. My hope is that this information will be enlightening and also motivate us to pray for the souls of the faithful departed! One motivation is seeing the closeness of purgatory to hell. Another motivation is seeing the closeness of purgatory to us. St. Thomas addresses both points when he asks the question, “is purgatory a place or a condition?”
Is purgatory a place or a condition?
Saint Thomas believes that Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory are corporeal places that are appointed to receive souls after their departure from this life. The way in which a soul is in a place is different than the way a body is in a place, nevertheless, what is important here is that there are locations appointed for the reward or punishment of souls after death. With this in mind, where does Thomas think Purgatory is?
Thomas says:
…Concerning purgatory’s location, nothing specific is expressly found in Scripture, nor can one offer effective arguments about it.
Yet probably, and according to what agrees most with the words of the saints and the revelation made to many, there are two places for purgatory.
One, according to the general law, according to which purgatory’s location is a lower place connected with hell, so that it is the same fire that torments the damned in hell and purifies the just in purgatory;
although the damned, as lower in merit, are also relegated to a lower place.
There is another place for purgatory by special dispensation;
and this is why it is read sometimes that certain people are punished in different places, whether for the instruction of the living, or for the assistance of the dead, so that by making their suffering known to the living, it might be reduced by the Church’s intercession.
From this text we can draw out a couple of insights about Purgatory.
1. Thomas believes that the fire in purgatory is hellfire.
St. Thomas envisions Purgatory as being located directly above hell and he thinks the fires that punish the reprobate spill out of hell and into Purgatory. For Thomas, the fire in purgatory may be the same fire that is in hell, however, it has a completely different effect. In Purgatory, this fire is being used not to punish, but to purify. It is similar to the way that heat from the same oven will harden cake batter but melt butter. The disposition of the thing being heated determines what effect the heat will have.
2. Sometimes by “special dispensation” a person can undergo purification in a different place.
When I lived in Indiana, I heard a story of a “haunted” house near me. After a priest had been called in to investigate, he found out that a man had died in that house and so he offered a mass or two in the house for the soul of that man and the paranormal activity stopped immediately. This is an example of a soul being allowed to make their suffering known so that they may be aided by the living.
By seeing, with the help of St. Thomas, that Purgatory is a place connected to hell, and, by exception, a place common to us, it is not hard to see from those reasons alone how much the souls in purgatory need our prayers. The fact that they are connected to hell shows the intensity of their purification. That fact that they are manifested to us shows us, by God’s providence, our important role in it. Let us make our prayers on their behalf.
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