As We Enter Heaven, We Will Be Greeted by the Grateful Souls We Prayed for in Purgatory

As We Enter Heaven, We Will Be Greeted by the Grateful Souls We Prayed for in Purgatory

“As we enter Heaven, we will see them, so many of them, coming toward us and thanking us. We will ask who they are and they will say: ‘A poor soul you prayed for in purgatory.'” -Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

It is the time of year to think of the deceased. All Souls’ Day is nearing, and the entire month of November is dedicated to the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Are we ready? Are we preparing ourselves for the afterlife? Have we prayed enough for those who have gone before us?

Those questions were taken up by Catholic author Susan Tassone in a beautiful book, Praying with the Saints for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. She has now also penned a new one, Day by Day for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

“Purgatory is an emergency entrance to Heaven for those who have wasted grace on earth,” writes Susan. “What God considered the exception became the rule, and the rule — to go straight to Heaven — has become the exception.”

She quotes St. John of the Cross as saying, “Divine Providence always provides in every life the purification that is needed to allow us to go straight to Heaven.”

Are we headed there? And what have we done for our loved ones?

“This is a loving purgatory, not a purgatory of punishment,” she says. “God is a God of unspeakable purity. The very vision of God causes eternal purity and blessedness. It is the sublime beauty of God that ravishes these souls, and they will not go before Him with the least stain.”

In the afterlife, all that we are is visible. We “wear” it. Where is our “dirt”? What will our robes look like?

Will there be the brilliant white clothing of Heaven — described by one woman who claimed to glimpse it as a combination of spun glass and spun cotton; will it be that or the stained ones seen in purgatory?

We enter “clothed” with the state of our innermost chambers.

“Every trace of attachment to evil must be eliminated, every imperfection of the soul corrected, ” the great John Paul II once said, as Tassone relates. “Purification must be complete, and indeed this is precisely what is meant by the Church’s teaching on purgatory.”

When we pray, we help souls purify their heavenly attire. And they are aware of us. When we pray for them, the Blessed Mother once said, reality “scrolls” up. They can see us. And as Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen once intoned:

“As we enter Heaven, we will see them, so many of them, coming toward us and thanking us. We will ask who they are and they will say: ‘A poor soul you prayed for in purgatory.'”

“One day I asked the Lord, ‘Lord, who else should I pray for?’” said St. Faustina of Poland. “Jesus said that on the following night He would let me know for whom I should always pray for.

“The following night, I saw my Guardian Angel who asked me to follow him. In a moment I was in a misty place full of fire in which there was a great crowd of suffering souls. They were praying fervently, but to no avail, for themselves; only we can come to their aid.”

One day, we will not only see the effect of our prayers but the entire interaction between natural and supernatural, living and dead.

(You can read the rest of this article found at Spirit Daily)

 

“HOW TO” FOR GAIN A PLENARY INDULGENCE

Without adding extra comments, I am going to show how this works:

1) Choose a deceased loved for whom you want to gain a Plenary Indulgence (keep this recorded).

2) Choose a Saint to pray with you (keep this recorded).

3) You must “qualify” for gaining a Plenary Indulgence (one per day) for a deceased loved one. Here are the qualifications:

  • Do the work while in a state of grace
  • Receive sacramental confession within 20 days of the work (several plenary indulgences may be earned per reception)
  • Receive Eucharistic communion (one plenary indulgence may be earned per reception of Eucharist)
  • Pray for the pope’s intentions (an Our Father and Hail Mary, or other appropriate prayer, is sufficient)
  • Have no attachment to sin (even venial) — i.e., the Christian makes an act of the will to love God and despise sin.

4) Choose from one of the four ways, the Church provides, for gaining a Plenary Indulgence on any given day:

  • Adoring the Blessed Sacrament for at least one half hour
  • Devoutly reading Sacred Scripture for at least one half hour
  • Devoutly performing the Stations of the Cross (only at approved Stations)
  • Reciting the Rosary with members of the family, or in a church, oratory, religious community, or pious association

That’s it! 🙂 Choose a saint and holy soul; be sure you qualify; and proceed to gain an indulgence by doing one of the four actions.

(There are other actions the Church prescribes, but these four can be done on any given day).

You can read more about this HERE

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