By Robert Overkamp
Member of St. Teresa Parish in Lincoln
The encouraging doctrine of purgatory teaches us that the unity of our spiritual family is not broken by death.
Everyone is in one of three parts of the Church: the Church Militant, the Church Triumphant, or the Church Suffering. The first includes every person alive today. The name “Church Militant” calls our attention to the spiritual battle in which we are all engaged until the moment of death.
The second state refers to everybody in heaven — the Holy Trinity, the angels, and all the saints — and inspires us to strive toward our goal of being fully united to God in heaven.
Finally, there is the Church Suffering, or purgatory, as it is usually called. This third part of the Church includes every person who has died but who, having been judged and found worthy of heaven, still requires a final process of purification. These individuals cannot be fully united with God until every last imperfection has been removed from their souls. Purgatory is a great gift of God’s mercy; otherwise, we’d have to be perfect at the moment of our death in order to have any chance at heaven!
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (para. 1030) explains:
“All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.”
The souls in purgatory are often referred to either as “Holy Souls” or “Poor Souls.” Each title indicates something important about them.
First, they are indeed holy. They have died in the state of grace and will eventually enter heaven. But these are also truly poor souls, for they are incapable of praying for themselves and cannot relieve a single portion of their suffering. Therefore, they need the prayers of those who are still living.
St. Francis de Sales, a Doctor of the Church, once remarked on the sadness he felt regarding the forgetfulness or negligence of the living in praying for the deceased: “Alas, we do not sufficiently remember our dear departed: their memory seems to perish with the sound of the funeral bells!”
Understandably, there can be a tendency by well-intentioned loved ones to believe that their dearly departed either have avoided purgatory altogether, or are confined there for only a brief time. While this idea is meant to comfort the living, it does a serious disservice to the dead: It deprives them of much-needed prayers.
In 1917, Lucia, one of the visionaries of the apparitions of Our Lady in Fatima, asked the Blessed Virgin Mary about her young friend Amelia who was 14 and had recently died. She asked Mary if she was already in heaven. Our Lady replied, “She will be in purgatory until the end of the world.” What a startling reply!
When asked about this later in her life, Sister Lucia said Mary’s answer shows that each person’s time in purgatory is in relation to the degree of love of God in them at the moment of death. Also, each of us must also do penance for our sins here in this life, and when we do not, we must then do penance for them in the next. Therefore, we cannot assume that someone will speedily enter heaven after death.
Every now and then, God confirms the existence of purgatory by allowing some souls to visit the living to ask for their prayers. St. Padre Pio is a recent example of this. In fact, the holy souls visited him so frequently that he once said, “I see so many souls from purgatory that they don’t frighten me anymore.” Another time he said, “More souls of the dead than of the living climb this mountain to attend my Masses and seek my prayers.”
So what can we do to aid our dearly departed friends and loved ones?
First and foremost, there is nothing more efficacious than the Holy Mass. Your parish office can help you arrange to have Masses offered for the repose of specific individuals or for all the poor souls. Second, you can offer your prayers and sacrifices throughout the day for those in purgatory. Finally, if you wish to join a group devoted to praying for the deceased, I would like to recommend a new lay apostolate in our diocese.
The Holy Souls Apostolate
The mission of the Holy Souls Apostolate (www.holysoulsapostolate.com) is to provide a coordinated means for lay persons to dedicate themselves to praying regularly for those in purgatory. Here is a summary of the apostolate’s activities:
1. Members maintain a personal calendar with the names and death dates of their loved ones, friends, fellow parishioners, priests/religious, etc. On the anniversary of each person’s death, the individual is remembered with a special prayer.
2. Members commit to praying a daily rosary for the poor souls, with each decade being offered up for a different group.
3. Each day of the week is dedicated to different groups of souls in purgatory.
4. Once a month, members are encouraged to gather in someone’s home to pray the rosary in common and to discuss various materials on purgatory.
The apostolate has put together a manual to assist its members; you can find a free PDF at www.holysoulsapostolate.com. Additionally, the website provides a short FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) and a contact email for those who have questions or would like to join.
It is often said that if you pray for someone who is already in heaven, God will use those prayers for someone else in purgatory. But it is also possible, since God is outside of time and has known about your prayers from all eternity, that He applies your prayers from this moment to aid that soul by shortening the time between their death and their entering heaven.
As we head into November, when the Church traditionally remembers the dead and encourages everyone to pray for them, let us remember this quote from St. John XXIII: “Our dead are among the invisible, not among the absent.”
God is never outdone in generosity. Plus, you can be sure that if your prayers help release souls from purgatory, those souls will never forget you and your kindness. How beautiful it is that through our prayers we can still do real good for our dearly departed. Deo Gratias!
“Of all prayers, the most meritorious, the most acceptable to God, are prayers for the dead, because they imply all the works of charity, both corporal and spiritual.” - St. Thomas Aquinas
