Praying For Purgatory?

[kujo]

Hey ya'll. I was thinking the other day...would it be okay for a Catholic to [b]pray for purgatory[/b]? I mean, if purgatory is a place where we go to prepare our souls for heaven, is it something we can strive for? I don't really know very much about the Church's teachings on purgatory, so anything you have to say on the matter is greatly appreciated.

[Budge]

Why?

Dude, purgatory is HELL.

Fire...CHECK

Seperate from God {which by the way is against Hebrews 13:5 and a slew of other verses]....CHECK

Pain and suffering beyond that of earth.......CHECK.

When someone is in purgatory well HELL {being lied to by the devil that one day theyll get out since they are not under God's protection} its too late for them.

[kujo]

[quote name='Budge' post='1303350' date='Jun 27 2007, 03:40 PM']Why?

Dude, purgatory is HELL.

Fire...CHECK

Seperate from God {which by the way is against Hebrews 13:5 and a slew of other verses]....CHECK

Pain and suffering beyond that of earth.......CHECK.

When someone is in purgatory well HELL {being lied to by the devil that one day theyll get out since they are not under God's protection} its too late for them.[/quote]

Bah bah. Didn't really need you to jump in on this one considering, well, you're wrong.

[prose]

Why pray to be just good enough? Why want to strive for minimal? I suppose you [i]could[/i] pray for it, but why?? We are all striving to be saints in heaven. You would be far better to pary for heaven.

[homeschoolmom]

to that

[Aloysius]

purgatory is not separate from God. it's on a path towards God, it's being consumed in the fires of God's love and purifying wrath.

hoping for purgatory is synonymous with hoping for heaven, though ultimately your highest hope should be that you can be fully purified while on earth.

[Brigid]

[quote name='kujo' post='1303355' date='Jun 27 2007, 02:42 PM']Bah bah. Didn't really need you to jump in on this one considering, well, you're wrong.[/quote]


sorry, that just made me laugh. it was a good question, though, and it got some good answers.

[Lord Philip]

[quote name='kujo' post='1303317' date='Jun 27 2007, 12:21 PM']Hey ya'll. I was thinking the other day...would it be okay for a Catholic to [b]pray for purgatory[/b]? I mean, if purgatory is a place where we go to prepare our souls for heaven, is it something we can strive for? I don't really know very much about the Church's teachings on purgatory, so anything you have to say on the matter is greatly appreciated.[/quote]

I appreciate your sincerity, Kujo, but praying that you may be in purgatory is not a good prayer to make. It is as if you were laying in bed with every bone in your body broken, and you praying that only the bone in your little toe would be healed. To pray for Purgatory is indeed to pray that God saves you "by fire", but we must pray for what we want. You should pray not for your little toe to be healed, but rather for your whole body.

This is an analogy, and a very imperfect one. Where the analogy breaks down we arrive at another important truth. To pray only for your toe to be healed is not necessarily to reject the idea of your whole body being healed. Yet to pray for Purgatory is to reject grace. It is one making peace with the fact that one is not a saint. Making peace with not being a saint is to reject God's grace because God has made infinite grace available to us --> that is enough to make anybody a saint.

One might think that one is just trying to be "realistic" about all this. This idea is a very modern one and a very blasphemous one. It is to say implicitly that what we can do on our own steam, what our dispositions are, what we feel like and what we can imagine encompass everything that is truly real. This leaves God and his grace out of the equation.

We do have sins in our lives, and they must be purged. Suffering comes with that. We can, in this life, experience the purgatory fires in penance. We can (and should!) continue to, as Paul says, beat our bodies to bring them under submission to Christ...and when we do that we will find that we have become like Christ. We have been united with his Passion, and we will be united with him in is Resurrection.

For yourself, focus on this life. Christ said not to worry about tomorrow; today has enough troubles of its own. Focus on allowing Christ to make you Holy.

Boy, as I wrote this I all of a sudden felt so convicted! I had better get busy! I am sorry, Lord, for tarrying on my own road. Bless me and re-make me into a new creation, a glorious child of God.

[thessalonian]

If ya aim for the end of the runway you might fall short. Better to head in a bit.

[saint_wannabe]

read Saint Nicolas of Tolentino's biography. hes patron saint of souls.

read the picture
[img]http://www.catholic.org/saints/ff_images/3.jpg[/img]

Edited June 28, 2007 by saint_wannabe

[Budge]

I read the above and just SIGH. Saying some "magic" prayer is not going to get a stadiums worth of people into heaven.

You know since the Popes have the power to set people free from Purgatory, granting indulgences etc, any normal guy with compassion, would toss open the door to let them all out at least once a week.

[Lord Philip]

[quote name='Budge' post='1304057' date='Jun 28 2007, 03:37 AM']I read the above and just SIGH. Saying some "magic" prayer is not going to get a stadiums worth of people into heaven.

You know since the Popes have the power to set people free from Purgatory, granting indulgences etc, any normal guy with compassion, would toss open the door to let them all out at least once a week.[/quote]


Budge,

God also has all these powers in measures infinitely greater than any pope. And he can see it all, so there is no room for doubt.

Yet he does not just empty Purgatory. Are you accusing God of lacking in compassion? Far be it from you to judge God.

If you judge the Pope in this matter, you judge God too. For shame, budge.

Sincerely,

Philip

[Budge]

[quote]Yet he does not just empty Purgatory. Are you accusing God of lacking in compassion? Far be it from you to judge God.

If you judge the Pope in this matter, you judge God too. For shame, budge.[/quote]

There is no such thing as Purgatory, no divine waiting room, no place of in betweens, you are either Gods child and in heaven or you have ended up in hell after death.

The doctrine of Purgatory goes against SEVERAL of God's promises to His children in the BIble.

I am 100% sure there is no Purgatory and that God will never leave or forsake me and leave me in some horrid place like Purgatory with fire and suffering beyond that of earth, that YOUR saints have attested to.

Hbr 13:5 [Let your] conversation [be] without covetousness; [and be] content with such things as ye have: [b]for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.[/b]

Edited June 28, 2007 by Budge

[rollingcatholic]

Budge-

Do you have a reading comprehension problem?

(Might explain why you left the Catholic Church for the Unitarians...)

Those in purgatory are neither left alone by, nor forsaken by God. This has been stated several times in this thread alone, and uncountable times by the teachings of the Church.

[Budge]

[quote name='RC _' post='1304418' date='Jun 28 2007, 01:55 PM']Budge-

Do you have a reading comprehension problem?

(Might explain why you left the Catholic Church for the Unitarians...)
[b]
Those in purgatory are neither left alone by, nor forsaken by God.[/b] This has been stated several times in this thread alone, and uncountable times by the teachings of the Church.[/quote]

Oh come on what are you trying to pass off on me now?

ONE OF YOUR SAINTS: ST CATHERINE GENOA:

[url="http://www.theworkofgod.org/saints/Lives/CatGenoa.htm"]SAINT SAYS DIFFERENT[/url]
[quote][b]Separation from God is the chief punishment of Purgatory.[/b] Wherein Purgatory differs from Hell.[/quote]
[quote]5th. “Unsurpassingly severe is the fire of Purgatory.[b] The pain of loss or separation from God, which the souls also suffer in Purgatory, is far more severe.” [/b] The soul separated from the body craves with all the intensity of its spiritual nature for God. It is consumed with an intense desire to fly to Him. Yet it is held back. No words can describe the anguish of this unsatisfied craving.[/quote]

Fire and burning. NOW WHAT KIND OF LOVING GOD AFTER A HUMAN BEING SUFFERS A HORRIBLE DEATH, SENDS HIS CHILD TO A PLACE LIKE THIS? None of us humans would even send our pet dog to this place nonetheless a child. Hell is different. You folks are trying to teach that God sends his children to be BURNED.

[quote]|Table of Contents | Previous | Next |

What is Purgatory?

It is a prison of fire in which nearly all souls are plunged after death and in which they suffer the most intense pain.

Here is what the great Doctors of the Church tell us of Purgatory:

So grievous is their suffering that one minute in this awful fire seems like a century.

St. Thomas of Aquinas, the Prince of Theologians, says that the fire of Purgatory is equal in intensity of the fire of Hell, and that the slightest contact with it is more dreadful than all the possible sufferings of this Earth.

St. Augustine, the greatest of the Holy Doctors, teaches that to be purified of their faults prior to being admitted to Heaven, souls after [b]death are subjected to a fire more penetrating, more dreadful than anything we can see, or feel, or conceive in this life.
[/b]
“Though this fire is destined to cleanse and purify the souls”, adds the Holy Doctor, “[b]still it is more acute than anything we can possibly endure on Earth.”[/b]

St. Cyril of Alexandria does not hesitate to say: [b]“that it would be preferable to suffer all the possible formats of Earth until Judgment day, than pass one day in Purgatory.”
[/b]
Another great Saint says:

[b]“Our fire, in comparison with the fire of Purgatory is a refreshing breeze.”
[/b]
The other Holy Writers speak in identical terms of this awful fire.[/quote]

[url="http://pwhs-mfi.org/read_me/what_purgatory.htm"]http://pwhs-mfi.org/read_me/what_purgatory.htm[/url]

No thanks, I know God and I know He is not sending me as His adopted Child to that terrible place, He will never forsake or leave me.

[img]http://www.freewebs.com/acatholiclife/purgatory.jpg[/img]

the queen of heaven watches them burn...

{sick}

Edited June 28, 2007 by Budge