Do people in purgatory eventually go to heaven?
The duration of a soul's existence in purgatory is not defined. The concept of time does not hold true in this state. However, it is ascertained that all souls in purgatory eventually find their way to heaven. Their period of suffering (purification) may depend on the seriousness of their sins.
Whenever the Eucharist is celebrated, souls in Purgatory are purified - i.e., they receive a full remission of sin and punishment - and go to Heaven.
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's assumed, however, that the severity of one's punishment will be directly proportional to the severity of the crime.
The pain of sense suffered by the souls in purgatory involves the pain of purification. The nature of this cleansing has traditionally been assumed to mean a literal fire, but the only proposition the Church has dogmatically defined on this issue is that the purification involves some kind of pain.
Purgatory will not continue after the general judgment, but its duration for any particular souls continues until it is free from all guilt and punishment. Immediately on purification the soul is assumed into heaven. (Etym. Latin purgatio, cleansing, purifying.)
In Roman Catholic doctrine, souls atoned for past sins in purgatory before entering heaven. In fact, for centuries, purgatory was often regarded as an actual physical place. Today, if you say you are in purgatory, you feel stuck or not able to continue towards a goal.
Time is warped in Purgatory; a minute in the real world corresponds to a year in Purgatory. It is basically a universe separated from the mortal plane.
Dante's version of Purgatory is extraordinarily detailed and, in some key respects, strikingly original. First, he imagines Purgatory as being divided up into seven terraces, each one corresponding to a vice (in the order that Dante sees them: Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Avarice and Prodigality, Gluttony and Lust).
The Final Purification, or Purgatory. 1030 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.
There is no place or region in the afterlife for the saved except heaven. There is no pain in the afterlife, and the minute we die we go to heaven, as Paul says, 'To be absent from the body is to be present with Christ,' praying for people in purgatory makes no sense.
Should we fear purgatory?
There's suffering involved as we look at Our Lord and are purified of final chaff (I Corinthians 3:11-15) but He wipes all tears from our eyes and brings us to the Father's House. We need not fear the fire of purgatory, for it is a good thing “to die in God's grace and friendship (CCC1030).”
The Holy Souls in Purgatory undergo purification suffering of love. The purifying suffering of love is called “satispassion”. Since the Holy Souls can't be purified by their own efforts, they atone for their sins by undergoing purifying suffering which re-establishes holiness and justice.
Purgatory is much more like heaven than hell, for the souls detained there are not in Satan's clutches, but ready for God's loving embrace. They have their pains, but they also have their joys. They have their pains, because they cannot see God, though they are so close to Him.
There is a prevailing though that all you have to do is be born, and then die, and you will be admitted to into paradise. A popular Christian pastor and author declared a few years back that love wins in the end, and that no one actually goes to hell. We all get into heaven.
In the New Testament, arguably the clearest reference to purgatory comes in Matthew's Gospel (12:32), where Jesus states that “whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come” — implying that there are at least some sins that can be forgiven in the next life.
At the shores of Purgatory, Dante and Virgil meet Cato, a pagan who was placed by God as the general guardian of the approach to the mountain (his symbolic significance has been much debated).
Purgatory is the place where the soul is cleansed of all impurities, as Dante described in his great poem The Divine Comedy. Today purgatory can refer to any place or situation in which suffering and misery are felt to be sharp but temporary.
Roman Catholic Christians who believe in purgatory interpret passages such as 2 Timothy 1:18, Matthew 12:32, Luke 23:43, 1 Corinthians 3:11–3:15 and Hebrews 12:29 as support for prayer for purgatorial souls who are believed to be within an active interim state for the dead undergoing purifying flames (which could be ...
The First Means of avoiding Purgatory is manifestly to remove the cause which sends us there, which is sin. It may not be easy to refrain from all sin, even the smaller sins, but every ordinary Christian can, by the frequent use of the Sacraments, easily abstain from mortal sin.
Heaven is being with God, purgatory is being with God and longing for the purifying pain of forgiveness, hell is choosing not to accept God's loving purifying forgiveness. (Would, could, anyone refuse God's forgiveness?)
How many souls are released from purgatory?
St. Gertrude the Great was a Benedictine nun and mystic who lived in the 13th century. According to tradition, our Lord promised her that 1000 souls would be released from Purgatory each time it is said devoutly.
The tradition of the Church is that the souls in purgatory can pray for us, but not for themselves. Those who are members of the pilgrim Church on earth have the duty to pray for these souls in purgatory.
Finally, acts of penance can reduce or even eliminate our period of purification in Purgatory. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains: “The forgiveness of sin and restoration of communion with God entail the remission of the eternal punishment of sin, but temporal punishment of sin remains” (CCC 1473).
Unlike limbo, purgatory is a doctrine of the Church, yet its representations have undergone significant modifications. Historically, the diversity of conceptions of purgatory boggles the mind.
The Holy Souls in Purgatory undergo purification suffering of love. The purifying suffering of love is called “satispassion.” Since the Holy Souls can't be purified by their own efforts, they atone for their sins by undergoing purifying suffering which re-establishes holiness and justice.
