PURGATORY State or Place?

A friend once said to me “I met my wife on facebook” and in my own meditiation about Purgatory I began to think of the question “where is Purgatory?” and to liken it to my friend who found his wife on facebook I asked ‘where is facebook?’ Is facebook just a platform? Or is facebook located where the servers are located in America and Europe? Or is facebook located at my friends and his wife’s different locations at the time they met each other on facebook? Like when someone says “I met my wife in Port Harcourt, Beigin, London, Paris or Texas.

Where is Purgatory?  16: For God do loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son: that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. ST. Jn3

Nothing unclean shall enter into the Kingdom of God as it is written in the Holy Scriptures and again it is written that “whosoever says that he is without sin is a liar”.

If then we all know sin, how can it be that nothing impure shall see God? Or did God create us all to spend eternity in hell? Ney for He loved us all and sent us Jesus who died for our sins.

This Jesus who shed His Precious Blood on the cross of Calvary for the sake of mankind and who promised that when He ascended into heaven He will come to take His people home.

A promise that is sure for He saith “For amen I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall not pass of the law, till all be fulfilled” ST. Matt 5:18

For that soul who have lived to love and serve the Lord and have died will have some attachments of sin even at the point of death unless this soul was fortunate to receive the Sacrament of reconciliation before death. This soul is not condemned to the terrible punishment of eternal damnation but needs to be purified before he comes in to the Glory of God. This state of purification is Purgatory.

It could be purification of punishments due to sins for which we had been forgiving but which we must do penance for; we must all be purged of all filth before we can come into the Throne.

Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God Matt 5:8 and what if this soul still has a venial sin attached at the point of death?  Will the good Lord condemn him eternally? Ney for he will be purified in the fires of Purgatory and then come into the Glory of God he had worked and dreamed about all his life.

Purgatory is not for souls who lived in mortal sins without adequate confession and penance or to say souls that died in mortal sin. Ney Purgatory is for souls who lived a good life but need purification at the point of death.

A soul in Purgatory is hopeful that one day he shall see God.

One cannot aim at Purgatory in live so as not to eventually enter hell, a Christian aims at heaven but may have to be purified in the fires of Purgatory before he enter into heaven.

Souls in Purgatory need the prayers of the living to lessen their time of stay in that painful state since they cannot pray for themselves anymore. So I ask you reader is Purgatory a place or a state?

Is it in the Bible? As Catholics, needless to ask this question because our Catholic spirituality and doctrine are based not just on the Bible alone but on the Bible, Tradition and the Magisterium which is the Teaching authority of the Church (the Pope and the council of bishops).

25: But there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written. ST. Jn 21

In his second letter to the Thesalonians verse 14, ST. Paul wrote “Therefore, brethren, stand fast: and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word or by our epistle”.

It should not always be in the bible, “It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sin” 2^nd Machabees 12:46

Judas Machabees after having some of his soldiers killed in battle as the 2^nd book of Machabees writes in chapter 12:43-44 And making a gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection.

(For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead.)

Pray for souls in Purgatory that you may also be remembered should you find your soul in Purgatory.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning it is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen.

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