“This mountain’s of such sort that climbing it is hardest at the start; but as we rise, the slope grows less unkind.”
The speaker is the Roman poet Virgil, Dante’s companion and guide in scaling the lofty mountain of Purgatory in the second book of Dante’s tour-de-force account of the afterlife, The Divine Comedy. They’ve already paid a harrowing visit to the Inferno. Now it’s the turn of Purgatorio, where souls who need purifying are cleansed from of the stain of sin. After that–heaven.
Note the neat bit of catechesis (one of many) that Dante, via Virgil, slips in casually: The great mountain of Purgatory–which the souls must climb–gets easier the higher they go.
It’s good to think about Purgatory as we approach All Souls’ Day–November 2, the day after All Saints’, when the Church reminds us to take special note of loved ones, family, and friends who may now be in Purgatory yearning to be on their way to heaven. We do them a great kindness by prayers and pious acts with the intention of reducing the time they must spend in that in-between state and speeding them on their journey to Paradise.
Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church has to say about Purgatory:
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 Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.
And the text then speaks speak warmly of Masses, almsgiving, indulgences, and acts of penance offered to help the “holy souls” move on to heaven (CCC 1031, 1032),
All Souls’ Day together with Halloween (All Saints’ Eve) and All Saints’ Day formerly made up a triduum devoted on the remembrance of the dead (Allhallowtide). Now Halloween has largely been taken over by secularism while All Saints’ is firmly established as a holy day.
That leaves All Souls’ Day. Prayer for the souls in Purgatory also goes way back. But only in the 11th century did Saint Odilo, abbot of the great abbey of Cluny in France, establish All Souls’ as a November observance and make that date normative for other abbeys dependent on Cluny. Thereafter the custom spread widely in the Western Church.
The literary landmark of All Souls’ Day is the Purgatorio, Like its companions, the Inferno and heaven, it is full of brief portraits of the souls, Dante’s incomparable image-making, and a great deal of doctrine. Here is part of Virgil’s lecture on love in canto xvii:
As long as it’s directed toward the First Good
and tends toward secondary goods with measure,
it cannot be the cause of evil pleasure;
but when it twists toward evil or attends
to good with more or less care than it should,
those whom He made have worked against their Maker.
From this you see that–of necessity–
love is the seed in you of every virtue
and of all acts deserving punishment.
It’s too late for this year, but you can pray for the souls in Purgatory any time. And I recommend that well before All Souls’ next year you get a good translation of The Divine Comedy (the one here is Allen Mandelbaum’s) with good explanatory notes. Read the text while studying the notes, then read the text by itself.
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Jesus explains Purgatory to Catholic Mystic Luisa Piccarreta. In Jesus’ near future ‘thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’, those living in the Divine Will, on free-willed earth, will bilocation space and time, to suffer for, and assist those in Purgatory.
“Jesus told Luisa how the Saints hope for someone to re-do their earthly actions – their lives in the Divine Will.”
“The Saints themselves… ardently wait for their sister to substitute their acts- holy in the human order, but not in the divine order. They pray that I quickly let the creature enter into this divine ambience, so that all their actions may be substituted with the Divine Will, and with the imprint of the Eternal One. I have done it for everyone, now I want you to do it for everyone. (See chapter 16) (February 13th 1919)”
“Jesus told Luisa how everything is contained in the Divine Will: the life and actions of his own Humanity, and everyone’s life and actions which have been perfected by him. Since God exists outside of time – everything in the Divine Will exists outside of time. So in effect, we say that it exists in the present. For example, think of last Saturday and realize that all your actions – whatever you did – still exist in the Divine Will.”
Quote is from: “Luisa Piccarreta and the Divine Will – Teachings of Jesus”, by Susanne James, published 2020
Catholic Mystic Luisa Piccaretta (1865-1947) was the fifth person to live in the Divine will after Adam, Eve, Mary and Jesus. Luisa lived united to the Presence of the Holy Trinity in the ‘Divine Will’ for sixty years on free willed earth. Luisa had the hidden stigmata and consumed no food, living only on the Eucharist. Jesus would physically bilocate Luisa to anywhere on earth, and to any point in physical time, or anywhere in the multiverse. All the actions of everyone since Adam to the future last person on earth ever to be born, exist outside of physical time, in the Omnipresence of God, in the Divine Will. While Jesus was bilocating Luisa, her physical body lay in a death like state, in her bed on earth.
In Jesus’ near future “thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”, all State of Grace Catholics, living in Jesus’ future Revelation 21 “New Jerusalem, will have the capability to have Jesus bilocate them into any Reality in physical, multiverse, space and physical time. We will all be capable of helping the Saints in Purgatory, “They pray that I quickly let the creature enter into this divine ambience, so that all their actions may be substituted with the Divine Will, and with the imprint of the Eternal One.” Talk about future Catholics, living in the Divine Will, helping those in purgatory!
‘Luisa Piccarreta and the ‘Divine Will’ – Teachings of Jesus’ by Susanne James copyright 2020.
“All her adult life Luisa manifested particular strange symptoms – which confused the clergy in the early years. What happened was that at night she would go into a death-like state. Completely rigid and immovable. In the morning she could not rouse herself, not until she was blessed by a priest. Luisa’s early writings give an account of this unusual experience. She was not asleep, in fact she slept very little.”
“Luisa tells us how her soul would sometimes leave her body at night, and she enjoyed blissful freedom when Jesus took her around the universe. He used these occasions for teaching her (she does not describe the universe). Luisa also had various mystical experiences at night, including visits to Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. She would consistently experience the Passion of Jesus – in limited forms, for as mentioned she was a victim soul. Such people have a very rewarding relationship with Jesus, and their suffering is balanced by wonderful blessings. (page 22)”
A continued question. Are prayers for the dead limited to those assumed in Purgatory? This question is raised in Maccabees 12: 38-46, when Judas Maccabeus after his victory ordered his men to pray for his slain soldiers, all who were found to be wearing the forbidden amulets of devotion to the idols of Jamnia. He also had his men make an offering of 2000 silver pieces sent to Jerusalem as an offering of prayers for the dead, presumably condemned idolatrous Jewish soldiers.
Is there hope for those we have died in [apparent] unrepentant mortal sin? What argument can we offer to turn back the flow of time and reverse condemnation? It’s feasible if we consider God is not subject to our time frame, all is a singular moment for him insofar as knowledge and exercise of power. God is pure act. We are subject to sequence. Time.
Maccabeus’ recorded act suggests the possibility that God, aware in advance of all the prayers and sacrifices made for the dead even those long after death in this world may provide the grace required for the dead person or persons to accept or reject his offer for conversion and salvation. It seems we do well to pray and hope for the dead however their lives seemed to ensure condemnation. In the economy of grace our efforts if not successful will be applied for the benefit of those souls in Purgatory.
Catholics should have no family or friends in purgatory, since we have the possibility of having masses said for them. A bouquet of 9 TLM masses is the Catholic tradition.
Maria Simma – not yet blessed but she surely will be – claimed that 3 masses were sufficient to get most souls out of purgatory.
Either Catholicism is true – all of it ad33-ad1958 – or not.
Thank, you, Mr. Cracked Nut.
Although Dante regarded himself a poet rather than a theologian, his works were a valuable contribution to the Church’s understanding of morality and the state of the soul after death. A wider exposure would do much to help people today have a better understanding of the purpose of life on earth and its consequence afterward.