{"id":359,"date":"2010-11-01T15:49:26","date_gmt":"2010-11-01T19:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=359"},"modified":"2010-11-01T15:53:25","modified_gmt":"2010-11-01T19:53:25","slug":"is-purgatory-gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/is-purgatory-gone\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Purgatory Gone?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We don’t hear much about Purgatory today.\u00a0 Some people interpret that to mean that the Catholic Church doesn’t believe in Purgatory anymore.\u00a0 That is not true.\u00a0 The\u00a0Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/a><\/em> discusses Purgatory in paragraphs 1030-1032<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0It speaks of the need for purification.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let me use the following story to explain the need for purification (I read this story in an email several years ago but do not know the original source).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Fence<\/em><\/p>\n

There was a little boy with a bad temper.\u00a0 His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, to hammer a nail in the back fence.\u00a0 The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence.\u00a0 Then it gradually dwindled down.\u00a0 He discovered it was easier to hold temper than to drive those nails into the fence.<\/em><\/p>\n

Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all… He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.\u00a0 The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.<\/em><\/p>\n

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence.\u00a0 The fence will never be the same.\u00a0 When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one.\u00a0 You can put a knife in a man and draw it out.\u00a0 It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there.\u00a0 A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.\u00a0 Friends are a very rare jewel, indeed.\u00a0 They make you smile and encourage you to succeed.\u00a0 They lend an ear, they share a word of praise, and they always want to open their hearts to us.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, allow me to change the analogy some.\u00a0 In an oversimplified way, the driving of the nail into the fence represents our act of sin.\u00a0 The nail is removed by God’s forgiveness.\u00a0 God’s forgiveness is perfect.\u00a0 Yet, the sin has already made its effect on us.\u00a0 To enter into Heaven, we must\u00a0 perfect.\u00a0 Purgatory cleanses us of imperfection.\u00a0 Purgatory is an encounter with God who makes us clean.<\/p>\n

What about praying for the dead?\u00a0 We have Masses said for the dead (see 2 Maccabees 12:32-46<\/a>).\u00a0 The month of November is considered a special time to pray for the dead.\u00a0 November 2nd is the Feast of All Souls’ Day.\u00a0 In praying for the dead, we are praying for their time in Purgatory to be swift and easy.<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We don’t hear much about Purgatory today.\u00a0 Some people interpret that to mean that the Catholic Church doesn’t believe in Purgatory anymore.\u00a0 That is not true.\u00a0 The\u00a0Catechism of the Catholic Church discusses Purgatory in paragraphs 1030-1032.\u00a0\u00a0It speaks of the need for purification.\u00a0 Let me use the following story to explain the need for purification (I …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Is Purgatory Gone?’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-5N","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359\/revisions\/363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}