The Feast of the Poor Souls in PURGATORY.

ALL SOULS: The Commemoration of the Faithful Departed. 

"Jesus said to the crowds:

“Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.

"And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day.

"For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.”  (John 6: 37 - 40).

Thursday 2nd November 2023 of the 30th Week of Ordinary Time is the Commemoration of all the holy souls in Purgatory. (ALL SOULS). 

Jesus prays, yearns, cries for the salvation of all men and women. The loving mercy of God makes this possible through the providential existence of Purgatory. Without Purgatory, only a few people will be saved. 

The Church teaches from the very beginning that:

"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." (CCC 1030).

Where do people go for the cleansing or purification after they take their last breath and close their eyes in death?

"The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned." (CCC 1031).

The unbelievers think that the dead are lost and would decay in the ground like organic matters. They do not believe that man has a soul. But the word of God answers the unbelievers thus:

"They [the dead] seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace." (Wisdom 3: 2 - 3).

We celebrate the feast of All Souls because the Church teaches that the souls in Purgatory can benefit from our prayers.

If you do not believe in the teaching of the Church on Purgatory, whose teaching do you believe? The word of God calls the Church "The Pillar and Foundation of the truth." (1 Timothy 3: 15). 

The Book of Wisdom, our first Reading gives us the end game of Divine Providence on the Souls in Purgatory:

"Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself.

As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself." (Wisdom 3: 5 - 6).

Jesus says: "My intercession is everlasting even in the glory of eternity because I chose to keep the wounds in My hands and in My feet and in My side. They constitute an uninterrupted pleading for the sake of all: for those in glory that they may go from light to light and from sweetness to sweetness; for those on earth that they may find in My wounds healing, purity, and holiness; and for the souls in purgatory that by the merits of My holy wounds they may be refreshed and delivered."  (IN SINU JESU, Friday, March 28, 2008).

"It is definite that only a few chosen ones do not go to Purgatory and the sufferings there that one must endure exceed our imagination.” ( St. John Vianney). 

Remember the Poor Souls in Purgatory daily in your prayers.

For Catholic Church teaching on the Souls in PURGATORY and how to help them, click the link below:

http://seekfirst.blogspot.com/2023/10/10-ways-to-assist-poor-souls-in.html

Daily Bible Verse @ SeekFirstcommunity.com