What Is Purgatory?

• 1.What is Purgatory? Mr. Pablo Cuadra Religion Class

2. Scriptures Regarding Heavens Beatific vision Nothing Impure Shall Enter Heaven

• Butnothing uncleanwill enter it, nor anyone who does abominable things or tells lies. Only those will enter whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

• Revelation 21:27

3. What do Catholics mean by Beatific Vision?

• Beatific Vision is the eternal,direct perceptionof God enjoyed by those who have died in astate of graceor have undergone thefinal purificationortheosisalso calledpurgatoryand are now in heaven before the very presence of the HOLY ONE enjoying his supreme happiness and blessings forever .

• St. Thomas Aquinas defined the Beatific Vision as the ultimate end of human existence.

4. Scriptures Praying for the Dead

• 2 Maccabees 12: 42-46

• • Turning to supplication, they prayed that the sinful deed might be fully blotted out. The noble Judas warned the soldiers to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen. He then took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice. In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view; for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin.

5. Did you know?

• C. S. Lewis, a protestant theologian has this to say about the doctrine of purgatory:

• "Of course I pray for the dead. The action is so spontaneous, so all but inevitable, that only the most compulsive theological case against it would deter me. And I hardly know how the rest of my prayers would survive if those for the dead were forbidden. At our age, the majority of those we love best are dead. What sort of intercourse with God could I have if what I love best were unmentionable to him?

• C.S. Lewis,Letters To Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer

6. Pope Benedict XVI on Purgatory?

• In his book,Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life,Pope Benedict XVI describes purgatory as afiery encounterwith the Lord and his mercy, as a transformation, he says:

• Purgatory is not, as Tertullian thought, some kind of supra-worldly concentration camp where man is forced to undergo punishment in a more or less arbitrary fashion. Rather it is the inwardly necessary process of transformation in which a person becomes capable of Christ, capable of God and thus capable of unity with the whole communion of saints. Simply to look at people with any degree of realism at all is to grasp the necessity of such a process. It does not replace grace by works, but allows the former to achieve its full victory precisely as grace. What actually saves is the full assent of faith. But in most of us, that basic option is buried under a great deal of wood, hay and straw. Only with difficulty can it peer out from behind the latticework of an egoism we are powerless to pull down with our own hands. Man is the recipient of the divine mercy, yet this does not exonerate him from the need to be transformed. Encounter with the Lord is this transformation. It is the fire that burns away our dross and re-forms us to be vessels of eternal joy."Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)

7. What is purgatory?

• LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart

• Psalm 15:1-2

• Purgatory is the Catholic belief in a final purification or theosis without which is impossible to see God face to face.

• Purgatory is not atemporal place but rather an existential, transforming and purifying process or state.

• This process or final theosis involves the forgivenessof venial sins and the expiation (satisfaction)of the temporal punishment for sin after death.

• This doctrine has its roots in Judaism and its practice to pray for the dead.Early Christianity witnessed to the belief of a finalpurification and the necessity to pray for the dead.

8. Did you know?

• InMatthew 12:32Jesus clearly teaches that some sins are forgiven after death.

• And whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neitherin the world to come.

"I implore you, brothers to pray whenever you come here and invoke the Father and Son in all your prayers so that they might save Agape (the person in the tomb) forever" Catacomb of Priscilla 9. What is the meaning of the word Purgatory?

• The word purgatory comes from the Latin wordpurgare,meaning to purify, to make clean.

• For whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges. ... but he does so for our benefit, in order that we may share his holiness.

• Hebrews 12:6, 10

10. Is the word purgatory in the Bible?

• The word Purgatory, like the words Bible, Trinity, and Incarnation is not in the Bible. However, All Christians subscribe to the truths inherent in these words although the words themselves do not appear in Scriptures per se.

• The teaching about a final purification called purgatory, however, is well supported not only by the Scriptures but also by the living Tradition of the Churchs Magisterium, Early Christianity, and the teachings of the Fathers of the Church.

• Daniel 12:10

• Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.

11. Did you know?

• Eastern Catholics acknowledge a final purification, however, in Eastern theology this is not called purgatory butfinal theosis.

• Theosis is a process of divinization, union with God. Through the merits of the incarnation humanity is capable of being transformed, divinized, made holy.

• This process begins at baptism and Chrismation and continues beyond death.

• 1 Peter 4:6

• For the gospel has for this purpose been preachedeven to those who are dead,that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God.

12. The Catechism and Purgatory

• 1031 The Church gives the namePurgatoryto thisfinal purificationof the elect,which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned . The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire:

• • As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.

• • 1472To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has adouble consequence .Grave sin deprives us of communion with Godand therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the "eternal punishment" of sin. On the other handevery sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after deathin the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the "temporal punishment" of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.

13.

• The essence of purgatory or final purification or theosis can be summarized as follows:

• A. It exists

• B. It involves expiation (satisfaction) through temporal punishment.

• C. It is not a place but state of purification from lesser sins.

• D. Our prayers help those in this state of purification and expiation

• E. This dogma is deeply rooted in our Judeo-Christian heritage.

• In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

• "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.

• Matthew 18: 34-35

What is the essence of the teachings on Purgatory? 14. Judaism and the Concept of Purgatory

• Did you know?

• To this day,devout Jews , when a Jewish person's loved one dies, pray a prayer known as the Mourner's Kaddish for eleven months after the death for the loved one's purification. This prayer is also recited on the anniversary of the persons death.

15.

• A.All sin isan offense