HOW LONG DO SOULS REMAIN IN PURGATORY?

St. Louis Bertrand's father was an exemplary Christian, as we should naturally expect, being the father of so great a Saint. He had even wished to become a Carthusian monk until he learned that it was not God's will for him.

When he died, after long years spent in the practice of every Christian virtue, his saintly son, fully aware of the rigors of God's Justice, offered many Masses and poured forth the most fervent supplications for the soul he so dearly loved.

A vision of his father still in Purgatory forced him to intensify a hundredfold his suffrages. He added most severe penances and long fasts to his Masses and prayers. Yet eight whole years passed before he obtained the release of his father.

St. Malachy's sister was detained in Purgatory for a very long time, despite the Masses, prayers and heroic mortifications the Saint offered for her!

It was related to a holy nun in Pampluna, who had succeeded in releasing many Carmelite nuns from Purgatory, that most of these had spent there terms of from 30 to 60 years!

Carmelite nuns in Purgatory for 40, 50 and 60 years! What will it be for those living amidst the temptations of the World and with all their hundreds of weaknesses?

St. Vincent Ferrer, after the death of his sister, prayed with incredible fervor for her soul and offered many Masses for her release. She appeared to him at length and told him that had it not been for his powerful intercession with God, she should have remained an interminable time in Purgatory.

In the Dominican Order it is the rule to pray for the Master Generals by name on their anniversaries. Many of these have been dead several hundred years! They were men especially eminent for piety and learning. This rule would not be approved by the Church were it not necessary and prudent.

Saint Anthony tells the story of a sick person who suffered so atrociously that he considered it beyond human nature and thus continually prayed for death. One day, an angel appeared to him and said, "God sent me here to offer you a choice. You can spend one year of suffering on earth, or one day in Purgatory." Choosing the latter, he died and went to Purgatory.

When the angel went to console him, he was greeted with this groan of pain, "Deceitful angel! At least twenty years ago, you said that I would spend only one day in Purgatory . . . My God, how I suffer!"

To this the Angel responded, "Poor deluded soul, your body is not even buried yet."

When Padre Pio was asked how long a particular soul would stay in purgatory he replied “At least one hundred years. We must pray for the Souls in Purgatory. It is unbelievable what they can do for our spiritual good, out of gratitude they have towards those on earth who remember to pray for them. “

Purgatory In Scripture

2 Samuel 12:13-16
David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." And Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the LORD, the child that is born to you shall die." Then Nathan went to his house. And the LORD struck the child that Uri'ah's wife bore to David, and it became sick. David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in and lay all night upon the ground. [Note that God has "put away" David's sins, but David still fasts. This is the same as in Numbers, when Moses was still excluded from the Promised Land even after he was forgiven for his sin of striking the rock twice with his rod.]

2 Maccabees 12:43-46
He also took up a collection, man by man, to the amount of two thousand drachmas of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering. In doing this he acted very well and honorably, taking account of the resurrection. For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.

Wisdom 3:1-7
But the souls of the just are in God's hand; no torment will touch them. in the eyes of the foolish they seemed to be dead; their departure was reckoned as defeat, and their going from us a disaster. But they are at peace, for though in the sight of men they may suffer punishment, they have a sure hope of immortality, and after a little chastisement they will receive great blessings, because God has tested them and found them worthy to be His. He put them to the proof like gold in a crucible, and found them acceptable like an offering burnt whole on the altar. In the hour of their judgement they will shine in glory and will sweep over the world like sparks through stubble.

Isaiah 66:15-16
For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.

Daniel 12:2
And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

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.

Zechariah 13:9
I will lead that third into the fire, and refine them as silver is refined, test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name and I shall listen; and I shall say: These are my people; and each will say, "Yahweh is my God!"

Malachi 3:2-3
But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

Matthew 5:26
Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. [Note He didn't say, "until I pay the last farthing for you." He JUSTIFIES us -- without Him we can NEVER justify ourselves! Nothing we do can EVER get us into Heaven without His Blood. But we are expected to grow up, too. Our Father is wise.]

Matthew 12:32
And whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come

Luke 12:47-48
And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

Luke 12:58-59
When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him; lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison. I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite. [RSV: "As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison. I tell you, you will never get out till you have paid the very last copper."]

1 Corinthians 3:13-15
Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

2 Timothy 1:16-18
The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus [who just died]; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.

Hebrews 2:27-28
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Hebrews 12:14
Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord

Hebrews 12:22-23
But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, ... and to the spirits of just men made perfect

I Peter 3:16-19
Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;

1 Peter 4:6
For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. [Comment: These dead could not have been in Hell; there's no escaping Hell. They couldn't have been in Heaven. So where were they?]

Revelation 21:10, 27
And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God... And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Some insights on purgatory:


http://www.mysticsofthechurch.com/2012/04/amazing-stories-from-purgatory-and.html



Also:

The Prayer of St. Gertrude, below, is one of the most famous of the prayers for souls in purgatory. According to tradition, our Lord promised her that 1000 souls would be released from purgatory each time it is said devoutly.

"Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in purgatory."

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All of the various writings on "duration" or "length of time" in Purgatory are there to help us understand something that we are not capable of understanding.  

We cannot know what it means to "spend time" in Purgatory until we arrive in Purgatory.  Only then will we know what it means.  Those who don't make it to Purgatory will be entirely informed about what they are missing, because they endure the same torments in hell that the holy souls in Purgatory endure, with the difference that when you're in Purgatory you know there will come the "moment" (as it were!) eventually, when you "will" be free of suffering, whereas those in hell will never be free of suffering.  

I have to put "moment" and "will" in quotes because there are no moments of time in Purgatory because there is no time in Purgatory, and since there is no time, there is no present and there is no past and there is no future.  Purgatory is outside of time, and it is part of the eternal "NOW" of the next life.  This is why it makes no sense to wonder about the "eventual" change of anything in regards to God.  God cannot change because change per se involves the note of time passing, for something to be one way now and another way later.  There is no "later" in Purgatory.

Even so, there is some manner of mysterious endurance or duration or relative quantity of suffering in Purgatory, for not everyone who goes there has to suffer the same "amount" as someone else who goes there.

We cannot know what it means to "spend time" in Purgatory because in Purgatory there is no such thing as "time" as we know it.  Therefore, the word "time" is only used in reference to Purgatory in an analogous sense.  

There is some manner of "duration" or "quantity" of Purgatory, but the QUALITY or the manner of suffering is the same there as it is in hell.  

In truth, we have no human language to speak about Purgatory or about heaven because a sentence requires a VERB to be a sentence.  But a verb always refers to the passage of TIME.  Verbs are ACTION words, and in our understanding action implies time going by while something MOVES.  But in eternity there is no time going by, therefore, any "movement" is of an order that we do not know in this life.  We'll have to find out about that after we die.


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Protestants, for example, will argue against this principle on the basis that they claim it's not found in Scripture and therefore they don't have to believe it.  The problem with that is, neither is it proscribed in Scripture, therefore the Bible doesn't say that you must NOT believe it.  

But there are other things too that you cannot literally find in Scripture but they are part of the Faith of Catholics and are taught by the one true Church outside of which there is no salvation.  Protestantism is appealing for those who don't want to think about their religion, because then (if they do think about it) they'll see that they're not on the way to heaven and they have to change their life.  But they don't want to change their life.  So to heck with the Church, basically.  

And therefore, to heck with Purgatory.  


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ALSO

What of the Brown Scapular?
Does these supposed millenia in purgatory no longer apply to souls who do something as trivial as die wearing a piece of cloth? Is this just?

To soulguard,


If we look at the 11th heavenly promise for saying the rosary:

http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/fatima26.htm


...without question, a devout Catholic would always ask for their family to be saved. Thus, we can be certain in most if not all cases, providence provides for this.



As regards the scapular, the grace of the scapular is a gift of providence and presupposes an attainment of merit such that this sacramental will be given by God to a person.

   

James 1:17

"Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration."


You should pray for wisdom and these understandings will be given you:


Colossians 1:9

Therefore we also, from the day that we heard it, cease not to pray for you, and to beg that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom, and spiritual understanding:




St. Louis de Montfort

"Those who say the Rosary daily and wear the Brown Scapular and who do a little more, will go straight to Heaven."      

Some ways to avoid going to purgatory:


1) White Lily of Trinity          


The Revelations of St. Gertrude, Book 3, Chapter 18:

The following day, as Gertrude prayed, the Mother of God appeared to her, in the presence of the ever - adorable Trinity, under the form of a white lily, with three leaves, one standing erect, and the other two bent down. By this she understood that it was not without reason that the Blessed Mother of God was called white lily of the Trinity, since She contained in herself, with more plenitude and perfection than any other creature, the virtues of the Most Holy Trinity, which she had never sullied by the slightest stain of sin.

The upright leaf of the lily represented the omnipotence of God the Father, and the two leaves which bent down, the wisdom and love of the Son and the Holy Spirit, to which the Virgin approaches so nearly.

Then the Blessed Virgin made known to her that if anyone salutes Her devoutly as the white lily of the Trinity and vermilion rose of Heaven, She will show how She prevails by the omnipotence of the Father, how skillful She is in procuring the salvation of men by the wisdom of the Son, and with what exceeding love her heart is filled by the charity of the Holy Ghost. The Blessed Virgin added these words: "I will appear at the hour of death to those who salute me thus in such glory, that they will anticipate the very joys of Heaven." From this time the Saint frequently saluted the Holy Virgin or her images with the below words:

"Hail white lily of the ever peaceful and glorious Trinity!
Hail, effulgent rose, the delight of Heaven,
Of whom the King of Heaven was born and by whose milk He was nourished! Nourish our souls by the effusions of thy Divine influences."

--(Known as the 'Hail Mary of Gold' prayer)



2) Devotion to the Holy Shoulder Wound of Christ


http://www.catholictradition.org/Christ/holy-wounds3.htm



3) Chaplet of the Sacred Wounds - see Promise 16

http://www.marypages.com/RosaryoftheHolyWounds.htm



God bless all!

This is a true story of one of the Fatima Children asked the Blessed
Virginia about a young Friend who recently died.  The Blessed Mother
replied that she is saved but must remain in purgatory until the
end of time.