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The torment of condemnation and the torment of the senses. The torment of reprobation is the height of misery, to be deprived of Him who is infinite good. The sinner has rejected him—the word of the supreme Judge. Depart from me, cursed one. Depart. Where will these wretches go? Well, where can these exiles go? Deprived of eternal blessedness to eternal damnation, instead of peace and contentment if not to despair and gnashing and despair.

Torments of the senses- The sinner reaches for forbidden fruits and low pleasures. He asks to be punished for what he has sinned. Instead of enjoying the creatures for the glory of God, he has misused them to gratify his passions and to satiate his love of self. When the hour of righteousness strikes, the word of the Book of Wisdom will be realized. On the last day, there will be a great and thorough purification of our universe. The whole world will be disintegrated into the elements of which it is composed. All that is noble, beautiful, and pure will be lifted to the heights, and all that is vile, corrupt, and evil will be cast down.

To punish the condemned. So, the whole creation will be a source of joy for some and a punishment for others. Every condemned person will suffer in proportion to their sins. The more you spare yourself now and abhor carnality, the harder it will be to repent afterward. Every sin will have its particular torment. The proud will be ashamed, and the jealous will suffer the severest privations. There will be one hour of repentance, as here, there will be a hundred years of most severe repentance. There the damned will have no rest, no pleasure, which they will only miss occasionally here on earth. Now be afflicted for your sins, and repent of them. The question arises. If anyone hates God, how is it possible that he will suffer if he does not live in his presence? Most of the time, if we hate someone, their presence makes us uncomfortable. However, someone can be happy in the presence of someone he hates if that person is unhappy and can feed on his pains. The damned person hates God, but at the same time, he loves Him against his will and feels drawn to Him with all his energies. He, however, represses these feelings. There is ambivalence in the damned. The damned feel a longing for God, but at the same time, they see that they are forever deprived of this happiness. St. Augustine answers how the material fire can touch even spirits. Even spirits with nobody can suffer and, in some strange way, feel the torments of the material fire. One thing is sure: no earthly suffering can be compared to the torments of hell. We must fear the torments of hell and do everything possible to avoid hell.

Reading from the Second Letter of the Holy Apostle Paul to Timothy ¦ 2 Tim 2, 1-13. Therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And what you have heard from me in front of many witnesses, entrust to reliable people who will be able to teach others. Suffer with me as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. None of the soldiers interferes in the affairs of everyday life if they want to please the one who hired them. And whoever races does not get a crown if he does not race according to the rules. The farmer who toils is to be the first to receive a share of the harvest. Consider what I say. The Lord will make you understand everything. Remember that Jesus Christ, of the family of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which I endure hardships even to fetters like some criminal. But God’s word is not bound! Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they too may attain the salvation that is in Jesus Christ and eternal glory. The word is reliable: If we died with him, we will also live with him. If we persevere, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us. If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful because he cannot deny himself. 

Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew Gospel ¦ Mt 10, 28-33. Jesus told his apostles: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Aren’t two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one of them falls to the ground without the knowledge of your Father. But you also have all the hairs on your head counted. So don’t worry, you are more valuable than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.” —– 

Let us pray: Almighty God, you granted grace to the holy martyr Florian, that he testified to faith in Christ by his own death; we beg you, through his intercession, protect us from all evil and help us to have the courage to confess our faith in your Son undaunted. For he is God and lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit forever and ever.

The smallest child, but also the oldest person, have one great preciousness in them – life. This preciousness is our value and we value it more than a full wallet or possessions. However, human life can be not only a gift for another, but also a burden. Do you think it is a sign if someone told us: You are just a burden, a pest, a bug for me?! But a lesson flows from these ugly words: Life is beautiful when we love another person who is not a burden, but a gift and enrichment for our life.

Jesus, like us, had this great value – life. He could plan to build a house, start a family, and think about his fame and status. But he didn’t want to live like this. He dedicated his life and strength to love. He said it himself: Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. Jesus knew very well that each of us was at risk in some way. A pupil so that he does not fail, a student so that he is not thrown out of an exam, a worker so that they are satisfied with him at work, an old person so that his health still serves him somehow… We all desire to progress in life, but we, believers, have to realize that the most important step for us is a life in which God rules. But none of us can do it alone. Why?

Jesus came into the world because we were threatened. And because he loves everyone, he gives his life for them as a ransom to advance to the next life. Our worth is in the life of Jesus. Isn’t it wonderful? God values ​​man so much that he sends his Son into the world to reward man with his life, death, and resurrection. A person can get into communion with God only under the condition that his life will be marked with excellence in love, and the best teacher of love is Jesus, who gives us the strength to not be a burden to others, but a gift, which is nothing new. After all, let’s judge for ourselves: Don’t we appreciate the most when someone likes us? And won’t the reverse also apply? The other person will not appreciate when we come to them with goodness in our hearts? A person is beautiful in that he knows how to love, and he is miserable in that he can be a pest.

The writer Kuznetsov very wisely describes this fact in the Legend of the River. The men in the room are talking about love. Peter asks his friend: Listen, is it true that a man should live with a woman all his life and infidelity is a sin? And the friend replied: You know, the life of love is given only to true people. We were once in the steppe and my acquaintance shot a male swan. Here, where she married, there she married, the female flew in, screeching, flapping her wings, hovering over us and making raids on us. We also shot at her, but we could not hit her. Night came, and we plucked the male, roasted it, and ate it. But we could still hear the flapping of wings and screeching. It died down in the morning and we thought she had flown away. When we got out, we saw her again. We could see it flying higher and higher, then it folded its huge wings and fell to the ground like a stone. We were frozen. One of us was a Kazakh who, seeing this, said that swans when they meet, are faithful to each other for life. Peter responded to that: Am I supposed to jump off the tower when my wife dies? A friend corrected him: You misunderstood me. You know, someone just plays for love, exhausts himself with nonsense, and shouts that family is a prejudice and there is no love. However, a person must live life to the fullest so that everything in him is great. If love, then love, if friendship, then friendship, if joy, then joy, if pain, then pain. That’s how happy people live, who don’t get bogged down in trifles and don’t live only for themselves. Happiness is a storm, a struggle, the sun in the heart, which is enough for you and others.

Could we imagine Jesus living as a parasite? He voluntarily renounced his life when he saw the threat to the human race, which consisted of the fact that none of the people could get into communion with the heavenly Father, so he gave the most valuable thing he had – his life. He sacrificed it for us, his friends. Perhaps the question comes to mind: But what about the enemies? Jesus has no enemies. Everyone, young or old, healthy or sick, believer or non-believer, is personally close to him. He showed this during his earthly life when he showed love to everyone. However, it is also true that not everyone showed him love. Therefore, it is up to us how we will treat him – as friends or enemies, as those who need him or mock him. He treats everyone the same – as friends.

The apostle John, who lived his life in love, recounts an amazing experience: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. If we can love another, if we are able not to live like a living creature, we come from God and know God’s life. We are great at that, and no one can blame us for being limited, that we will have a good time only after death. It’s not true! Whoever loves God loves always, in life, in death, and after death. How do I love? How much selfishness is there in my life? Am I not one of those who take advantage of those closest to them? Can I sacrifice myself for others? The Lord would grant that people respect us because we come to him with goodness in our hearts.

The eternity of torment is a terrible but salvific dogma. Many of the elect owe heaven to their belief in hell. This truth must be urged and not followed by the feigned charity of those who pass over the issue without a word, accusing of inhumanity those who preach it. Inhuman are those who see their brethren rushing into the abyss and do not cry out to them. Stop. For you stand on the edge of the eternal abyss. Four two reasons for the eternal duration of the torments of hell are found in St. Thomas Aqun. and help us understand the psychology of the damned. When man commits a mortal sin , he knowingly and willingly renounces God because he prefers sin to God. When a person has freely chosen his final destination, he has no possibility of coming again to what he was destined for. , just as he cannot come to the truth who has erred in fundamental principles. But the sinner does not regard this inability of his to lift himself up and aim at God as a misfortune.

On the contrary, he has the promise of seeing his true welfare in it. We should be mistaken if we thought that the sinner is sorry for his sins. Even in hell he is not sorry. That he has sinned. He’s only sorry that he has to suffer. We would be mistaken if we thought that the remorse that comes after sin comes from the nature of man. They are caused by the grace of God. When God has been cast out of the soul, He seeks to return to it. If the sinner did not have remorse, he could not be induced by himself to regard his sin as evil, and so could not repent of it. Here on earth, every sinner can change, every sinner has the opportunity to repent of his sins. But this opportunity lasts only during earthly life. When the sinner comes to the other world, he no longer encounters grace, but only righteousness. Why does the sinner remain in his clenched impenitence after his death. Man has a free will. God has given man to choose his destination. To choose God or to reject Him. After death, man can no longer change his choice. God respects man’s free will. The only way God could correct such a will is if he were to forcibly and against its will destroy its connection with evil. He could remake it again.

But if God did that, man would no longer be the person he was before. One might say. It is no longer I, Judas, Nero, Satan who now love God. I,who was Judas, Nero, Satan. To tell the truth the present me is a complete stranger. The conversion of man here on earth does not involve such a destruction of personality. Here on earth the soul is subject to the influence of different moods.What one liked yesterday , begins to appear in different colours today. One sees today what one did not see yesterday. The grace of God can bring about , without violence , that man will willingly give up his choice. Here on earth even the greatest sinner can repent of his sins but in the next world this is no longer possible. Here the naive presumption of St. Aryan parish priest is untenable. If confession booths were built at the gates of hell,the damned would flock to them to obtain deliverance and forgiveness. If such a possibility existed, we could accuse God of cruelty. The reality is that the damned do not want to repent of their sins.

As we know, the main feast of St. Joseph is March 19. Then St.Joseph  is worshiped. Joseph, above all, as the foster father of the Lord Jesus and the head of the Holy Family. But this chosen man of God is also worshiped as the patron saint of workers, which has been emphasized in recent times by the introduction of his liturgical commemoration of May Day. We know from the Gospel that Saint Joseph was a carpenter (cf. Mt 13:55). That is why, from time immemorial, those who worked with wood, especially carpenters, have worshiped him as their patron saint. In Rome, in the 16th century, the Carpenter Archbishopric dedicated to St. to Joseph. At the beginning of the 17th century, she joined this brotherhood under the patronage of St. Jozef and the so-called Carpentry University (Universitá dei Falegnami). It was a corporation of various useful and artistic crafts, among which woodworking was predominant. There were turners, carvers, coopers, saddlers, manufacturers of furniture, musical instruments, carriages, boats and others.

Similar craft brotherhoods and associations that worshiped St. Jozef as their patron, were established in Spain, France, Belgium and other countries. Pope Pius XII. extended the patronage of St. Joseph to all workers and dedicated to him (in 1955) the first of May, which is celebrated in many countries as a workers’ holiday. The post-conciliar liturgical renewal included this day in the general liturgical calendar as a liturgical commemoration of St. Joseph  – the worker. In this way, the Church not only wants to show respect for the lifelong vocation of St. Jozef, but also wants to highlight the value of work and its importance in the natural and supernatural order. In this sense, for this day, she included among the liturgical readings of the priest’s watch (breviary) a stanza from the council’s constitution Gaudium et spes, where, among other things, it is said:

“Man, created in the image of God, was commanded to subdue the earth with all that it contains, to govern the world in justice and holiness and to focus oneself on God, recognizing him as the Creator of all things, so that everything is subject to man, and thus God’s name is glorified everywhere on earth. This also applies to normal everyday tasks. Because men and women who develop their activities in order to earn a living for themselves and their families, thereby demonstrating adequate service to society, can rightly look at their work as a continuation of the work of the Creator, a useful help to their brothers and as their personal a contribution to the realization of God’s plan in history.” (GS 34).

ON TODAY’s HOLIDAY, the liturgy of the Church puts this prayer on our lips: “God, you ignited warm love in Saint Catherine when she contemplated the Lord’s Passion and served your Church; through her intercession, grant that your people, to whom you have given a share in the mysteries of Christ, may rejoice forever when Christ appears in his glory”. These words describe the life of the saint we are celebrating: a fervent love for Jesus Christ that led her to devote herself to work for others and for the Church.

Katarína Benincasa was born in 1347 in Siena in a large family. From childhood she cultivated a deep piety that led her to consecrate her life to the Lord, despite the misunderstanding of her family. At the age of eighteen, she was accepted among the Dominican Tertiaries in the city. She continued living at home with her parents and led an intense prayer life amid the natural hustle and bustle of a family with many children. At the age of 21, Katarina had an experience that marked her life forever: she understood that God was calling her to devote herself with all her strength to acts of love and to work for the conversion of sinners. St. Josemaria was interested in the fact that this saint “was on the streets and created an inner cell in her soul, so wherever she was, she did not leave her cell”. This decision marked the beginning of several years during which the young woman moved around the city of Siena to take care of the sick and at the same time ignite the hearts of many people in the love of God and neighbor.

“A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither will they light a lamp and place it under a lampstand, but on a candlestick, so that it may give light to all who are in the house” (Mt 5, 14-15). Catherine was enlightened by the kind face of Jesus and understood that his light could not remain enclosed within the walls of her house. Thus she caused a revolution around her, which was made up of prayer and acts of service.

True wisdom is to be in harmony with God’s heart …

In the LETTERS of St. Catherine and in her well-known work Dialogue, the harmony between teaching and mystical experience is astonishing, especially if we consider that the saint did not have the opportunity to receive a broad cultural formation. From a young age, however, she attended the sermons of the Dominican fathers in her town: there she listened attentively to the interpretations of the Scriptures, examples from the lives of the saints, and catechesis on the faith. Over time, she cultivated her inner life also under the guidance of a local spiritual leader.

On St. Catherine, the words that Jesus uttered one day full of joy came true: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little ones” (Mt 11, 25). “True wisdom also comes from the heart, it is not just an understanding of thoughts (…). If you know many things but your heart is closed, you are not wise. Jesus says that the secrets of his Father were revealed to the little ones, to those who open themselves to his word of salvation with confidence, feel that they need him and expect everything from him; they have an open and trusting heart towards the Lord”. St. Catherine accepted the lights that the Lord gave her, and thus achieved a deep knowledge of God’s mystery. “Oh priceless, sweetest love,” she wrote. “Who is not ignited by such great love? What heart can resist without fainting? You, the abyss of love, as if you have gone crazy for your creatures, as if you cannot live without them, although you are a God who does not need us. Your greatness does not grow by our good deeds, for it cannot change; no harm comes to you from our evil, because you are the highest and eternal Good. Who will move you to such mercy?”.

Driven by this intense contemplation, the saint from Siena passed on God’s love to the people around her. She began with those who gathered to listen to her and be encouraged in her spiritual life. However, this outpouring of her inner life did not end there: over the years she wrote letters to many people, many of whom were public figures of the time. More than once, her letters were accompanied by calls for the addressees to live by the Gospel and seek God’s will. From her intimate relationship with Jesus, she drew energy to speak clearly and gently about God.

Sharing your faith with others …

AMONG THE MANY CHRISTIANS who were inspired by the life of St. Catherine, we also find St. Josemaria. He had a special respect for her from his youth; for example, he called the notes he made about the events of his inner life “Catharines”. “I fell in love with the power of St. Catherine,” says the founder of Opus Dei, “who speaks the truth to the most important people, with burning love and transparent clarity”. Therefore, in 1964, the founder of Opus Dei decided to appoint her as the intercessor of the apostolate, which is extremely valued: for informing a wide field of public opinion with the love of Christ.

Jesus is the truth that enlightens every person and saves him from darkness. To offer this light to others – to strive for it to be ignited in our own life – is one of the works of mercy. To bring one’s faith to others “means to make revelation visible, so that the Holy Spirit can work in people through witness: service is a way of life (…) If I say I am a Christian and live as a Christian, it attracts (…) Faith must be passed on: not to persuade, but to offer a treasure.

Before exhorting anyone to come to faith, Saint Catherine spent a lot of time tending to the sick in her city. The same love that led her to attend to the neediest later moved her to write letters inviting them to be faithful children of the Church. The credibility of her message was based on a life that radiated love for God and neighbor. Let us ask St. Catherine and our Heavenly Mother to intercede with God to give us love that feeds on prayer, manifests itself in acts of love, and proclaims the truth that leads to life. “The deepest teaching that we are called to impart and the surest certainty that dispels doubts is God’s love with which we have been loved (cf. 1 Jn 4:10). Great love, gratuitous and given forever, God never turns away from his love!”.

Children… How they strive to be good in the presence of their parents! And royal children, how they seek to preserve their royal dignity before their father the King! And you… don’t you realize that you always stand before the Great King, your Father God?  Do not decide without pausing to consider the matter in God’s presence.  It is necessary to convince ourselves that God is always with us. We live as if the Lord were somewhere far away from us, where the stars shine, and we forget He is always by our side. He is there as a loving Father – loving each one of us more than all the mothers in the world can love their children – helping us, counselling us, blessing us… and forgiving us. How many times, after we have brought up a naughty thing, have we managed to smooth out our parents’ frowning expression when we told them we wouldn’t do it again! And maybe that very day we fell again… And our father, with feigned sternness in his voice and a serious face, chastised us… but his heart was already soft, for he knew our weakness and thought to himself: Poor fellow, how he tries to be good! We must be filled and permeated with the thought that God is our Father, our true Father, who is with us and in heaven.Get into the habit of lifting up your heart to God in acts of thanksgiving many times a day. For he gives you this and that. Because thou art despised. Because you do not have what you need, or because you have it. Because He has made His Mother, who is also your Mother, so beautiful. Because He made the sun and the moon and that animal and that plant. Because He gave this man eloquence, and you are so ponderous. Thank him for everything, because everything is good.  Be not so blind and unmindful that thou wilt not enter into every Tabernacle when thou beholdest the walls or tower of the house of God. He awaits thee. Do not be so blind and oblivious that you do not invoke the Immaculate Virgin Mary when you pass by places that you know offend Christ there.  Do you not rejoice when, on your usual way through the streets of the city, you discover another Tabernacle? A man of prayer said: “Jesus is to be the goal of our endeavors, the Love of our hearts, the topic of our conversations, the pattern of our actions.” Use those holy “human aids” that I have recommended to you so that you do not lose consciousness of God’s presence: centering prayers, acts of charity and satisfaction, spiritual communion, gazing at images of the Blessed Virgin…  Alone! You are not alone. From afar, we accompany you always. And besides, the Holy Spirit who dwells in your pardoned soul – God with you – gives a supernatural tone to all your thoughts, desires, and actions.  “Father,” said the young man (what is the matter with him now?), a good student, “I have been thinking about what you told me… that I am a son of God! And I found myself walking down the street with my head held high and pride in my heart… Son of God!” With a clear conscience, I advised him to keep that pride.  I do not doubt your good intentions. I know that you act in the presence of God. Nevertheless, there is a bit: your actions are, or can be, observed by people who will judge them by human standards… And it is necessary to set them a good example.  If you get into the habit of seeking Mary’s company at least once a week to go to Jesus with her, you will see how much more you will live in God’s presence.  You ask me, “Why the wooden cross?” And I quote from a letter, “When I look up from the microscope, my eyes fall on the black and empty cross. This cross without the Crucified is a symbol. It has a meaning that others do not see. And the one who is tired and just wanted to put down his work, fixes his eyes on the microscope again and goes on, because that lonely cross cries out for arms to carry it.”  Live in the presence of God and you will have supernatural life.

INDEPENDENCE

The virtue of selflessness has a special name. From a purely linguistic point of view, it is a negative term. Yet it represents perhaps the rarest of positive qualities. The word “gain,” reported from the root of this expression, is positive, lawful, right, just. But if its negation is highly positive, apparently the word profit can sometimes have a negative flavor, or turn into something outwardly negative. Whenever profit is consistent with the requirement of justice, it is something positive. However, as soon as it becomes an end in itself – profit, for profit – its positivity is lost, and everything degenerates into egocentrism, narcissism, egoism, etc., depending on what aspect of the human aspect of the human being, and one becomes profiteering.

Selflessness is the “condition sine qua non” of the growth, existence, and authenticity of the human personality, more precisely of its moral character. Who consider from this point of view the saying of Jesus, “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt 16:23), will discover with immense surprise that Jesus did not utter a paradox here, but that – if in this context we set aside the biblical-theological meaning in the narrower sense – he was expressing a condition of moral self-preservation or self-preservation. But this would mean at the same time that to lose or seek to lose one’s own life for God is a path to self-preservation or self-mastery on a level that is utterly unknown to others.

But what if one does it out of calculation, out of selfishness? In a relationship with God, this is not true, for God never comes out from behind the scenes. If he did, he would overwhelm man with His goodness, His beauty, His greatness… just as the endless sea captivates a drop of water on a cliff. But God is hidden, and man is left only with faith – faith in goodness, justice, love, faithfulness, etc. God is thus “in statu viae” (still on the way) to the human being. Appears as the best goods, or even as the greatest good, or – only for very penetrating intelligence – as the infinity of all good.

But even then it does not irresistibly attract a man – because of the heaviness of his carnality. That is why man retains his freedom, even towards God. If, therefore, man freely, and thus unselfishly, chooses God, after a time he will see that he has not given up his personality, but has preserved it, that he has not given up himself, but has established himself in his authenticity, that he has not lost Selflessness his freedom but has enhanced it, that he has not emptied himself inwardly but has attained a higher stage of existence. Certainly, he has not yet had an ecstatic experience of it – apart from a few happy moments – but it is nevertheless a reason for unquestioning hope. At the same time, with these experiences, he realizes that the more selflessly he devotes himself to God, the more he grows and strengthens as a free, autonomous personality (“Ama et fac quod vis” – Love and do what you want). Every advance in selflessness means a further degree of authentication of the self, and conversely, with every self-direction one moves in the direction of the desire to “want to save one’s life,” and thus impoverishes oneself.

Without selflessness, there is no progress in either moral or virtuous
life. Man is bound by something. It reminds me of the incident of the two bon vivants who spent a long evening in a noisy society and then hired a boat to return home. They rowed for hours until it started to growl. They saw with horror that they had not got away from the shore, nor …within twenty yards of the shore. They had forgotten to untie the boat from the shore. It’s a picture of people anchored in themselves. As long as they don’t detach themselves from the
…or cut the rope, they can’t get a step ahead on the road to moral perfection. The virtue of selflessness thus inspires, motivates, and directs man to seek neither material reward nor recognition nor gratitude in anything, much less that satisfaction, which is incomparably more difficult for a man to renounce than anything else: inner self-satisfaction.

It is all the more difficult because one does not know what and how to grasp, where to begin, and often realizes too soon a fact that devalues everything – the self-satisfied reflection on the positive deed he has done. If it fails to remove it, the fragile virtue of selflessness is shattered,  as if it were made of the finest crystal. This apt comparison gives us enables us to understand why the good done by a self-satisfied glance at it disintegrates as soon as it has been successfully performed. It means, perhaps, that one must not fix one’s inward gaze on the well-done deed. Certainly not. The destruction of the effects of a good deed, and or the virtue of selflessness, comes only by admiring oneself – instead of God. Thus – to stay with what has already been said of the image – not only does one shatter the fine crystal, but one also wounds one by the shards. Hence the double harm. But is a man capable of absolute selflessness? Yes, but only in single moments of action. In the long run and for a lifetime.

The Church Fathers affirm the existence of purgatory. St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians says. He will surely save himself, but only from fire. St. Augustine writes. Whoever will be carnal, or will resemble in his life those who live according to the flesh, even if he does not break away from the Church, cannot be brought to heresy, let him await the fiery furnace, and let him know that only through the flame will he get to the right side. The fire will purify the souls so that they can get to the right. Only in purgatory shall we see what severe punishments are inflicted for what the world has come to call light sins.

St. Peter of Damian convinces us of the severity of the punishments for venial sin, by a whole heap of examples. The people of the world think very little of what they will have to pay for mistakes which they hardly notice here on earth. A certain nun has seen souls in Purgatory suffering for not being able to renounce their own opinions. Contemplating Purgatory will make us change by living. For many souls, he says, death would be a horror if we had only one perspective. All or nothing. Thus, heaven or hell. As one approaches eternity, one sees that one’s whole life has been miserable and that one has nothing to offer God except pity… The tormented soul has no choice but to despair in fear of eternal damnation. But when the justice of God expresses Himself as accepting his pity, the terror leaves him and he begins to hope. It might be said that in purgatory there exists at the same time the greatest possible joy after the joy of heaven and the greatest possible torment after the torment of hell.

For the soul, the cause of the most tender pain, is precisely the consciousness that it is loved by God, that it is called to rejoice in God in the fellowship of the blessed. For this, the soul loves God with the purest love. But at the same time, it seems that it can neither see God nor enjoy Him. And her pain is all the more agonizing because she does not know when her exile will end, St. Catherine of Genoa said. The purgatorial agony that comes from the temporary loss of God is so great, that language cannot tell and reason cannot comprehend. The torment of the senses is commensurate with sins.

The fiery instrument of God’s justice will give everyone what he deserves. The torments of purgatory immeasurably exceed the torments that would suffice in this life to atone for our sins, St. Augustine says that the fire of purgatory is more terrible than anything else that man can imagine here on earth. St. Thomas Aquinas does not hesitate to declare that the lightest purgatorial torment is worse than the heaviest earthly torment. Purgatorial torments last a very long time. Purgatory will come to an end on the Day of Judgment-For the souls who will still suffer at the end of the world, God will compensate for the duration of their torment with strength.

In the chronicles of the Franciscan Order, we read examples of the souls of the deceased appearing an hour or two after their death and complaining that the friars cared little for them and left them in purgatory for years… The priest prays for the dead at Mass. But it should be added that our prayers will not benefit all, only those who are in life, so these prayers can be beneficial to them. But we do not know which souls these are. Therefore, prayers and good works should be applied to all the baptized, so that no one is left out, who could benefit from those prayers. For it is better to dig up prayers that benefit no one than to rob them from those who can benefit from them. Finally, a thought of St. Teresa of Jesus. My Jesus, of what use are my little sacrifices to Thee? They will please the triumphant Church, which will receive these roses and place them in Thy divine hands so that Thou gayest give them infinite value, and throw them upon the suffering Church to quench her flames, and upon the struggling Church to help her to victory.