St. Alphonsus Liguori, on the Holy Souls in Purgatory

                                                "An Angel Frees Souls in Purgatory," by Lodovico Carracci


The Church traditionally devotes November to praying for the Holy Souls in Purgatory,  as well as offering up penances and daily sacrifices for their deliverance from Purgatory.

The following reflection concerning the Holy Souls in Purgatory is taken from St. Alphonsus Liguori's "The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ:"


"The Holy Souls in Purgatory feel no pain more acutely than that of their yearning to possess God, from Whom they remain still at a distance.  And this sort of pain will afflict those especially who in their lifetime had but little desire of Paradise.   Cardinal Bellarmine [De Purg. I. 2, c. 7.] also says, that there is a certain place in Purgatory called, 'prison of honor,' where certain souls are not tormented with any pain of sense, but merely with the pain of privation of the sight of God; examples of this are related by St.Gregory, Venerable Bede, St. Vincent Ferrer, and St. Bridget; and this punishment is not for the commission of sin, but for coldness in desiring Heaven."

St. Alphonsus Liguori, pray for us.