St. Catherine of Genoa on Purgatory (part 2)

                                           "Dante and Virgil entering Purgatory," Luca Signorelli

St. Catherine of Genoa (1447 AD -1510 AD), like St. Frances of Rome and Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, was granted a vision of Purgatory, from which the following is extracted:

"I believe no happiness can be found worthy to be compared with that of a soul in Purgatory except that of the saints in Paradise; and day by day this happiness grows as God flows into these souls, more and more as the hindrance to His entrance is consumed.  Sin's rust is the hindrance, and the fire burns the rust away so that more and more the soul opens itself up to the divine inflowing. . . But, on the other hand, they endure a pain so extreme that no tongue can be found to tell it, nor could the mind understand its least pang if God by special grace did not show so much."

St. Catherine of Genoa, pray for us.

St. Catherine of Genoa on Purgatory

                        "Guardian Angel Succouring Soul in Purgatory" by Cecco del Caravaggio

The Church devotes November to prayer and sacrifice on behalf of the holy souls in Purgatory.  St. Catherine of Genoa (1447 AD - 1510 AD) enjoyed a most extraordinary condition of interior ecstasy for almost fifty years, during which she received wonderful revelations, including many concerning Purgatory.  These were compiled in St. Catherine's "Treatise on Purgatory," from which the following extract is taken:

"Of the peace and the joy there are in Purgatory.

The souls in Purgatory have wills accordant in all things with the will of God, who therefore sheds on them His goodness, and they, as far as their will goes, are happy and cleansed of all their sin. As for guilt, these cleansed souls are as they were when God created them, for God forgives their guilt immediately who have passed from this life ill content with their sins, having confessed all they have committed and having the will to commit no more. Only the rust of sin is left them and from this they cleanse themselves by pain in the fire. Thus cleansed of all guilt and united in will to God, they see Him clearly in the degree in which He makes Himself known to them, and see too how much it imports to enjoy Him and that souls have been created for this end. Moreover, they are brought to so uniting a conformity with God, and are drawn to Him in such wise, His natural instinct towards souls working in them, that neither arguments nor figures nor examples can make the thing clear as the mind knows it to be in effect and as by inner feeling it is understood to be."

St. Catherine of Genoa, pray for us.