Today we celebrate the feast of All Saints, in which we witness the glorious diversity of God’s holiness lived by men and women throughout the ages. Tomorrow the Church celebrates the feast of All Souls, on which we pray in a special way for all of the holy souls in Purgatory. These two feast days inaugurate this final month of the liturgical year, in which the Church especially contemplates the four “Last Things”: death, judgment, Heaven, and Hell.

Purgatory is not one of the Last Things. It is only a temporary state for those on the way to Heaven. If we die in the state of grace, yet still retain various imperfections due to our attachments to creatures, we need to be purified of these imperfections and attachments before we are ready for the fullness of life in God. This purification is called Purgatory. The souls in Purgatory are suffering greatly. This is partly due to the temporal punishment due to their forgiven sins and partly due to the power of their attachments. They will one day be in Heaven, but now they are totally passive and receiving the purifying fire of Jesus’s Healing Love. They need our prayers and sufferings to help them speedily along their way.

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