No one goes to Heaven impure

"When a person dies, they do not go straight to heaven, unless they are Saints on Earth. You are doing a great evil to your love ones, if you don't pray for them. Do not say, my relative is in heaven now! No they are not. If they are Catholic and died with confession they went to Purgatory. It is your obligation to make sure that person receives the last Sacraments, and your obligation if you truly love them, to pray so they may get out of the fires of Purgatory soon.

A Holy Mass once a year, its cruel! Once a Month is not any better. Think of your time, how will you like people to pray for you? Remember one second in Purgatory feels like years.  Pray and say many Masses for your love ones. No One goes to heaven not pure. I come to tell you that they suffer in Purgatory, that they weep, and that they demand with urgent cries the help of your prayers and your good works.

I seem to hear them crying from the depths of those fires which devour them: "Tell our loved ones, tell our children, tell all our relatives how great the evils are which they are making us suffer. We throw ourselves at their feet to implore the help of their prayers. Ah! Tell them that since we have been separated from them, we have been here burning in the flames!" "

-- Saint John Marie Baptiste Vianney

Benefits of praying for the Holy Souls...

The cases of intercession of the souls in Purgatory are numerous :-

The following one, which is among the best known and most moving, happened in Paris in 1817.

A domestic servant, who had the pious habit of having a Mass said every month for the souls in Purgatory, became ill and having to be hospitalized, lost her job.

Upon leaving the hospital, she went to a church to pray, where she remembered that she had failed to have Mass said for the poor souls that month. However due to her unemployment, she could not afford a Mass offering since it would leave her penniless. After hesitating, she gave the offering.

Leaving the church, she met a young man who seemed to be a noble. He unexpectedly asked her if she needed employment and gave her the address of a house, which needed a maid.

When she arrived at the house, the owner, who had just dismissed her maid, wondered who could have known that she needed help. While describing the young man at the Church, the servant saw a painting of him on the wall.

Hearing this, the owner exclaimed, "That is my son, who died two months ago!"

Then both realized that God wanted to reward the maid's charity and reveal the power of a suffering soul's intercession.

Don't forget the souls in Purgatory ...

I’ve noticed, over the years, how funerals have become more sophisticated: ornate (rather heavy) caskets, creative flower arrangements, full colour ‘orders of service’ , headstones with photos and fine engraving and even at the wake, superb catering. Families really ‘push the boat out’ to show respect and celebrate the life of their deceased love ones. 

Whilst it is right to have a good send-off; the deceased does not benefit from the externals in the slightest and the one and only thing they would appreciate is often neglected... prayer to ease their pains in purgatory, our primary duty to them. 

Over the centuries, the holy souls have been given the favour of visiting saints and mystics to deliver this message of neglect. One said “the greatest “complaint” of the souls in Purgatory is how they are almost completely forgotten by their family and loved ones; they rightly complain that they receive no spiritual help from those they themselves helped so much during life. How few prayers are ever offered up for them, even at their funerals.” 

It is a sad indictment. It may be that we think they go straight to heaven; that we believe them to be good because we love them and overlook any shortcoming, forgetting that perfection and holiness is required for a soul to enter heaven. 

As to the means of their deliverance from purgatory, one holy soul had this to say, “It is the Blood of Jesus Christ that is needed to extinguish the flames by which I am consumed; it is the Holy Sacrifice (of the Mass) which will deliver me from these frightful torments. I implore you to keep your word, and refuse me not that which in justice you owe me." 

I think the message is to never stop having Masses offered and adding our own prayers too for the holy souls; the ancient tradition of Gregorian masses (30 days of consecutive Masses) seems a good start, although some will need many more than that. 

We should train the next generation to pray for the dead everyday. Children and grandchildren will be the only ones we could rely on when our time comes.

Urgency of praying for souls in Purgatory

( a padre Pio story)

“One evening, while I was alone in choir to pray, I heard the rustle of a suit and I saw a young monk that stirred next to the High altar. It seemed that the young monk was dusting the candelabra and straightening the flower vases.

I thought he was Padre Leone rearranging the altar, and, since it was supper time, I went to him and I told him: “Padre Leone, go to dine, this is not the time to dust and to straighten the altar”.

But a voice, that was not Father Leone’s answered me”: “I am not Padre Leone”, “and who are you? “, I asked him. “I am a brother of yours that made the noviciate here. I was ordered to clean the altar during the year of the noviciate. Unfortunately many times I didn’t reverence Jesus while passing in front of the altar, thus causing the Holy Sacrament that was preserved in the tabernacle to be disrespected. For this serious carelessness, I am still in Purgatory. Now, God, with his endless goodness, sent me here so that you may quicken the time I will enjoy Paradise. Take care of me.”

I believed to be generous to that suffering soul, so I exclaimed: “you will be in Paradise tomorrow morning, when I will celebrate Holy Mass”.

That soul cried: “Cruel!” Then he wept and disappeared.

That complaint produced in me a wound to the heart that I have felt and I will feel my whole life. In fact I would have been able to immediately send that soul to Heaven but I condemned him to remain another night in the flames of Purgatory.”