PURGATORY

The Two Catholic Views of Purgatory

Based on Catholic Teaching and Reve­
lations of Saintly Souls
(From All for Jesus)

Fr. Frederick William Faber

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
 PURGATORY

“It is therefore a holy and wholesome

thought to pray for the dead, that they may
be loosed from sins.” —2 Machabees 12:46
 We approve highly of the republi­
cation of the work styled All for
Jesus, by the Rev. F. W. Faber,
which has been received so favor­
ably by the Catholics of England.
* Francis Patrick Kenrick
Archbishop of Baltimore
Baltimore
January 20, 1854

This book consists of Chapter IX, “Purgatory,” from Fr.

Faber’s book entitled All for Jesus. Retypeset from the
TAN edition (1991), which was itself retypeset from the
23rd American edition, published by John Murphy & Co.,
182 Baltimore St., Baltimore, Maryland, around 1854,
“with the sanction and corrections of the author.” Punctu­
ation has been slightly modernized, and chapter divisions
and titles and subheadings have been added by TAN
Books in 2002.

ISBN 978-0-89555-728-5

Library of Congress Control No.: 2001-132407

Cover illustration: “Holy Mass and Purgatory” stained-

glass window. Photo copyright © Alan Brown 1993. Al
Brown Photo, Bardstown, Kentucky.

Cover design: Pete Massari, Rockford, Illinois.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
www. TANBooks.com
 “Oh, what a wonderful thing is the life of a fer­
vent Catholic! It is almost omnipotent, almost
omnipresent, because it is not so much he who
lives as Christ who liveth in him! Oh, what is it
we are touching and handling every day of our
lives, all so full of supernatural vigor, of secret
unction, of divine force— and yet we consider not,
but waste intentions and trifle time away in the
midst of this stupendous supernatural system of
grace, as unreflecting almost as stone embedded
in the earth and borne round unconsciously in its
impetuous revolutions day by day.”
—Pages 60-61
 Father Frederick William Faber
1814-1863

Father Faber was born in Yorkshire, England in

1814. He was converted from the A nglican m inistry to
Catholicism in 1845. Ordained a priest in 1847, he
join ed the Oratorians in 1848 under John H enry
Cardinal Newman. In addition to num erous fine
hymns, Fr. Faber authored nine books: Spiritual
Conferences, All for Jesus, Growth in Holiness, The
Blessed Sacrament, The Foot o f the Cross, The Precious
Blood, Bethlehem, The Creator and the Creature and
Notes on Doctrinal Subjects, plus a volum e o f poems,
essays and other minor works. In addition, he pub­
lished a series o f 49 Lives o f Modern Saints (the
“Oratorian” Lives) which highlight the Saints’ growth
in sanctity under the operation o f grace. Fr. Faber died
in London in 1863. He is considered a master o f the
theology o f the spiritual life.
 C O N TEN TS

1. The Thought of Hell ................................. 1

2. Devotion to the Souls in Purgatory . . . . 6

3. First View: Purgatory Similar to Hell . . 15

4. Second View: The Souls’ Desire for

Purification ............................................ 18

5. Union o f the Two Views o f Purgatory . . 36

6. Other Benefits of This D e v o tio n ............. 47

7. The Example o f the S a in t s ...................... 62

Prayers for the Souls in Purgatory ............. 76

 PURGATORY

“But I say unto you, that every idle word

that men shall speak, they shall render an
account for it in the day o f judgment”
—Matthew 12:36

“Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out

from thence till thou repay the last farthing.”
—Matthew 5:26
 The Thought of Hell
T IS incredible how dear the glory of God

I becomes to those who are continually on the

lookout for it. The very search gives them
new senses whereby they can find it, while daily
increasing love is perpetually sharpening their
discernment. “The earth is full of Thy glory.” What
a joy to a loving heart! But it is not enough that
Heaven has overflowed and that the earth is filled
with the blessed inundation of His glory. We
would fain [wish] there should not be a nook of
creation which is not full of it. Yet there is one
place where that glory seems frustrated, one
place from which there rises neither plaint of
prayer, nor joy of praise, nor blessing of thanks,
nor aspiration of desire. It is the house of those
who have had their trial and lost their cause, and
with it have lost God forever.
Here is grace which has not borne fruit, or
whose fruits have rotted upon the tree. Here are
Sacraments which have come to nought. The
Cross has been a failure, and God’s loving pur­
poses have been successfully resisted and dire­
fully overthrown. Yet it is of faith that God’s
harvest of glory out of that unutterable gloom is
immense, for the lost soul is as much an unwilling
worship of His justice as the converted soul is a
willing worship of His love. Neither is Jesus with­
out His own interests there; for the pains,
unspeakable as they are, nay, even in the bare
thought of them intolerable, are less than the
merit of sin, less than the righteous measure of
punishment, and are so because of Him. The Pre­
cious Blood, in some sense, has reached even
there.

The Fear of Hell Saves Souls

Neither is that horrible place without a most
blessed result on the salvation of many souls,
through the holy and salutary fear which it
breeds in them and the loose and low notions of
God which it corrects in the unthinking. When
Our Lord showed Sister Francesca of the Blessed
Sacrament, a Spanish Carmelite, the loss of a
soul, and several times in a vision compelled her
positively to study the separate tortures of that
place, He upbraided her for weeping: “Francesca!
Why weepest thou?” She fell prostrate at His
sacred feet and said, “Lord! For the damnation of
that soul, and the manner in which it has been
damned.” He vouchsafed to reply, “Daughter! It
hath chosen to damn itself; I have given it many
helps of grace that it might be saved, but it would
not profit by them. I am pleased with your com­
passion, but I would have you rather love My jus­
tice.” And another time, when she was compelled
to fix her gaze upon those pains, the Angels said
to her, “O Francesca! Strive hard after the holy
fear of God!” Who can doubt that there are, at this
hour, thousands and tens of thousands in the bliss
of Heaven who never would have been there if
there had been no Hell. Alas for the reproach it is
to the unloving hearts of men, but after all, the
Cross of Christ has had no better help on earth
than the unbearable fire of Hell.
Verily it is well for our own sakes to think
sometimes of that horrid place! As truly as fair
France lies across the Channel, as truly as the
sun is shining on the white walls and gay bridges
and bright gardens and many-storied palaces of
its beautiful capital, as truly as that thousands of
men and women there are living real lives and
fulfilling various destinies, so truly is there such
a place as Hell, all alive this hour with the multi­
tudinous life of countless agonies and innumer­
able gradations of despair. Save the Blessed in
Heaven, none live so keen or conscious a life as
those millions of ruined souls. It is not impossible
that we may go there too. It is not impossible that
we may have sent some there already. When we
pass along the streets, we must often see those
who will inhabit there forever. There are some
there now who were not there an hour ago. There
are some now in the green fields, or in the busy
towns, on comfortable beds, or on the sunshiny
seas, who in another hour perhaps will have gone
there. This is a dreadfully real truth.
 It Is Good to Think of Hell
But what if more than all this be true? What if
there was once a day when we should have gone
thither if we had died? What if this hour it holds
mere boys and girls, who have sinned far less than
we have done, nay, perhaps have sinned but once,
while we have sinned a thousand times? Oh, but
we may humble ourselves still more. How long
should we persevere in serving God if we were cer­
tified there was no Hell? Should we have left our
sins if it had not been for Hell?
Oh, what a thing it is to be upon this good earth,
and surrounded by all this hopeful life, when we
have actually by our own hand and eye, word and
thought and evil painstaking, worked out our right
and title to all this everlasting woe. Ah! Just as the
mist rises from the barren sea, where the corn
grows not and the vines can bear no fruit, and
forms the clouds which are to fall in fertilizing
showers over hill and dale, so from those broad
seas of fire and curse the Divine Compassion rises
like a cloud to pour down streams of grace upon
the souls of living men.
Let no one ever turn away from the sight of Hell,
lest, by little and by little and by very little, a good
opinion of himself should grow up within his soul
and send him to that drear banishment at last.
Indeed it is good, very good, to think of Hell, and of
that kind wonder that we are not already there
this hour. Nay, do not start—what you see is
indeed the white light of earth’s sun; fear not: that
sound—it is the wind that waves the branches of
the wood; be assured, your eyes do not deceive you:
those are the village spires that are sleeping in the
misty, quiet landscape; all is right so far. We are
here, and we are free; but we ought to have been—
there, and slaves!
But if we give ourselves up to seek and find
God’s glory, and to make this our one occupation
upon earth, must we go down to Hell and learn to
rejoice with those awful attributes of God which
are satisfied with that terrific sacrifice? No! God be
praised; this is no part of our devotion. We are crea­
tures of hope and love. We go where God’s glory is
possible to us, where we can help it and advance its
interests; or if we rise into the impossible, it is only
that love has carried us away into the silent elo­
quence of childlike, extravagant desire. We have
nothing to do with Hell. We have seen that of our
three things, the glory of God, the interests of
Jesus and the salvation of souls, the two first may
be found even there. But they are not there in ways
which concern us, so reflections upon Hell are not
necessary to my plan. Enough for us that there is
such a place, and that at this hour it is full of souls,
and that more and more are ever streaming into it,
and that its frightful occupations are what they
are, and that there is not one of us who is not run­
ning a risk or of whom it is not possible that that
place may be his heritage and portion forever. They
who serve Jesus out of love do not on that account
forget these things. Nay, they remember them the
more, because they love so much.
 Devotion to the
Souls in Purgatory
UT although we are mercifully freed from

B descending into Hell to seek and promote

the interests of Jesus, it is far from being
so with Purgatory.
If Heaven and earth are full of the glory of God,
so also is that most melancholy, yet most interest­
ing land, where the prisoners of hope are detained
by their Saviour’s loving justice from the Beatific
Vision; and if we can advance the interests of
Jesus on earth and in Heaven, I may almost ven­
ture to say that we can do still more in Purgatory.
And what I am endeavoring to show you in this
treatise is how you may help God by prayer and
the practices of devotion, whatever your occupa­
tion and calling may be; and all these practices
apply especially to Purgatory. For although some
theologians say that in spite of the Holy Souls
placing no obstacle in the way, still the effect of
prayer for them is not infallible, nevertheless it is
much more certain than the effect of prayer for the
conversion of sinners upon earth, where it is so
often frustrated by their perversity and evil dispo­
sitions. Anyhow, what I have wanted to show has
been this: that each of us, without aiming beyond
our grace, without austerities for which we have
not courage, without supernatural gifts to which
we lay no claim, may by simple affectionateness
and the practices of sound Catholic devotion, do
great things—things so great that they seem
incredible—for the glory of God, the interests of
Jesus and the good of souls.

Pray for Sinners or the Holy Souls?

I should therefore be leaving my subject very
incomplete if I did not consider at some length
devotion to the Holy Souls in Purgatory; and I
will treat, not so much of particular practices of it,
which are to be found in the ordinary manuals, as
of the spirit of the devotion itself.
Rosignoli, in his Wonders o f God in Purgatory
(Opere 1:710), which he wrote at the request of
Blessed Sebastian Valfre of the Turin Oratory,
relates from the Dominican annals an interesting
dispute between two good friars as to the respec­
tive merits of devotion for the conversion of sin­
ners and devotion for the Holy Souls.
Bro. Bertrando was the great advocate of poor
sinners, constantly said Mass for them, and
offered up all his prayers and penances to obtain
for them the grace of conversion. “Sinners,” he
said, “without grace, are in a state of perdition.
Evil spirits are continually laying snares for
them, to deprive them of the Beatific Vision and
to carry them off to eternal torments. Our Blessed
Lord came down from Heaven and died a most
painful death for them. What can be a higher
work than to imitate Him and to cooperate with
Him in the salvation of souls? When a soul is lost,
the price of its redemption is lost also. Now the
souls in Purgatory are safe. They are sure of their
eternal salvation. It is most true that they are
plunged into a sea of sorrows, but they are sure to
come out at last. They are the friends of God,
whereas sinners are His enemies, and to be God’s
enemy is the greatest misery in creation.”
Bro. Benedetto was an equally enthusiastic
advocate of the suffering souls. He offered all his
free Masses for them, as well as his prayers and
penances. Sinners, he said, were bound with the
chains of their own will. They could leave off sin­
ning if they pleased. The yoke was of their own
choosing, whereas the dead were tied hand and
foot against their own will in the most atrocious
sufferings.
“Now come, dear Bro. Bertrando, tell me— sup-
pose there were two beggars, one well and strong,
who could use his hands and work if he liked, but
chose to suffer poverty rather than part with the
sweets of idleness; and the other, sick and
maimed and helpless, who in his piteous condi­
tion could do nothing but supplicate help with
cries and tears—which of the two would deserve
compassion most, especially if the sick one was
suffering the most intolerable agonies? Now this
is just the case between sinners and the Holy
Souls. These last are suffering an excruciating
martyrdom, and they have no means of helping
themselves. It is true they have deserved these
pains for their sins, but they are now already
cleansed for those sins. They must have returned
to the grace of God before they died, else they
would not have been saved. They are now most
dear, inexpressibly dear, to God; and surely char­
ity, well ordered, must follow the wise love of the
Divine Will and love most what He loves most.”
Bro. Bertrando, however, would not give way,
though he did not quite see a satisfactory answer
to his friend’s objection. But the night following,
he had an apparition which it seems so convinced
him that from that time he changed his practice,
and offered up all his Masses, prayers and
penances for the Holy Souls. It would appear as if
the authority of St. Thomas might be quoted on
the side of Bro. Benedetto, as he says, “Prayer for
the dead is more acceptable than for the living, for
the dead are in the greatest need of it and cannot
help themselves, as the living can.” (Suppl. 3.
Part, q. 71, art. 5 ad 3).

St. Teresa of Avila

How acceptable this devotion is to Almighty
God, and how He vouchsafes to seem, as it were,
impatient for the deliverance of the souls, and yet
to leave it to our charity, is taught us on the unim­
peachable authority of St. Teresa. In the Book of
her Foundations, she tells us that D. Bernardino
di Mendoza gave her a house, garden and vine­
yard for a convent at Valladolid. Two months after
this, and before the foundation was effected, he
was suddenly taken ill and lost the power of
speech, so that he could not make a Confession,
though he gave many signs of contrition. “He
died,” says St. Teresa, “very shortly, and far from
the place where I then was. But Our Lord spoke
to me and told me that he was saved, though he
had run a great risk, for that He had had mercy
upon him because of the gift he had given for the
convent of His Blessed Mother; but that his soul
would not be freed from Purgatory until the first
Mass was said in the new house. I felt so deeply
the pains this soul was suffering that, although I
was very desirous of accomplishing the founda­
tion of Toledo, I left it at once for Valladolid. Pray­
ing one day at Medino del Campo, Our Lord told
me to make haste, for that soul was suffering
grievously. On this I started at once, though I was
not well prepared for it, and arrived at Valladolid
on St. Lawrence’s day.”
She then goes on to relate that, as she received
Communion at the first Mass said in the house,
her benefactor’s soul appeared to her all glorious,
and afterward entered Heaven. She did not
expect this, for as she observes, “Although it had
been revealed to me that this would happen at
the first Mass, I thought it must mean the first
Mass when the Blessed Sacrament would be
reserved there.”

We might multiply almost indefinitely the reve­

lations of the Saints which go to prove the special