Purgatory

Purgatory

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. A thing which is covered cannot respond to the sun’s rays, not because of any defect in the sun, which is shining all the time, but because the cover is an obstacle; if the cover be burnt away, this thing is open to the sun; more and more as the cover is consumed does it respond to the rays of the sun.

It is in this way that rust, which is sin, covers souls, and in purgatory is burnt away by fire; the more it is consumed, the more do the souls respond to God, the true sun. As the rust lessens and the soul is opened up to the divine ray, happiness grows; until the time be accomplished the one wanes and the other waxes.

Saint Catherine of Genoa

Saint Catherine of Genoa († 1510) was the director of a hospital that cared for victims of the plague. [From Saint Catherine of Genoa: Treatise on Purgatory, Charlotte Balfour & Helen Douglas Irvine, Trs. Sheed & Ward, Ltd., 1946. Reproduced by kind permission of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.]