Lent is above all a time when we can purify and accomplish part of purgatory while on earth. It is not an opportunity to miss. Each Lent is a great chance. Voluntary sacrifice mitigates suffering otherwise warranted. Salvation is our religion. It is not the opposite. Watch each thought. Fast from bad ones. Here we form a habit that lessons purgatory. The more we rid of bad traits the more room there is for love. As the classic Unpublished Manuscript on Purgatory relates:

"If you have difficulty, accept it with resignation because it is permitted by Our Lord Who, from the evil He permits, knows how to draw the greatest good.

"Kneel before the Tabernacle and there offer to Jesus the trials of your soul, which at times almost seem unbearable. His Heart will lighten everything.

"Before allowing a soul such intimate union with Himself, Jesus purifies it by trials, and the greater His designs on a soul, all the greater are the trials. The devil sees very well that God has special designs on you, that is why he harasses you so much and causes you to be worried by his agents.

"Do not be discouraged. God is helping you and will help you. Fight with great courage -- in spite of the efforts of hell, God will achieve His goal. God makes use of me to encourage you because you have no one else. Remember that and see how human nature has need of these little encouragements. Think of this when the occasion arrives, since you have, and will continue to have, charge of souls.

"God gives you an example of this in the Agony in the Garden. Have entire confidence in Jesus, He will never fail you. Fix your habitual dwelling place in the Heart of Jesus. Let love be the chain which unites your heart to His adorable Heart.

"Your heart which is so miserable will be purified and become detached by contact with His pure Heart. If God requires such great purity in a soul that He admits into Heaven, it is because He is the Eternal Purity, Beauty, and Justice, the Eternal Goodness and Perfection.

"In order to fix your mind firmly on the Presence of God, take every day one of the fourteen Stations of Our Lord in His Passion and dwell on it more particularly. Jesus wishes that we recall all the sufferings He has endured for us. On feast days, meditate in like manner on one of the glorious mysteries, e.g., the Resurrection, the Ascension, etcetera. Think often on the Holy Eucharist, on the hidden life of Jesus in the Tabernacle. There, above all, you will see His Love concealed, alone and waiting in vain for someone to come and say to Him, 'Jesus, I love You.'

"All things pass quickly. Do not fret so much about things that will end one day. Aim at what will never end. By your holy actions united to Jesus, let us embellish our heavenly throne. Let us raise it up a few steps nearer to Him Whom we shall contemplate and love throughout eternity. This is what should be our sole concern on earth. For a soul that He loves, Jesus does things that at first seem impossible."

[resources: An Unpublished Manuscript on Purgatory] 

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