From Forums of the Virgin Mary [translated from Portuguese; views are Forum’s]:

Shocking stories of purification on Earth or in the afterlife.

Have you noticed that some people take the bad things that happen to them incredibly well?

How can they bear it? 

It could be an illness, a death in the family, a death of a spouse, a divorce after long years of marriage.

It could be a financial crisis, loneliness, persecution, and even prison.

How do they handle it?

The answer is simply that God gives them the grace to handle all trials.

And this is the basis for avoiding Purgatory or at least shortening the days there.

Here we will talk about where we can go through Purgatory to atone for our sins, how to achieve God’s grace to avoid going through it, and what consequences this has for our life on Earth.

If a Christian cannot enter Heaven because he has some stain or impurity, which does not imply the severity of suffering eternal punishment, it is clear that he will have to “pay.”

And that place of payment is Purgatory.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, numerals 1030 to 1032 makes it clear that Purgatory exists as a place of cleansing, with a biblical basis.

Nothing impure enters Heaven, therefore those who do not die in mortal sin are purified in Purgatory.

It is the place that expresses the greatest mercy of God.

People think it is a place of fires, but fire seems to be a rhetorical device.

Because the souls that are there have lost their body, therefore the pains of purification are spiritual and not physical.

The existence of Purgatory is because it is a place of payment for sins that have not been repaired on Earth. 

So venial sins not confessed before death are a matter of cleansing in Purgatory.

While forgiven mortal sins need reparation, and that is done in Purgatory, even though those sins were confessed and absolved.

Now, every sin can be purified on Earth or in Purgatory, you decide where.

Very few souls can avoid Purgatory, although anyone could avoid it if he were aware that for every sin, even the smallest, he must consciously do penance, here or there.

Because the iron law is that if we are not totally purified we will not enter Heaven. 

Therefore it is preferable to try to be saints on Earth to avoid suffering in Purgatory.

Because it will always be worse than the suffering on Earth.

Every minute on Earth is an opportunity to earn passage to Heaven directly and escape Purgatory.

Because after death the tests on Earth have ended and we cannot accumulate more merits. 

And now wrong decisions must be atoned for and it can take seconds, minutes, days, months or years.

According to the writer Jan Connell, Our Lady told the visionary Marija of Medjugorje that a person remains in Purgatory, “until someone else among the people still on Earth corrects, through the grace of God, all violations.” “deliberate actions that the soul has caused to the loving plan of God.”

And that “an hour in Purgatory is more painful than the longest and hardest life on Earth.”

Some say that there are stays in Purgatory that last centuries.

At Fatima the children were told that a soul would be in Purgatory until the end of the world.

While others say that there are souls, especially loving and devoted, who fly to be with God on the same day of their death.

The key is in the atonement that comes through earthly trials.

But few people do it in their lives.

The many sacrifices of daily life purify and perfect love, and by this love we will be judged.

Unless one allows God to take one through the dark night of the senses and the dark night of the spirit, where such spiritual faults are eliminated, one must go to Purgatory.

In several apparition messages, Our Lady and Jesus Christ have said that most people who reach Heaven go through Purgatory.

And we have an impressive testimony from Fra Daniele Natale, inseparable friend of Padre Pio in the convent of San Giovanni Rotondo.

Friar Daniele thought that after dying he would spend time in Purgatory.

But the Lord took him there in life to make him reflect, and then his life changed upon his return.

Friar Daniele had cancer and underwent surgery, he remained in a coma for three days due to the operation and then died.

During that period of death he appeared before the Throne of God.

He was sentenced to three hours in Purgatory for having failed to take the vow of poverty , for having kept for himself a few liras that were donated to him.

And he jumped for joy at such a meager sentence.

But as soon as he arrived in Purgatory, he felt terrible pains that he did not know where they came from, but they were felt intensely.

And although only a few moments had passed with those sorrows, it already seemed to him that they were an eternity.

It was then that he thought of going to a brother in the convent to ask him to pray for him who was in Purgatory.

Then the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to her and asked her insistently, “Mother of God, obtain for me from the Lord the grace to return to Earth to live and work only for the love of God.”

He also went before Padre Pio and begged him,

“Because of your atrocious pain, pray for me to God to free me from these flames and grant me to continue Purgatory on Earth.”

Afterwards he saw nothing else, but he realized that Padre Pio was speaking to the Virgin.

And a few moments later the Virgin Mary appeared to him again, bowed her head and smiled at him.

At that same moment he took possession of his body again.

Those who were watching and praying for him, terrified, rushed out of the room to look for nurses and doctors.

After this experience, Friar Daniele truly experienced Purgatory on this Earth.

Purifying oneself through illness, suffering and pain , always and in everything conforming to the will of God.

He only remembers some interventions he suffered for the prostate, coliscytitis, and abdominal vein aneurysm.

Another intervention after a street accident near Bologna.

And other pains not only physical, but also moral.

Friar Daniele used to say “for more than 40 years I don’t remember what it means to be well.”

But good news is that God helps in trials.

It sensitizes us about the convenience of accepting the trials on Earth, offering them and having them told to us for our own purification.

Fasting and penance on Earth allow us to avoid many sufferings of Purgatory.

Another help is the prayers and mortifications that we do for the souls in Purgatory.

Because by helping them to purify themselves more quickly through our suffrages, we will have grateful people who will pray for us when they reach Heaven.

Every prayer you say, every mass you hear, every communion you receive, every good work you do, must have the intention of expressing and imploring God to grant you a holy and happy death, and not to go to Purgatory.

May I grant you the grace to purge your sins on Earth.

Well, that’s it, what we wanted to talk about is that before entering heaven we must all purify ourselves and that we will do it on Earth or in Purgatory.

Doing it in Purgatory is much more painful, so we can ask God for the grace to go through Purgatory on Earth and to help us endure the trials.

And I would like to ask you if you have thought about the possibility of asking God to give you the grace to spend Purgatory on Earth or not.