Purgatory: The Supernatural Waiting Room

Everybody has their own idea of Heaven. Whether one sees it circling in the eyes of their children or wafting in the smell of their morning coffee, everybody – dare I say, even those who don’t believe in eternal life – has an idea about what ‘Paradise’ means for them.

When I think of Heaven, I often think of Our Lord’s words: ‘In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?’ (John 14:2) I imagine a room, set aside for me when I was just a thought in the mind of God – a willed, necessary thought who came to be simply because I was loved (I am loved, I always will be!). Allow me to speak to you of the childish little analogy that takes form in my mind. In my room, I see my guardian angel dancing around the room fluffing my pillows and baking me cookies. My Heaven shoes get more sparkly everytime I increase in grace. In this world, calories don’t exist and there is no pain. There are no goodbyes. I am embraced in love, sharing in the friendship of the Holy Trinity.

I often muse on my little room in the mansion of my Lord because it helps me understand the gravity of sin. When I sin, I imagine my guardian angel closing the door to my personal mansion in Heaven. Every time I confess, the world I was made for becomes a reality again.

I know I’ll see souls in Heaven that I wish I knew on earth, and I also know I’ll reconnect with souls I now share or did share a connection with. I know I’ll see the teenagers I minister to and love so much and I know I’ll see members of my family there. Other members I pray I may share Heaven with, and I pray for them more fervently than I pray for anything else in my life.

Now, I know, I know, ‘eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him’ (1 Corinthians 2:9), but I can still meditate on it! Heaven is beyond our wildest contemplations, but even God spoke analogously in order that we may dare to live for the greatness we were meant for.

But here’s the thing – the real reason I’m writing this. Heaven is what we were meant for, but Heaven is not something that comes about because of some gooey oozy ‘growth’ experience. Heaven is hard work (it’s Hell that is easy). This is why a very holy priest preached last week that one who does not pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory will one day be accountable before God. Praying for the dead is a necessary act of mercy. Now, there’s no point praying for a damned soul (they’ve permanently chosen to cut themselves off from God), and there is no point praying for a soul in Heaven (they’ve won the race already!), so who are we praying for? We are praying for the souls in purgatory – what we call the ‘Church Suffering.’

St. Jean Vianney pleaded with his parishioners to pray for him after his death. He preached incessantly about his fear that he would spend generations in purgatory because nobody would offer masses for him after his death, under the presumption he was already a Saint. We need to pray for the souls in purgatory!

Why do we need purgatory? To answer this, let’s go back to my little room. Not going to purgatory would be like me walking in wearing muddy gumboots and treating my palace like a construction site. I need to be purified and set free from the consequences of my sins before entering into eternal glory. What do I mean by the consequences of my sins? Allow me to use another analogy. Imagine a plank of wood with nails driven into it. If I take the nails out and throw them into the ocean, as far as I’m concerned, those nails no longer exist. But, the fact that the nails are gone does not mean the holes in the wood are miraculously filled! Sin has consequences, and our being forgiven from our sins reconciles us to God (who takes the ‘nails’ out and throws them in the ocean), but this does not fill the ‘hole’ created by sin.

Sound harsh? Far from it.  Purgatory – what the Catechism calls the ‘final purification of the elect’ is, in fact, an act of mercy. Without this purification, almost all souls would be damned. Instead, the God who desired friendship with us even to the point of death and suffering purifies us with the fire of His Sacred Heart. His love fills the holes in our soul we make every time we sin. But that’s not all. Even more mercifully than this, we have the opportunity to make reparation even while on earth through the sacrament of penance. St. Catherine of Siena clarifies to us that souls who perform worthy penances on earth ‘pay with a penny the debt of a thousand ducats’ (let’s pretend we know what a ducat is – or, if you don’t want to pretend, replace ‘ducat’ with ‘dollar’). She helps us understand the importance of this great sacrament by taking this point further saying that he who waits for purgatory to purify themselves ‘consents to pay a thousand ducats (dollars) for that which he might have paid before with a penny.’

Now do we understand the maternal love and mercy behind Our Lady’s exhortation at Fatima? ‘PENANCE, PENANCE, PENANCE.’ Understand it, because this ‘Star of the Sea’ is the consolation of the poor suffering souls in purgatory, constantly bringing them refreshment. Penance is a response to the merciful actions of God, not an act of supernatural spite!

As children of this most amiable mother, let us always offer prayers for our suffering brothers and sisters in purgatory. Let us constantly consider the Church Suffering to be as helpless infants in need of their mother, the Church.

Let us pray especially during November, dedicated to the Holy Souls. 

Then, one day, when we walk into our little room, we will see them – righteous and white as snow – so many of them coming towards us and thanking us. We will ask who they are, and they will say: ‘a poor soul you prayed for in Purgatory.’

My favourite artist, William Bougeareau, once painted 

this picture of the angels carrying a suffering soul to Heaven. 
The Church teaches this is achieved by our prayers!

Expect Miracles

I can honestly say those words have changed my entire outlook on life. I was commanded to BE AUDACIOUS in what can only be described as an off-the-record remark at a LifeTeen training conference.

My first response? I AM AUDACIOUS. I’M SO AUDACIOUS. I SMELL of audacity. No, I REEK of audacity! It's in my blood. It's in my veins. I’M THE VERY DEFINITION OF AUDACITY.

That was pride talking. Then, just as quickly as it flared up, my pride was shattered.

Have a read of this:

On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” (John 2:1-5)

Nothing stick out to you? Read it again, and again (and again!).

'The Mother of Jesus was there; Jesus was also there.'

Let’s think about that for a minute. Put it in modern terms.

CNN REPORTS: ‘The concert was a huge event! The mother of Taylor Swift was there, and Taylor Swift was also there.’

What St. John did is the modern day equivalent of CNN making the superstar a side note at her own concert and focussing on her mother being there to encourage and watch. Instead of leading the story with the Lord of Heaven and Earth (whose ‘glory was manifested’ by the end of the account), John made Mary the focus. Is this not ridiculous? Is it not strange? Mary became the centre of the story of Jesus’ first public miracle! In fact, John calls this a ‘sign.’ Hold up, Mary was the focus of the first public sign that points to the fact that Jesus is God? Does this not show us how pivotal she is? Does it not highlight to us the importance of her role here?

Why was she the focus of John’s story? Because she was the reason the miracle was performed. BECAUSE OF HER AUDACITY.

Our Lady didn’t ASK Jesus if they should do anything. She told him what the problem was and EXPECTED that her Son would perform a miracle. She didn’t hesitate. She didn’t doubt. She didn’t even consider (even though she knew!) that Him revealing His glory would bring forward the hour of His passion. SHE WAS AUDACIOUS.

Expect miracles.

How many times do we go to Jesus and tell Him what is lacking? How many times do we say ‘I have no wine’ and actually EXPECT (rather than simply wish) that He will perform a miracle in our life?

We need to imitate her in all things. We need to go to Jesus and tell Him we have no wine. THEN, even when our obstacles hit us square in the face, we need to hand him our stone jar filled with water and KNOW that He will fix it. We need to tell Him that we will do whatever He tells us.

See, rather than Our Lady simply submitting, her instruction to ‘do whatever He tells you’ is a statement of faith. Let me make this easier to understand. For all the Maronites – don’t forget she was a Middle Eastern mother! I know from experience that when my mother tells me to do something (or even if she hints it), she expects that I will do it. When I tell her I can’t, her response ‘do whatever you want’ is not a submission – it’s a command! What she is really saying is ‘make your mother happy. If you love your mother, you will do this.’

Boy, did He love her. He loved everything about her, and she was far from a damsel in distress, she was perfect – and man, was she AUDACIOUS.

He loves us, too. He loves us beyond our wildest contemplations. I’ve said it before: His plans are unimaginable, inexplicable.They make our wildest human reveries look like fairy tales written by Ebenezer Scrooge.

Expect miracles. Don’t simply tell Jesus your problems, expect Him to fix them.

Matthew 9. Four stories of the healing power of faith in less than 30 verses!

The healing of the paralytic: “when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven’ … and he rose and went home.”  

The rising of the dead: “… a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, ‘my daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live’ … He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.” 

The healing of the haemorrhaging woman: “… she said to herself, ‘If I only touch his garment, I shall be made well.’ Jesus turned, and seeing her, He said, ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.’ And instantly the woman was made well.”  

The healing of the two blind men: “… the blind men came to him; and Jesus said to them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ They said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord.’ Then He touched their eyes, saying, ‘according to your faith be it done to you.’ And their eyes were opened.” 

These people were healed because of their faith. They were AUDACIOUS. They weren’t TRYING Jesus, they knew He could do all things and that he WOULD if they had the audacity to simply go to Him.

Still not clicking? Fine. I hear ya.

Let me tell you about my miracle. After praying for the conversion of a soul very dear to me (among other things) for a long time, I would lament God’s silence. I couldn’t see what was happening. I felt I was getting NOTHING.

***Cue Meltdown***
‘Why? Why don’t you help? Why don’t you want me to turn to You? Why are You ignoring me? How do You expect me to trust You if I run and ask You to tell me how to fix this AND. YOU. JUST. DON’T?’

Little did I know He was actually answering but my pride had simply made me deaf to Him. He was laughing at my dreams and saying ‘is that it? Just wait – wait and see what I have planned!’ My Lord, did you deliver…

My problem was that I didn’t give it to all Him and tell Him I was expecting a miracle. Instead, Little Miss Control Freak wanted to maintain her hold over the situation (you know, the hold I didn’t have in the first place). It was only when I gave up control and told Jesus that it was His problem to fix, it was only when I told Mary that this soul was hers and reminded her WITH AUDACITY that she promised she would not rest until all her children were with her in Heaven that my world (and more importantly, the lost soul’s world) was changed. I needed to truly know, that ‘the son of all these tears would not be lost.’[1]

Tell Jesus about your lack of wine, your blindness, your lamentations, your sufferings and your burdens. Offer up to Him what cripples you and know He will fix it. 

Be audacious, expect miracles. It will change your life.

Engrave this in your souls and hearts of gold and fire: 

immense confidence, unshakeable confidence 

in this King of Love, who is called Jesus - Saviour. 

---

[1] I owe St. Monica so much. In her son Augustine's classic, 'Confessions,' he relays the story of this saintly mother who never gave up on him, no matter how wicked he got. One day, while she was weeping and begging a Bishop to speak to him and convince him out of moving to Milan, lest he be lost forever, the bishop got frustrated and wisely told her, 'the son of all these tears cannot be lost.'

It was in Milan that he met St. Ambrose and was converted - the rest is history.

Mama Mons, thank you. Pray for us. 

Youth: Find Wonderful...

This is a post I've been trying to write for a long time. For some reason, the words just wouldn't come. BUT when I was asked to give a testimony at a LifeTeen Youth Ministry training retreat this weekend, this was the first thing that came to my mind and the words just came. This is a slightly adapted version of my personal testimony.

This is why I love youth ministry.

Anybody who knows me for longer than 15.8 seconds knows I’m a very passionate person. I’m also very cynical, very strange and I love people (even if most of the time I pretend I really don’t).

I also consider myself to have a great sense of wonder – but this hasn’t always been the case.

Now, months ago, Myer was running a campaign – ‘Find Wonderful.’ You can watch it here. For our American friends, ‘Myer’ is a department store probably equivalent to Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s. If you watch the ad, it speaks of the sense of wonder you experience as a child and how one day, ‘we all got serious in a great great blah of ‘adequate.’’ The ad then goes on to ask ‘why, when there’s so much to feel wonderful about?’

Now, the first time I saw the campaign I started to reflect, and then being me, got distracted with all the pretty Parisian dresses and impossibly high heels. BUT, the second time I saw the campaign, I thought about it. Where did the world’s sense of wonder go? When did life get ordinary?

Kids – teens – have a sense of wonder. Being a part of iSeek helped me become both a witness to and a part of that wonder. There is nothing more beautiful than watching them fall in love with the drama of love that is Christ. There is nothing more rewarding than being a part – however small – of their realisation that Jesus is not just ‘almighty God’ – all knowing, all powerful, ever present: distant – but that He is a person, who out of love for them, came to earth, suffered and died – and even more than that, imprisons Himself in the tabernacle day and night waiting for them. Even more than THAT even, He would do it all again for them ALONE. Once someone realises that Jesus needs to first an foremost be an encounter, there is no turning back – they’re ruined.

I think that’s the thing I love most about youth ministry. I call them ‘Jesus baby moments.’ AT LEAST every once in a while, a teen will walk up to me and show me why it’s all worth it.

Just a couple weeks ago, one of our girls walked up to me just to chat. While we were talking, she told me she couldn’t wait to leave school and that she would join the first religious order that would accept her as a sixteen year old. She then went on to criticise teens her age for not understanding where their priorities should lie – ‘like, I don’t understand why a fourteen year old needs a boyfriend – they’re not gonna get married anytime soon, BUT I’m really happy that a little while ago one of my friends told me he and his girlfriend had spoken and decided to choose love over lust.’ I guarantee they didn’t learn that from MTV.

Another time, right after same sex marriage passed in the U.S. Supreme Court and the rainbow profile pictures as well as ‘love won’ statuses became popular, one teen posted on Facebook ‘love truly won when Christ spread His arms out in the ultimate sign of love for you and I; when He died.’ Another posted it was ‘upsetting how the world is fed these lies’ only to prompt a response from another iSeek teen: ‘you know what’s crazy about Christianity, people are always jumping over what we are ‘against,’ instead of what we’re about: unconditional love.’

When teens refer to the Eucharist as ‘Jesus’ or ‘Heaven on earth,’ or speak about us as the ‘Mystical Body of Christ’ – yes, that actually happened – it never fails to make my heart dance. When I watch teens in adoration or observe them afterwards, I know we are doing something worthwhile.

That’s why I love youth ministry. It helps us never lose the sense of wonder that made us fall madly in love with Christ and His Church in the first place. Pope Pius XI used to love mountain climbing, and often used it as an analogy of how our relationships get us to Heaven. We and the teens help each other up, sometimes looking below at what we have overcome, but always motivated by what is above: the deepest, most wonderful desires of our hearts. What eye has not seen and ear has not heard, a beauty we can never imagine.

Taking Christ's call to be 'childlike' PERHAPS a little too 

seriously - but, hey, I'll bet you don't have this much fun!

The J-O-Y of Lent-fullness...

Fast, pray, give away. 

Lent. Be lent-ful. Focus on God. Be good. Don't gossip. Don't get angry. Curb the road rage. Curb all rage. Mustn't be mean to (very) silly siblings. Must retract two words from previous sentence. Fine, conscience, they're retracted - I wasn't at all being Lent-ful. Eat less flesh, more musical fruit (makes you do something that rhymes with "Bart..."), speaking of eating - must do more dishes, complain less about doing aforementioned dishes... Why don't we use plastic plates again? Oh yes, wasteful. Can't be wasteful... not in Lent. 

Fast, pray, give away. 

... Until Easter. Oh man, Easter is awesome. Jesus rises ANDDDDD to celebrate, all those Lenten promises I made and did my best to stick to can go jump. I can eat meat, don't have to fast, can stop doing all those *excess* prayers, and can stop giving money to every homeless guy I run in to (read: almost trip over) on the way to work.

Excellent. 

Fast, pray, give away. 

... Be transformed.

I was always taught to give up a favourite treat during lent. Soft drink? Chocolate? McDonalds? I would consider it miraculous just HOW GOOD Coke tasted on Easter Sunday, when I was finally 'liberated' from the yoke of self-mortification and free to drink as I pleased. 

If only I was taught earlier just how transforming the practices of Lent are. Then maybe I would have witnessed a true miracle - the cleansing of a soul that has reconnected with itself, God, and others. Fast, pray, give away. 

FAST, that you may master your will and be able to practice self denial. Grace comes next - spiritual baby steps soon become leaps of the soul. 

PRAY, that your soul may understand the language of the Lord. In this way, you may become one. (Ahem, Eucharist junkie reporting for duty... mass is the highest form of prayer, Holy Communion the surest way to become one with God - His blood beats through your veins!)

GIVE AWAY, that you may be reconciled to the community. Let your interior transformation manifest itself in good deeds. Make the world that little bit shinier. 

The Maronite Church focuses on the miracles of Christ during this season. Odd, right? Why not focus on His preaching? The prophecies about His death and resurrection? 

I kinda came upon this answer over the course of a few days. Not only do these miracles make us journey with Christ to the end of his public ministry, but their message is very lent-ful (Kylie, stop trying to make 'lent-ful' happen, it's not going to happen)...

Let's take a quick look at just one gospel extract. Jesus healing the blind man. Why talk about him in Lent? Because he is a model of faith for us. Turns out the Church kinda knows what She's doing (I'm not shocked either)...

The blind man, in his eyes at those of society, had a spiritual ailment (curse) that manifested itself into a severe physical ailment (blindness). Through declaring Him Lord and petitioning the King of Kings ("Son of David, have mercy on me!"), and recognising Him as Lord, he was made clean. 

This is why we FAST, because we need to rid ourselves of interior dispositions which often manifest themselves into sin and make ourselves clean by PRAYER - throwing ourselves into the arms of the Saviour. 

The key to the story is this: Bartimaeus didn't just go back to his normal life after he was healed. Quite the contrary. He recognised what the Lord had done for him and allowed this to have an impact on his life! He followed Jesus to the Cross. 

We are on the same path as Bartimaeus. When we are healed, we are then able to follow Him to the Cross. Should we heed this lesson, our reward will one day be to rise and reign with Him and the Church Triumphant in the kingdom prepared for us from the beginning of time. 

Don't just do Lent, be lent-ful. Be transformed. 

J-O-Y

Jesus-Others-Yourself

Pray-Give Away-Fast

P.S. When getting down or feeling unmotivated, think about this. Allow me to quote a wonderful priest who spoke about Lent last week. 

"What is the difference between fasting and feasting? One letter: "E" for "Emmanuel." When we have Emmanuel in our lives we are not fasting, we are fEasting."

Sportsmanship: don't let it die...

I read an article today about the most recent Nadal v. Smyczek Australian Open tennis match (pronounced smee-check if I know anything about European dictation, which I don't)...

In a best of 5-set match, the scores were quite close in Nadal's favour. During the world no. 1's ball toss, a spectator allegedly yelled very loudly, causing him to fault. His opponent, seeing the injustice in this, called for the point to be replayed rather than allow a fault be declared, resulting in quite a display of appreciation from Rafa, who referred to him as a "gentleman" for his show of sportsmanship. 

The Spaniard went on to win the match after such a crucial moment was dealt with such class. When questioned about why he did this, Smee-Check downplayed the action, even praising his opponent: "You know, I thought it was the right thing to do... I thought I had him for a minute... But he turned it up to another gear. That's why he's been one of the best for years and years."

Lovely. But why should this be inspiring? It's not often I feel struck to enough to blog about sport. In fact, despite my fanatical family's best efforts, I am not really a massive sport person, but I do think that acts of sportsmanship should be the usual. The real shame here is that this is even newsworthy. It should be considered noble (because it is), but it should also be normal. 

See, often despite my best efforts, I watch quite a bit of sport for somebody who couldn't care less about most games. 

I see children who idolise their favourite players. I am not naive to the point of saying "kids shouldn't be idolising players, they want to play, not be role models," because being in the public eye doing what you love comes with a particular responsibility. What's my issue with this? Watch a game of NRL and the game is rife with men whose weekend antics are nothing short of disgusting. Their actions on the field should often be anything but glorified. Watch the NBL and the commentators have more to say about the players' lack of fidelity to their wives and sneaky fouls than their skill on the court. 

Why should it be this way? Sport should be a community building activity. It should be fun, competitive (in a healthy way) and should inspire children and adults alike to push, train, practice and persevere at their chosen art. It's not impossible. 

I read an article years ago about the American baseball great and devout Catholic as well as JPII-junkie, Stan Musial. In fact, American Cardinal Dolan praised him quite rightly as "one of the best baseball players ever, an inspiration to generations, whose very name stands for integrity, professionalism, loyalty and championship." This was a man who had a stellar career, and yet when asked what his most memorable moment was, cited Wojtyla's election as pope - blitzing even his 3000-hit milestone. He was good friends with the late (great!) Holy Father, and spent his retirement frequenting Rome. 

Cardinal Dolan even said that meeting Musial at 10 years old was one of his best childhood memories - he remembered the love and attention he was shown and how good it felt to have his idol treat him as a friend. 

Imagine sport was full of characters like this! Imagine when we watched our favourite game, we watched a display of teamwork, physical fitness, sportsmanship, talent and class. How different our newspaper headlines would look! 

Phillip Rivers is a modern day example of a sportsman to be admired. As an NFL quarterback (Aussies who know nothing about NFL - that kinda means he's the captain, playmaker and main man all wrapped up into one), he never misses an opportunity to be a role model to those who idolise him. Just look at this interview with life teen if you don't believe me. 

Passion for your art never gives you an excuse to act like a barbarian. Living 'on the road' shouldn't mean you abandon the sacraments and any vows (spoken or otherwise) that you make to your loved ones. In fact, sport being a public spectacle should be considered even more of an opportunity to showcase grace. 

Holiness can be found in the most unlikely of places, and no matter what our calling, nobody is exempt from the commandment to "make disciples of all nations." We've all been given the graces - we just have to use them. 

One can't help but wonder what kind of Cardinal he liked more... 

holiness comes with many faces, all of which are 

faithful to truth, goodness and beauty.