St. Catherine of Genoa and the Fire of God's Love--Part 2

     According to Catherine’s teaching, a remarkable transformation occurs within the soul when it stands before God. The soul appears to be united and in total agreement with the holy will of God.  There is no questioning to the length of time or the pain that they endure in Purgatory. There is no jealousy when another soul is released to heaven because one does not want to leave until all has been cleansed. When a soul is repentant at the hour of death, the guilt due to their sin is immediately forgiven, but the “rust” of sin is left, from which they will be cleansed by the pain of the fire. The pain that the soul experiences in Purgatory is similar to the pain of hell, but because the soul realizes the grievousness of sin and the great offense it is towards God, it would throw itself into Purgatory for as long as necessary.

The slow work of God

     “Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability – and that it may take a very long time . . . And so it is with you. Your ideas mature gradually – let them grow; let them shape themselves without undue haste. Don’t try to ‘force’ them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make you tomorrow. Only God could say what this is new spirit, gradually forming within you, will be. Give our Lord the benefit of believing that His hand is leading you surely through the obscurity and the becoming, and accept, for love of Him, the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.


     God has a plan and vision for each of us; to become the man or woman that He has called us to be from all eternity – to become a saint -- and that could take a heck of a long time, with a whole lot of ‘tweaking!’