Time for a spooky episode! Today, we’re talking all about purgatory, what the Church teaches about it, what saints like St. Faustina, St. Catherine of Genoa, and Padre Pio have shared, and how we can help the souls being purified on their way to Heaven!

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Welcome back to the Everbe podcast, everybody.

We are back and getting into the swing of things again here.

And look, since it's October, I thought we should do something a little

spooky, which to be totally honest, I don't usually like anything spooky.

I don't even decorate my house for Halloween.

We are strictly a chic fall harvest type of household, not

like a spooky fall kind of vibe.

You know what I mean?

So I don't know, I was just thinking like what is more spooky than purgatory?

Maybe demons, which we can get to later, maybe around Halloween.

I don't know.

That might be too spooky for me.

But I know that purgatory is a little spooky.

That's what we're gonna be talking about today, and I thought it would

be good to bring back a little bit more of a nitty-gritty educational

type episode on our faith, 'cause y'all have loved those in the past.

So that's what we're doing.

We're gonna dive into a topic that I think a lot of Catholics have heard about, but

maybe don't fully understand, and honestly have a lot of questions on it themselves.

And I think that if you have non-Catholic friends, um, it is a question

that I feel like people ask about.

So- We're gonna get into all of them.

What is purgatory?

Who is there?

Is it a real place?

Is it painful?

How long are souls there?

And maybe one of the most important questions, I think , is why do

Catholics pray for the dead?

Why would these souls in purgatory need prayer anyways?

So especially, I think as we approach November, when the Church remembers

saints in heaven on All Saints' Day and the faithful departed on All Souls' Day,

I just thought this would be a beautiful opportunity to unpack what the Church

actually teaches about life after death.

And purgatory is particularly interesting, because it's one of

those teachings that can initially sound pretty intimidating, but we're

gonna break it down really simply.

You know, we've heard about purification.

We've heard about suffering.

Um, maybe we've heard about it in the terms of punishment, and

our first reaction can be fear and almost, like, distrust.

Um, but I hope that by the end of this episode, you're gonna see that

purgatory, as our Church teaches, is deeply connected to God's mercy, God's

justice, and ultimately, his desire for us to spend eternity with him.

Okay, but before we get into this nitty-gritty educational

conversation, of course, we have to start off with an Everbe moment.

So my Everbe moment this week is, it's hard, but sweet, to be honest, and I, I do

wanna share it with you guys to hopefully bring hope to people who have gone

through similar things, and I think it is very fitting for today's topic as well.

So pretty recently, my sister-in-law, Trey's sister, um, she had a baby, and

sadly, baby only lived a couple hours.

Her name was Stella Chailee, star of Heaven, and her dad named her

this because we can rest assured that she was immediately brought

into the arms of Jesus, and join him and our lady in heaven.

So any time we look up at the sky, we can remember that that is the hope that we

all are hoping for and living for, heaven, and that little Stella is in heaven

already, praying and interceding for us.

Well, that was really difficult news for our family.

Trey and I woke up early one morning and saw the text that little

Stella had been born earlier, very, very early that morning, and had

only lived a couple hours, and that she had already passed away.

And right in the moment when we saw that text, we immediately, uh, began

to pray for her soul, for, um, her parents, and my eyes were drawn to the

window of our bedroom, and I looked out the window and there was one

single bright shining star in the sky.

I'm, I'm not even kidding you.

There was one star shining bright in the center of our window right as we were

praying for little Stella and her family.

Um, and I just felt like it was the biggest consolation that little Stella was

sending us to say, "Hey, like, I'm okay.

I'm in heaven with Jesus now.

Um, and I love you, and I'm praying for you, and I'm with our family."

So that was just so sweet and so comforting and so special

and unexpected, honestly.

But it just shows the body of Christ, the communion of saints, and how this

relationship we have with those who are in heaven is really, really real.

Um, I hope that brings you a little bit of hope

all right, but now let's get into today's episode , we're gonna pull out our great

catechism, scripture, and I'm gonna pull from some saints, uh, because I hope

you know I'm not the expert on this.

This is not all coming from memory.

This is me doing the research and the studying so that I can share

with you, so we can learn together.

So let's get into it.

One thing I wanna establish right away is that we're going to distinguish between

what the Church definitively teaches, right, as, like, official Church teaching

of what we believe as Catholics, and then also we're gonna touch on what different

theologians or saints have speculated about, written about, shared, because

there are some things about purgatory that we just simply don't know and have

no way of knowing, because you don't really, like, go there and come back.

You know what I mean?

So, like, no one who's gone there has really come back to tell

us exactly what it's all about.

So just wanna lay that out there, that there's a difference between Church

teaching and things that have been shared through the saints, which, um, if I am

not mistaken, like, we are not required as Catholics to believe as Church teaching.

But, I mean, St.

Faustina is a pretty solid saint, so I kind of trust whatever she says, and we

will share what she says about purgatory.

So- Let's talk about it.

What actually is purgatory?

The simplest way to understand purgatory is that it is the final purification of

a soul before they enter into heaven.

So if we open up straight to our catechism, I've got one of my favorite

catechisms here, which is from Ascension.

Um, I don't think I have a code for y'all, but I could try and work on getting

one because I love this, um, catechism.

So paragraph 1030, it says, "All who die in God's grace and friendship, but

still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation.

But after death, they undergo purification so as to achieve the holiness

necessary to enter the joy of heaven."

So, I mean, in this paragraph, the catechism is explaining that

those who die in God's grace and friendship and relationship, but

who are not yet completely purified, are assured of salvation, right?

Which means they're for sure going to be going to heaven.

They just need to undergo purification after death so that they can

enter heaven fully prepared.

And I wanna emphasize that phrase again, assured of salvation, because

I think this is probably the first and most important thing to understand

about purgatory, is that anybody who is in purgatory is going to heaven.

Like, if you're in purgatory, you're going to heaven.

It is not a place of giving us a ch- second chance for someone who rejected

God during their life, but they have, like, a second life that they get to

live in case they could go to heaven.

It's not that.

It's not even a middle destination between heaven and hell where God is

still deciding what to do with you.

It's not like you die and he's like, "Mm, I'm not sure yet if you're worthy.

We're gonna send you to purgatory, and we'll see."

Like, in purgatory, you're not…

Like, it's not a second life.

You're not, like, proving yourself to God so that he'll let you into heaven.

Your eternal destiny has already been determined if you go to

purgatory, which is great news.

So if a soul is in purgatory, that soul means has died in good relationship

with God, in grace, and is being prepared for the fullness of heaven.

And in this catechism paragraph, so part three here talks about…

So I'm in part one of the catechism, the profession of faith, for

anybody that wants to, like, open up their catechism and follow along.

Um, but then there's, like, a part three.

It's called the final purification, or purgatory, right?

We just read chapter…

Not chapter, paragraph 1030, and then the one right after, 1031.

This is where they actually call purgatory the final purification of the elect.

So let's read it.

"The church gives the name purgatory to its final purification of the

elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.

The church formulated her doctrine of faith of, on purgatory, especially at

the Councils of Florence and Trent.

The tradition of the church, by reference to certain texts of

scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire."

So we can see here That there's a specific difference between further

purification that is needed, and punishment of those who are sent to hell.

So the question I think remains, why would someone who loves God and is

already - destined to go to heaven and has been forgiven, still need purification?

Why would we need this purgatory, um, landing place before heaven?

And I think the easiest way to understand this is to consider

our own spiritual lives, and be just really honest with ourselves.

Because we might love God sincerely and wholeheartedly, and practice our faith.

We might go to confession, attend mass, pray regularly, and genuinely be striving

in our lives, genuinely desiring to become saints, to live as holy of a

life as we possibly can as human beings here on Earth, which is hard, right?

And so if we're being honest with ourselves, even though we try our

best, we still struggle, we still fall.

Even the holiest person on Earth still sins.

There is not a person on Earth who is without sin, and we still

have our own attachments to sin that are really hard to root out.

Maybe it's pride, vanity, could be jealousy or impatience.

Some of us struggle with resentment a lot, um, or desire to control everything or be

completely self-sufficient without God.

I mean, the list goes on, and it's different for every person, and we

still struggle with those things even when we're trying really

hard to live a good Catholic life.

And even when we are truly sorry for our sins, and when we go to confession,

like, we all know by experience, like, we don't necessarily become completely

detached from those tendencies overnight.

And so we experience that reality in our everyday human life right

now, the reality that we can both be forgiven and still need healing, right?

And so heaven is this complete union of our souls with God.

There is no sin in heaven.

We, we know this.

Anybody in heaven is a saint, and there's no sin.

There's no selfishness, no envy, no pride, no disordered desires, and no

attachment to any sins, no attachment to anything that separates us from him.

So that purgatory is that final purification, like it

said in the catechism here.

It's that cleansing fire.

Um, think of a fire, right?

Think of, like, boiling water.

Like, it kills all bacteria, which I know sounds scary, but we're gonna…

Just stick with me here, okay?

Purgatory is that final purification that God- prepares our souls for to

enter into a perfect communion with him.

It's not God saying, "You're not good enough, so you need to suffer," right?

It's not, like, for the sake of suffering, but it's really to complete

the work of sanctification to someone who already belongs to him, right?

Like, here on Earth, everything we're going through in our life, our crosses,

like, those are those sanctifications, and it's not because God wants us to suffer.

It's because he wants our heart and soul to be purified so we can be with

him in heaven, and so we can choose him every day of our lives, despite

all of those hardships and sufferings.

And so, I think here is a point where a lot of Catholics ask why

doesn't confession completely eliminate that need for purgatory?

And I think it does raise a really good question, because if we go

to confession and God forgives our sins, why do we still need purgatory?

And so, this is where it's good for us to understand the distinction between

guilt of sin and its real consequences.

And that, we're gonna flip to paragraph 1472 and 1473 in our catechism

This paragraph is called The Punishments of Sin, and I'm just

gonna read them both to you.

To understand this doctrine and a practice of the church, it

is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence.

Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of

eternal life, the privation of which is called the eternal punishment of sin.

On the other hand, every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment

to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth or after death

in the state called purgatory.

This purification frees one from what is called the temporal punishment of sin.

These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance

inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin.

A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete

purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.

The forgiveness of sin and restoration of communion with God entail the remission

of the eternal punishment of sin, but temporal punishment of sin still remains.

While patiently bearing the sufferings and trials of all kinds, and when the

day comes, sincerely facing death, the Christian must strive to accept this

temporal punishment of sin as a grace.

He should strive by works of mercy and charity as well as by prayer and

the various practices of penance to put off completely the old man and

to put on the new man So when we are forgiven of a mortal sin through

the sacrament of reconciliation, we are restored to our communion

with God and the eternal punishment associated with that sin is remitted.

But sin can also leave behind temporal consequences and unhealthy attachments.

So here's an example for you guys that I think women relate to a lot.

So if someone is struggling with gossip, let's say someone has spent years

struggling with gossip, like since middle school and high school, this

is what they do with their friends.

They're still an adult now post-college and still struggling with

gossip, but they go to confession.

They genuinely repent.

They receive absolution and try again next time.

Now their sin has, of course, been forgiven, but that doesn't mean that the

habit of gossip and that desire to be included in conversations, in the know

of what's going on in other people's lives, talking about someone else at

their expense or the damage that causes relationships, that doesn't mean all of

that instantly just disappears, right?

Like it takes time to root out a bad habit.

And there's still a process of healing that we need to go through that

takes time, process of conversion in our hearts and reparation

for the damage that we've done.

And so one way that we can begin to understand this distinction

is through kind of that example, if that helps at all.

The forgiveness is still really real from confession.

And I want you guys to hear that.

And the healing and the transformation might still take

time after you go to confession.

So more importantly, we can undergo purification during

our earthly lives, right?

In the catechism, it was saying through prayer, through penance, through

charity, suffering united to Christ.

All of this helps us grow in holiness and helps us be

transformed by God little by little.

And the catechism here explains that a person can even, like, be so completely

purified through our acts here on Earth that no temporal punishment remains.

So if I understood that correctly, it means not

everybody has to go to purgatory.

I am sure that there are absolutely people who have died and gone straight to heaven.

Um, but again, we cannot, we can neither confirm or deny

any of these things ourselves.

So we shouldn't think of purgatory as something that every single

person necessarily has to experience.

The goal is to become saints here and now, and purgatory is gonna be

that final purification for those who still need a little bit more healing.

So I think at this point, if you have a lot of, um, non-Catholic friends or

Christian friends, the question is, well, where did you really get this from?

Like, where is purgatory in the Bible?

W- where is God actually teaching this?

And that is a fair question.

Um, and first we should acknowledge that the word purgatory doesn't

appear in scripture outright, but the church doesn't teach that every

doctrine has to be identified by its later theological name in the Bible.

So Catholics understand that divine revelation through - sacred

scripture and sacred - tradition

can be an authentic way that we receive church teaching and can

be interpreted by the Magisterium.

And so there are several biblical passages that can help us understand

the foundations of this teaching of purgatory without the word

purgatory specifically being named

So since I am not the theological expert, like I said, I'm using my resources.

I pulled up Truthfully, which is a Catholic AI app, um, to pull the

scripture that talks about purgatory or alludes to the reality of purgatory.

So I'm gonna share with you guys the scriptures that it pulls

out and kind of the reasoning so we can all learn together.

So we can start with two verses that really establish the why behind purgatory

being necessary, and the first here says, Matthew 5:48, "be perfect just

as your Heavenly Father is perfect."

Then there's Revelation 21:27, "Nothing unclean shall enter heaven."

So in these two, we see kind of two truths being established.

One, that God desires perfection for us, and nothing impure enters heaven.

So that starts to point to the fact that there is something that

is needed before we enter heaven.

And then it says that the most direct New Testament passage

is from 1 Corinthians 3:13-15.

St.

Paul writes that on the day of the Lord, every person's

work will be tested by fire.

He says, "If a man's work survives, he receives a reward.

If a man's work is burned up, he suffers loss.

But he himself will be saved, yet only as through fire."

Let's actually pull up the scripture to see what is actually quoted,

'cause that was kind of like the

So it says, "The work of each will come to light, for the day will disclose it.

It will be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test

the quality of each one's work.

If the work stands that someone built upon the foundation, that

person will receive a wage.

But if someone's work is burned up, that one will suffer loss.

The person will be saved, but only as through fire."

So Truth Lee's explanation here is that a person who is saved but passes through

fire to get there, that is not heaven.

And it is also not hell.

It is a purifying passage, and the word purgatory comes from the Latin

word for purification by fire, and that's exactly what Paul is describing.

Now, we can also look at what Jesus himself says in Matthew 12:32, that

blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in

this age or in the age to come.

That phrase, or in the age to come, is critical.

If no sin could ever be forgiven after death, Jesus would have

had no reason to say that.

By specifying this one sin that cannot be forgiven in the age

to come, he kind of implies that there are other sins that can be.

But we know for a fact that hell offers no forgiveness, and heaven

needs no forgiveness, right?

Everyone in heaven has no sin.

So there must be something in between that kind of like next age

that was implied that will allow that extra purification to happen

now, while you're having these kind of conversations or thoughts about the

explanations behind purgatory, or maybe you have non-Catholic friends that are

asking you more about it, the question of why praying for people that have already

died and that are in purgatory, like why is that something that the church teaches?

Why is that something that we do as Catholics?

And what can come up is 2 Maccabees.

So it's, I found it in the catechism here, so we're gonna touch a little

bit on that from paragraph 1032.

But let me just explain this passage so that we're kind of all on the same page

Now, just keep in mind this passage is not going to explain the entire

Catholic doctrine of purgatory, but it's just gonna provide important

biblical evidence for the practice of why we pray for the deceased.

And also just keep in mind that most Protestant Bibles don't actually

include this book in the Old Testament, which is one reason that

Catholics and Protestants approach this passage a little bit differently

Okay, so the context of the story is that Judas Maccabeus, I hope I said that right,

and his soldiers have been fighting, and after a battle they discover that

some of their fallen companions had been carrying objects associated with idolatry.

And so recognizing the sin of that and the seriousness of this sin, Judas and his

men pray for the deceased in that moment.

And Judas also takes up a collection and sends it to Jerusalem so that an

offering can be made on their behalf for these people that have deceased.

And so what's fascinating is that the author presents prayer and sacrifice

for the dead as meaningful things that we can do that are connected

to the salvation of these souls

And if there was no meaning in that, like why would people pray

for someone who had already died?

If somebody is already experiencing the fullness of heaven, they don't need the

prayers, they don't need purification, they're already completely holy.

And if somebody has , definitively rejected God and is already in

hell, you also can't change that eternal destiny by our prayers.

God has done what is done.

So the practice of praying for the dead just points towards the

belief that those that have died can still benefit from our intercession

So we continue to pray for those who have passed

And this passage is mentioned in the Catechism.

We're still kind of on those same chapters we were earlier,

those, um, 1030, 1031 paragraphs.

1032 says that this teaching of purgatory is also based on the

practice of prayer for the dead, which is mentioned in sacred scripture.

And then they mention here, "Therefore, Judas Maccabeus made from atonement from

the dead that they might be delivered from their sin," and that is quoted scripture.

So from the beginning, the church has honored the memory of the dead and

offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all, the Eucharistic sacrifice,

so that thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God.

The church also commends almsgiving indulgences and works of penance

undertaken on behalf of the So that is my mini little crash course from

the Catechism and Scripture that really shares, uh, some insight as

to where the church kind of created this teaching from and how it is both

Scripture and tradition, and that the church can use those to interpret

divinely what is the real teaching

all right, well, before we finish, I do just wanna share some three fascinating

accounts from different saints who have written about or kind of experienced

something of the mystery of purgatory in different visions and such, because I love

leaning on the experience of the saints, especially those, like great saints that

we know have done so much for the church

And that the Lord has revealed a lot to them.

So let's learn from these saints what they know about purgatory.

And just a reminder, the reflections of individual saints, like I said earlier,

these are not official church teaching.

We are not obliged to believe in them, but they can give us something

really beautiful to meditate on.

So Let them season your prayer, if you will.

So the first is St.

Catherine of Genoa.

She was a 15th century Italian mystic whose spirituality is associated with

a work called treaties on Purgatory.

And what is especially interesting about St.

Catherine is that unlike some other saints, she didn't claim to have

received specific visions of souls in purgatory, it seems to be that

this saint was able to experience her own soul before the love of God

And she just had this awareness of God's absolute holiness and purity

And so then simultaneously that revealed to her how far her own human soul

was really from that perfect sanctity

And so she really believed that when a soul encounters God's perfect love,

it then recognizes everything within itself that still needs to be purified

And one thing that's really interesting that I read about her writings is, in her

reflections, is that she describes the souls in purgatory as experiencing not

only deep suffering but also incredible peace and joy, which is kind of like

a strange juxtaposition of the two

and in her Treaty of Purgatory, she compares sin to rust and how this rust

is covering our soul, preventing it from fully reflecting God's light.

And that rust in purgatory is gradually removed, and the soul becomes more

capable of receiving God's love.

And so even though the purification is painful, the soul is experiencing

increasing joy as it draws closer to the perfect union with God because they

know they're getting closer and closer to eternal life in heaven with him

Another saint that talks about purgatory is Saint Faustina, she writes about

it in her diary, and she describes an experience in which her guardian

angel led her literally into purgatory.

Now, again, I, I'm guessing this is like a mystic vision, not that she was,

like, literally taken to purgatory.

But who knows?

Like, maybe she actually was literally taken into purgatory.

I read this a long time ago, so I'd have to go back to revisit.

Um, but Faustina's crazy, so I mean, maybe, yeah, her angel

took her to the actual purgatory.

But she describes seeing a misty place filled with fire, which is really

in line with everything we have read about the teachings of the church,

and a great number of suffering souls.

And she noticed that the sor- that the souls were praying fervently, but

they couldn't obtain this relief for themselves, and so they needed the prayers

of those still living on Earth, which, again, doubles down on the fact that,

like, we should still be praying for the souls that have passed in our lives.

And she asked the souls actually what their greatest suffering was, and

do you know what they said to her?

Their answer was that their greatest torment was longing for God

And so I find that really interesting because we've talked

about this, like, suffering of purgatory, and according to St.

Faustina's vision, the suffering wasn't necessarily this, like, physical

suffering of the flames, but it was this, like, longing to finally be united

with God and knowing kind of like that you're, like, so close yet so far.

And then something else, really beautiful also happened.

She describes, St.

Faustina describes seeing the Blessed Virgin Mary visiting the souls in

purgatory and bringing them refreshment and consolment And the souls in

purgatory called her the Star of the Sea.

Now, I just love that image of Our Lady bringing that comfort

and consolation to these souls.

I feel like this is so on brand for who Mary is.

She is our caring and loving mother in every stage of our life.

So hopefully that also brings us comfort to know that, um, Our Lady

is with us through every single step

And I think it just is another reminder of the importance of praying for the dead,

And of the hope that these souls will be united with God.

Now, we also should talk about Padre Pio.

He's another big, big saint who reportedly had extraordinary encounters

with the souls in purgatory himself.

He's a really interesting saint to see, like, everything that happened in his

life and the way God worked in his life.

It's, like, so wild.

And there are several stories reported of souls that appeared to him and

asking specifically for prayers or masses for them, which is, like, wild.

Like, again, it just proves once again, like, these prayers and these offerings

are real, like, have real impact, and they need our help to get to heaven.

and so there's one account actually attributed to , Padre Pio that talks

about how one evening, Padre Pio was praying in his friary when an elderly

man, like, suddenly appeared before him, and he was confused because the

doors had been locked, and he just, you know, obviously couldn't understand how

this man entered the space he was in.

And the man literally explained that he had died years earlier in that very

building back when it had been used as, um, a poor house or something, and

he had fallen asleep with a lit cigar, accidentally started a fire, and had died.

And he told Padre Pio that he was in purgatory and asked him

to offer a mass for his soul.

I told you this was gonna get a little spooky.

And Padre Pio, of course, he agreed, and

The crazy part is that the friars later checked the town's records to kind of

confirm the facts here, and they did find that a man by that exact name that

had revealed himself to Padre Pio had died in a fire in September of 1908

How crazy is that?

Now, I'm so grateful that God allowed these different saints to have these

mystical experiences so we can learn from them and let it build up our

faith life and inform our faith life

But yeah, I mean, all of those experiences are pretty scary and kind of crazy.

I have no idea what, you know, I would do if I ever had any of those

experiences, but I probably won't because I'm not Saint Faustina or Padre Pio,

and in a way, I am grateful for that.

Um, but in the end, what this is teaching us is that it's important

to pray for those who have died, and those prayers actually have weight

Now, the last thing I wanna talk about before we wrap up are indulgences.

You have probably heard about this if you've grown up Catholic,

especially around All Souls Day, but what actually are they?

Why do they matter?

And what are the misconceptions, right?

So let's go back to the Cat- Catechism.

Catechism explains in paragraph 1471 that an indulgence is the remission

of temporal punishment due to sins that have already been forgiven.

So remember earlier when we talked about how confession forgives our sins, but

we may still need that purification from the consequences and, like,

attachments to sin that we still have, that's where those indulgences come in.

And through the merits of Christ and the communion of saints, the church

grants indulgences to help with that extra purification that's needed.

And there's two types.

There's partial indulgences, which remit part of that temporal punishment,

and then there's plenary indulgences, which remit all of it, right?

So it, like, removes all of your time in \ purgatory.

And so what's especially beautiful about this is that we can obtain

indulgences not only for ourselves, but also for those who have died.

So how do we do that?

There's different ways that the church offers indulgence opportunities.

Sometimes the church attaches indulgences to certain prayers or

good works or certain times in the church or feast days or whatever.

And there's different opportunities for plenary indulgences, actually,

I believe throughout the year.

I know I always get a text from my mom after Easter.

I think there's one that's, like, offered after Easter.

And during the Year of Jubilee, there was, like, these different doors,

right, that you could go through that offered a plenary indulgence.

So look into it.

I don't have the list of, like, all the ways you can, um, access that

amazing grace, but definitely look into it, um, because you can obtain

plenary indulgences in different ways.

And usually to go with the indulgence, you have to perform a couple things.

You have to go to confession and receive Holy Communion around the time that you're

doing that indulgence, and you have to pray for the intentions of the Pope.

I think it's, like, a Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be for the intentions

of the Pope or something like that.

And that completes your plenary indulgence.

But this isn't something that you can just, like, decide to do yourself.

Like, you can't just, like, go to mass and go to confession and pray for the

intentions of the pope and say, "I'm gonna give myself a plenary indulgence."

No.

That's why I'm saying, like, look into what the specific ways that the church is

offering that so that you get it right, because I don't wanna lead you astray.

You know what I mean?

Now, I do know with November coming up, I know this because, again, I get

a text from my mom every year, but I know that that first week of November,

like right after All Saints' Day, from November 1st to November 8th, I

think, Catholics can obtain a plenary indulgence for the souls in purgatory.

And I believe for that you have to visit a cemetery and pray for the deceased,

and then p- probably do those three other things that I mentioned earlier.

So again, look into it again, but I think that is like an upcoming opportunity that

we have to do that for souls in purgatory.

So if you have a family member or friend that you know has passed,

and I mean, we don't know, like they might be in purgatory, right?

And so don't forget to pray for them, and maybe you can do this special

indulgence for them and their soul.

I just love, I love this conversation.

I love the thought of that because it's such a reminder for us that the

Church is, is much more than just us and our relationship with God, but

it's a whole communion of saints.

We're all the body of Christ.

We're all interconnected by our faith, and we can lift each other up to heaven

literally by interceding for each other

Well, you guys, this was quite an educational episode for sure.

If you made it to the end, I'm so proud of you.

Class is now dismissed.

We have learned a lot together in today's episode

And I think it was great timing knowing that in a few weeks will be

All Saints Day and All Souls Day.

Hopefully that this is something we can take away for the next couple weeks, and

really reflect on it and meditate with it in prayer, and just prepare our heart for

those days of the church, and pray for the people in our life who have passed

Thank you so much for joining me today, as always, and I will see you next week