Is Purgatory real?

 

Is Purgatory real?

The demise of my mother in 2003 has taught me the truth about Purgatory first-hand.

Purgatory is a temporary sojourn for souls of the dead undergoing purgation, as the name implies, before being welcomed into a pure, unadulterated place that is Heaven.

The Roman Catholic Church holds and maintains the doctrine of Purgatory to be true, worthy of belief and inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Time and again, in the history of the Church, private revelations about the reality of purgatorial existence have continued to grace the pages of its archives.

My own story began in a particular wake wherein a "mananabtan" (an old lady hired to lead prayers for the soul of the dead) prompted to launch the novena prayers before the coffin of mother's remains.

Luz, a family friend, a Catholic-turned "born-again" Christian, commented: "Dili na hinoon na sya maluwas!" (Praying for the soul might instead render her soul damned!)

Once the remains was buried, I had this experience one night when I was watching TV on the presidential candidacy of Philippine film action star FPJ.

I fell asleep from watching before the TV set as I sat on the chair -- and I started to have a dream.

A seamless transition from the TV show I'd been watching, the dream was set in the night and I saw a gathering of almost shadowy people supportive of FPJ's candidacy and the presence of my mother emerging from the crowd.

(The "shadowy crowd," I understand, is representative of the souls in Purgatory.)

Mother's face was downcast and in pale gray, looking at me; and she was not speaking yet had an urgent, pressing message to deliver.

She was then looking on a particular side of the scene as if to guide me into the place she was showing me and it seemed a familiar place where I had gone to before.

It was the pathway leading to the workers headquarters of Luz's affiliated "born-again" church.

Her facial expression was like she never wanted me to go there anymore or she would be jealous or sad if I go there again.

My spirit understood it as my mother telling me to ignore what Luz said in the wake.

The pressing, urgent message was FOR ME TO PRAY FOR HER SOUL and never listen to Luz whose belief was against praying for the souls of the dead.

And I woke up yet in front of a TV set still on.

So I kicked off praying the complete three mysteries of the Rosary for her soul every day in front of a lit candle -- and kneeling.

Days after, the soul of my mother showed herself to me again.

One night when I had the hard time falling asleep alone in the house and when I did gradually pass out to sleep, suddenly her face flashed before my eyes so that I sprang up to my waking state.

Her face already exuded a pinkish white complexion and smiling -- but the face still had a skin disease beside her nose.

Inspired with the improvement as seen in the vision, I went on saying the rosary three mysteries a day.

Weeks after, my father called me up from overseas to tell me he had a dream of mother.

I asked father right away about her complexion in his dream: Does she have a pinkish white complexion?

"How do you know?!" my father was shocked.

I told him, mother already appeared to me.

I asked Pa if Ma still had sores on her face in his dream and his reply was "None!"

Months of saying the beads went past and a family friend told me she dreamed of my mother, "She was flying into a place full of flowers!"

Finally, my sister reported a dream of February 14, 2004 (five months on the dot since Ma's passing): mother who was now youthful, pinkish-white complexioned and black-haired was already inside a cathedral of holiness, accompanied by souls so recollected, absorbed, attuned and all-contemplating the Eternal One.

Let me finish this story by resuming the dream I had of mother in the beginning:

When she finished communicating her non-verbal message, I started sobbing and told her I had been crying all along. She ignored my tears and walked away while I was following her in tears. The message impressed upon my soul at Ma's gesture was: "Your tears cannot help me on my journey. I need your prayers!"

So then the rest is history.

Need I say more #Purgatory is real?