On Sunday? For shame.
Too bad we easterners don't believe in Purgatory.
We don't accept the Latin doctrine of Purgatory. We accept a purifying ascent to the Father, but not the Latin description of fire, etc.
I'm not sure what Charles is reacting against
It's years off in Purgatory. Some days, I just have to keep repeating that to myself . . .
If a person has fallen asleep in God, having repented of all sins, but has not yet achieved spiritual maturity—the fullness of life in Christ—then that person enters the kingdom of God “as through fire” (1 Cor 3:15). After death, such a person is still in need of spiritual healing and cleansing of all stain, in order to dwell “in a place of light ... where there is no pain, sorrow, or mourning.” [204] In the Church, this healing condition of the dead is referred to as “purgatory.” [205]
Every fair and God-beloved soul, once it has been set free from the bonds of the body, departs hence, and immediately enjoys a sense and perception of the blessings which await it, inasmuch as that which darkened it has been purged away, or laid aside—I know not how else to term it. It then feels a wondrous pleasure and exultation, and goes rejoicing to meet its Lord. [206]
For this reason the Church prays for the departed:
Let us then give them aid and perform commemorations for them. For if the children of Job were purged by the sacrifice of their father, why do you doubt that when we too offer for the departed, some consolation arises to them? Since God is wont to grant the petitions of those who ask for others. [207]
[Footnotes:]
204 Trebnyk, Rite of Burial for a Layperson, Prayer of the ekteny for the deceased.
205 Council of Florence, Bull Laetentur caeli [Let the Heavens Rejoice] (July 6, 1439); See also Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1030.
206 Gregory the Theologian, Oration 7, 21: PG 35, 781.
207 John Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 Corinthians, 41, 8: PG 61, 361.
Latins say...the souls in Purgatory suffer...Other souls wait in an indeterminate state but do not suffer.
"And carefully I dip thee in the lake,
And thou, without a sob or a resistance,
Dost through the flood thy rapid passage take . . .
Farewell, but not forever! Brother dear,
Be brave and patient on thy bed of sorrow;
Swiftly shall pass thy night of trial here,
And I will come and wake thee on the morrow."
I think it safe to say the east doesn't accept the Latin add-ons
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