Scary Thought(s) Of The Day – August 30th, 2014 7:02 pm

purgatory

Pope Innocent III died July 16, 1216. The same day he appeared to St. Lutgarda in her monastery at Aywieres, in Brabant. Surprised to see a spectre enveloped in flames, she asked who he was and what he wanted.

“I am Pope Innocent,” he replied.

“Is it possible that you, our common Father, should be in such a state?”

“It is but too true. I am expiating three faults which might have caused my eternal perdition. Thanks to the Blessed Virgin Mary, I have obtained pardon for them, but I have to make atonement. Alas! it is terrible; and it will last for centuries if you do not come to my assistance. In the name of Mary, who has obtained for me the favor of appealing to you, help me.”

With these words he disappeared. Lutgarda announced the Pope’s death to her sisters and penitential works on behalf of the august and venerated Pontiff, whose demise was communicated to them some weeks later from another source.

– “Purgatory Explained”, by Fr. F.X. Schouppe, S.J.

 

Expiation of three faults. The cost? Enduring hundreds of years of torturous flames.

Three. Faults.

Centuries of pain. A kind of pain that is other-wordly to the point that we could never endure it in this mortal coil.

And we’re told not to “proselytize” about our Catholic faith which includes the Sacrament of Reconciliation?… without which, forever is spent in a state none of us could possibly fathom?

What times in which we find ourselves.