The meditation of the Fifth Decade of the Rosary, in honor of the Suffering Souls in Purgatory, Dying on the Cross. (For on how to say the Rosary, please scroll down to the bottom.)
The soul nears the end of its journey. It faces its final purging, that of finally and completely casting off all vestiges and traces of its attachment to Earthly things.
This is the soul’s final “dying” unto itself. It refused the opportunities to do so on Earth. All the times when Jesus might have increased within the life of the soul went for nothing. It was afraid of surrendering itself on Earth to God, fearful perhaps because of the perception that it will “lose” itself, its autonomy, its independence.
That was the World speaking, falsely misrepresenting its own allures to the soul.
But the soul, now having been purged within the cleansing fires of Purgatory of nearly all things Earthly, can finally achieve it desired end: annihilation of its Earthly attachments and springing into the arms of the Lord, forever united with Him and all its loved ones that have preceded it.
(Via Rosary Center.)
NOTE: This is a “retropost,” a post from an old blog I wrote on “The Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven (& Purgatory) and Hell” that I shuttered a few years ago. Individual posts are being transferred to either In Exile or Sober Catholic, whichever seemed appropriate. Some are backdated, others postdated, in case you’re confused as to why you never saw a particular post if you’re a diligent reader. The process should be completed by the end of 2020, and all posts finally “will to have been published” (tense of future past 😉 ) by the Easter 2021.
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