01/06/2026
The ancient practice of praying for the dead within the church dates all the way back to the first century A.D. and is rooted in the Bible. For example, from two centuries earlier, in the Old Testament in ✝️2 Maccabees 12:38-46, expiation for the [sins of the] dead is referenced. Key within this passage are verses 44-46: “…(For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead,) And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.
Note the connection in this quote between praying for the dead and resurrection. The prayers that we offer for the dead, for their release from purgatory, can only lead to those souls praying for us once they achieve eternal life with God.
For souls in purgatory, their wills are basically good. They are saved. But they are not what they should be. They are not worthy of God. If they were alive, they could do things themselves to make themselves more pleasing to God. But they are not alive in the full human sense.
Purgatory is a state or process of purification in which the souls of the deceased who are in a state of grace or mercy are prepared for Heaven. St. Pope Peter, in ✝️1 Peter 3:19, to describe the “holding place” into which Jesus descended after his death to liberate the detained spirits.
✝️1 Pedro 3:19 La Sagrada Biblia (Spanish) "Alos tales predico mucho tiempo el espiritu de Cristo por boca de Noe, que doro la fabracacion del arca, El padre sa intiende por espiritus las almas y por carcel el PURGATORIO."
The PURGATIONEM PECCATORUM(Latin), which means cleansing of Sins
✝️Hebraeus 1:3 (Latin: Sacra Vulgata)
qui cm sit splendor gloriae et figura substantiae eius portansque omnia verbo virtutis suae PURGATIONEM PECCATORUM faciens sedit ad dexteram Maiestatis in excelsis
✝️Hebrews 1:3 (NIV)
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
The dead can do nothing for themselves. Without our help, they are helpless – but for the grace of God.
Let that sink in. The dead are impotent as regards their own cause. They can do nothing for themselves.
Why?
First, having passed from this life, a human person has entered eternity. Eternity is not “a long time.” Eternity is no time. Eternity is the present. For God, there is no “past,” “present” or “future.” He Who Is, Is … and everything is before him. When we enter eternity, we enter God’s dimension and leave ours. What we are is, therefore, what we are … always.
Second, the human person is a unity of body and soul. What “I” do is done in a spiritual and bodily way. When I spiritually choose to give alms, for example, my body writes the check. When I spiritually choose to kill somebody, my hand wields the knife. What “I” do is what I am, as a bodily and spiritual person do. When body and spirit are separated, the “acting person” has passed beyond the realm of acting in a way that can be morally determinative of whom I am, whom I can make myself (with God’s grace) to be.
The dead do not lose their wills. Their wills are fixed. They are fixed not by some Divine decree, but because we are what we are when we enter God’s dimension of eternity, when death and the possibility of change that belongs to time is ever past.
If we live as God designed us to live, using his grace and our freedom for the good, we will succeed. We can, of course, resist, but a compass will strain towards the North Pole even if one puts a pin in the dial to force the needle straight south. Two plus two will never make five, no matter how much we want it to. We can insist but, as the saying goes, “we only hurt ourselves.”
Hell is the consummate example of “only hurting ourselves.” Purgatory is a recognition that the needle of our will encounters resistance in finding true north. Maybe the axis is rusted. Maybe it hasn’t been oiled. Maybe the needle has a crack. It wants to get to where it should be, but can’t. Not unless somebody else repairs it.
Hereunder, what lessons do we need to draw?
Appreciate your body which, as an essential part of your person, makes it possible for you to do things that have moral significance and that morally define who you are
Use it before you lose it: thank God for the gift of being able to shape yourself and help others in this life through his grace and your freedom.
Pray and offer good deeds for the souls in Purgatory, who absolutely need your help now to bring their lives, already defined, to perfection and completion.
God has pronounced that the penalty of sin is spiritual death and separation from God in a place of judgment called hell: “For the wages of sin is death” (✝️Romans 6:23). Jesus clearly taught that sinners were condemned in sin and would perish and go to hell if they didn't believe in Him as their Savior (✝️John 3:16-18).