23315 Northfield Blvd. (Church) 23335 Northfield Blvd. (School) Hampton, MN 55031-9667

Interim Priest: Fr. Richard Hogan  651 437-9030   Parish Administrator: Joan Ryan  651 437-9030  School Principal: Dawn Conway  651 437-5282  Parish office  651 437-9030   Church Hall  651 480-0088

Welcome

Purgatory

Many Catholics today are a little unclear regarding the Church's teaching
on Purgatory. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1030-1031,
teaches that "All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still
imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but
after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness
necessary to enter the joy of heaven. The Church gives the name,
Purgatory, to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different
from the punishment of the damned."

Imperfectly purified means that a person who has died loves God but still
carries a certain ambivalence towards God, or perhaps better put, a
certain attachment to sins. This means that the individual might have
some lesser sins, called venial sins, on his or her soul. It could also mean
that there are no venial sins, but there is what is called the temporal
punishment due to sin. When we commit a sin, even a venial one, we
reject God, at least in part. The result of such a sin should be the pains of
hell. But through the mercy of God expressed perfectly in Christ's
Passion and Death, the punishment of hell is taken away. This
remittance of the sin and the punishment due to the sin happens through
the sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) or, in the case of venial sins,
it happens through a sincere Act of Contrition. However, there remains
the temporal punishment due to sin. This punishment is our part in
making up for our sins.

God knows us well. When we offend someone and we regret it, we want
to make up in some way. We may apologize to a family member we have
offended, but we often wish to do something special for that person as a
proof of our regret for whatever way we offended that person. When we
hurt God through sin, God forgives the sin, removes the eternal
punishment, but we have to do something for God because we are the
ones who committed the sin. In effect, we need to take some
responsibility for our actions.

Through prayer, fasting, almsgiving, charitable acts, we take
responsibility for our sins and we show God we are truly repentant for
our sinful acts. Through these acts, we lessen each day the temporal
punishment due to our sins. (By the way, the holy season of Lent is
observed in part to encourage us in these acts which make up for our
sins.) If we die without any temporal punishment for sins remaining and
we have no venial sins, we send ourselves to heaven. If we die with a
mortal sin, we send ourselves to hell. If we die with venial sins or some
temporal punishment for sin remaining, we need to be purified and we
send ourselves to Purgatory.

Indulgences, either partial or plenary, lessen the temporal punishment for
sin. A plenary indulgence removes all the temporal punishment due to
sin and partial removes some of the temporal punishment due to sin.

Rev. Richard M. Hogan