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Hi, I'm Edwards Sri and welcome to all things Catholic, where real faith meets real life.

Today, we're going to take a look at one of the most misunderstood Catholic doctrines.

It's the doctrine of purgatory.

I find many Catholics struggle in understanding purgatory accurately or explaining it to other people, and I get it because there's so many misconceptions out there about purgatory. Some people think purgatory is this middle zone between heaven and earth. Like if you die and you were really, really good, you get to go to heaven. But if you were really, really bad here on earth, you get to go to hell. And if you were just okay, you know, kind of middle of the road, you get a place called purgatory. That is not what

purgatory is all about. Some people think purgatory is a second chance. Like, it's like a divine mulligan. If you didn't get it right here on earth, you get a second chance in purgatory to get it better and fix things. And then maybe God will let you into heaven someday. Nope, that is not what purgatory is all about. My favorite one is this one. We hear that God is

loving and kind and merciful and gentle and patient. And then he bakes you for 500 years in the

fire of his wrath in purgatory. That is not what purgatory is all about. What does the Catholic

Church really teach about purgatory and how can we understand it and share it with others? That's what we're going to take a look at in this week's podcast. So welcome to all things Catholic. I'm your host, Edwards, 3. And, you know, I think a lot of Catholics, a lot of people in the world today have a lot of questions about life after death. I mean, even in the secular space, what happens after we die? Many Catholics may wonder about what is heaven really all about? And is there really a hell? Does God really send people to hell? And they think about our topic, purgatory, and what are we going to be judged by? What happens at the last judgment? A lot of questions about death and life after death. And I'm really excited because we have a new program that just came out, a new Faith Formation series with the Ascension Press that I was blessed to be a part of. It's called Life Everlasting, Heaven, Hell, Death, and Judgment. So we're in the month of November. It's a great time for us to be thinking about these things, thinking about what is known as the four last things, heaven, hell, death, and judgment. What exactly happens when we die and after we die? I think that's a beautiful time to reflect on these. And you could check out this program and go onto Ascension Press, just to their website. You can stream it onto your phone. There's study workbooks with it. You can do it in a small group, do it in your family, or do it all by yourself.

I was blessed to work with my good friend, Jeff Morrow, on this topic, and you can go to

Central Press to learn more.

Now, when it comes to purgatory, though, I think it's really important that we get the right

understanding of what is the fire of purgatory.

We hear often about the fires of purgatory. We hear often about the fires of purgatory.

And I think people think of that as, oh, that's the fire of God's wrath.

That's God zapping you, burning you with fire, burning you with his anger to punish you for your sins.

I'd like us to look at this from a biblical perspective more, because in scripture, fire is also used to describe God's holy presence, his closeness to us.

When God wants to draw near to us, he comes in the form of fire.

Think about this. God is love. He's loving and he wants to be so close to you.

I think it's a beautiful image that he used

in the scriptures to describe his closeness. Take, for example, the story of Moses and the burning

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