“Why don’t you non-Catholics realize that these souls are alive. The body dies, but the soul lives. The body will be united with the soul at the Final Judgment??”
Of course we realize that. It’s just not relevant. We are still forbidden from communing with the dead (meaning those who have physically died), whether or not their souls live on somewhere. Anyone trying to communicate with them is sinning very seriously, no matter what the man-made dogma of your church says.
Boggie, The priest is detecting that there are souls of the dead present. He is then praying to Jesus to rescue these souls and take them to be with him in heaven. That, to me, is in line with what I have been taught as a protestant since being a child—it is ALWAYS GOOD and PROPER to pray to Jesus.
We don’t try to communicate with them. Maybe that is where your misconception is coming from. We just pray for them.
There are stories in the book I mentioned of souls coming to meet the people who prayed for them and got them to heaven.
That’s the thing about Purgatory — they can’t help themselves, but they know they are bound for heaven. Pray for them. It’s not harmful at all.
I am confused. When and where did the priest commune with the dead? He had paranormal experiences in this area of Nogales, AZ. He knew enough about the life of a soul to realize that the soul had a need for prayers, and so he prayed for them. All the paranormal activities with these specific souls ceased.
Yes, it is a Catholic custom to pray for the dead. We believe in the Church triumphant (those who are in heaven; the Church militant (those still on earth) and the Church suffering (those in Purgatory). To be in purgatory is not the worst as someone above had=s written - it means that eventually you will be in heaven - but you need to have your soul “purged” so to speak. Imagine that when you die, you are not condemned to hell, but since you are a sinner as we all are, you approach the judgement with sins on your soul. Consider purgatory as one last opportunity to be cleansed before you are allowed to approach the throne of God.