Five Desolations and Five Consolations that the Souls in Purgatory Experience

While detained in the prison of purgatory, the souls will experience both desolations and consolations as part of the purification process of interior expiation for unatoned for sins. From Catholic theology and Roman Catechism we learn that there are basically five desolations and five consolations that are felt by the holy souls who suffer in purgatory.

FIVE DESOLATIONS AND FIVE CONSOLATIONS THAT THE HOLY SOULS IN PURGATORY EXPERIENCE

Five Great Desolations

1. A deep interior regret

This regret that they experience is because they realize that the time for gaining merit for themselves has ceased. They see now clearly how much time and grace they wasted and how many opportunities God had given them to grow in grace and merit and how this growth in merit would have enable them to love God more for all eternity.

2. The full realization that they can no longer help themselves in finding relief

There is nothing they can do that will give them relief from their just punishments and they also suffer great anxiety of mind and spirit wondering if now, anyone, on earth will be willing and kind enough to help them. 

3. They suffer deep remorse of conscience

This is for unatoned for sins which were not sufficiently expiated while they were here on earth and easily had the time to do so. 

4. They do not know how long they will have to stay in purgatory 

The hour of their deliverance will be kept from them. Only God, the Blessed Mother, and the guardian angel of each soul know this. As a matter of fact, it will be their guardian angel that will actually come down and lift them up from the fires of purgatory when their time of purification and expiation is complete. 

5. They are forgotten

They may very well experience, as many do, that there are not many people on earth, that they have left behind, who will remember to pray for their souls. They will also see that  many of their friends and family neglect to charitably assist them at all. In other words, they are completely forgotten. 

Five Great Consolations

1. They realize that they have escaped hell

They experience the full and joyful realization that they have escaped hell. In other words, they will one day make it to heaven because they know they have escaped hell. They have passed the test. 

2. They will never again have to suffer from temptations nor will they ever again offend God by willingly committing sin.

Their wills are eternally fixed in virtue and in goodness. 

3.  They are now able to spiritually assist us here on earth, the members of the Church Militant (Pilgrim Church)

They assist us by their prayers and the sufferings that they endure as a powerful ability of interceding on our behalf. This is because they are now closer to God. They are closer to God than we are because they have already passed into eternity. Even though they are suffering, they are in some ways holier than we are on earth. They have definitively escaped hell and they know they are going to heaven and God will hear their prayers more quickly because they are closer to Him than we are. 

4. They know their suffering is temporary

Despite their temporary separation from God in Purgatory, they know that all of the sufferings they endure will come to a definitive end and that their own guardian angel will come to deliver them from purgatory.

5. The great comfort they recieve from the charity of those on earth

The great spiritual comfort and joy they receive from the Requiem Masses that are offered for them from the faithful on earth, as well as all the acts of charity and meritorious devotions, indulgences, prayers and sacrifices offered for them that are applied to their souls to relieve them of their sufferings. You can be a part of thier consolation. You can help them and they will know that you are doing that and will be very grateful!