Encountering the Church Penitent

As one who spends as much time as possible praying for poor souls in Purgatory I thought of how these souls would appear in an encounter with the one praying for them.  This question became obvious after a dream that seemed so real that its content must be written.

Finding myself kneeling before the tabernacle with my head bent over in intense prayer appeared normal.  No thoughts came into my mind and the ecstasy of being alone before the Lord was an aura of fulfillment.   

Dreams can be strange since time and space do not often exist; one moment you are in one place and the next moment the entire surrounding makes no sense.  My next position was kneeling in a pew and preparing to sit back became impossible since myriads of small children dressed in colorful clothing were sitting in the pews, laughing and singing with balloons and flowers all around.  Their very demeanor was prevalent of a celebration that brought joy to the hearts of anyone around them.

All the children then were kneeling at the communion rail with one priest giving the Eucharist, moving from one end of the communion rail to the other end (as we did in the 1970’s).       

The area I was sitting in had many, I mean many people sitting, sort of stoic and sitting.  As I got up, I noticed the area beyond the communion rail had a lot of people sitting.  At first I thought I would see children, but when their faces came into view the people were middle-aged to elderly.  Some faces looked familiar but were not identifiable by me.  They weren’t smiling but did not look sad or concerned.  They appeared to be waiting for someone to take them away from here.   

In the meantime I remember leaving my glasses on the floor in front of the tabernacle and hoped nobody would step on them.  A priest was moving towards the tabernacle and I was unsure if he’d see them there.  He reached down and asked if anyone had left them there and I said they were mine.  I can’t be sure what significance my glasses had with anything spiritual, but there must be some connection to leaving something or part of my prayer time that needed to be addressed.    

As I got up to walk across the church to retrieve the glasses, I was aware that the church was large and everyone was watching me walk towards the tabernacle; again no-one stood up or made any sound as all eyes were on me.  

Lastly, four priests were walking towards the tabernacle on the right side of the church (the other tabernacle was on the left side) and I noticed all of them were unfamiliar to me.  Their movement almost appeared to be a procession starting, and now the children and the adults were absent.    

Now, in retrospect, I began trying to analyze this dream.  Perhaps the joy of all the children (too many to ascertain a number) could have been a glimpse of heaven.  Those people in the pews, especially as I walked across the church to get my glasses, were souls I have been praying for, or those that are waiting for my prayers.  Those inside the communion rail might have been souls that are waiting to be released from Purgatory.  I do know there was a distinct difference between the two groups.  

There is no doubt the dream was deeply spiritual and a lot of significance was upon me with the attention I received from the large group in the pews.  The children showed me a strong resemblance of joy for souls already enjoying heaven’s welcoming sign of peace and God’s love.

It did remind me that there are souls that have the prayers of family and friends praying and shortening their stay in Purgatory.  However, the many in the pews represented the very many souls who have no one praying for them.  The only way to shorten their stay is Masses said for them and lots of prayer.   I asked the Lord one time during prayer about this and the answer was there are never enough prayers for these souls.  We are the Church Militant that must pray for the Church Penitent along with the Church Triumphant.  Your prayers, especially the Holy Rosary, will do much for them.