Purgatory Explained for Children

If anyone understands the doctrine of purgatory, it is little children. 

If you ask children, “Do you love your parents?”, they will say, “Yes!” 

“And do they love you?” “Yes!” 

“And when you do something really good, are they excited about it?” “Yes!”

“And when you do something wrong, do you get punished?” “Yes.” 

Yep, you do get punished when you do something wrong. Case in point, end of doctrinal study. 

It is right and just that you get punished, even though we might not think it at the time. Because when you do something wrong, your parents want to teach you not to do it again. So when you get put in timeout with your nose in the corner and have to do it for 20 minutes, when you get out, are you excited? Of course you are. You do not want to go back into timeout, do you? So you change your behavior. 

Punishment causes us to change. If we do not change our lives in this world, there will be a reckoning. We must change, because there is no confessional after death. The beautiful grace that we have here on earth, to go in and have our sins forgiven, isn’t there after we die. 

Our Lord taught us, “If you are going to court, settle before you get to the judge. The judge will not free you until you have paid the last penny.” 

When we are not perfect before we die, we go to purgatory. That is the place where all the desires we have for the world are taken away from us and replaced with the pure love of God, which we are all called to. 

Losing those worldly desires is like the burning and refining fire that makes metals shiny and pure. Because of our sinfulness, we tarnish ourselves, like metal tarnishes, but the Lord wishes to make us beautiful and perfect. The fires of purgatory are what help us to get to that point of beautiful perfection.

So let us pray for all our loved ones who have died, to help them on their way. Are you happy to get help when you need help? Yes. Because when we ask for help, it means that we cannot do it on our own. 

And so it is with the souls in purgatory, because after we die, we cannot merit grace, we cannot do anything for ourselves. We were already given the chance during our lives to merit that grace. So it is up to the saints in heaven, and we the church militant on earth, to pray for the holy souls in purgatory, to help release them into heaven.

We have no reason to mourn without hope, because purgatory is a one-way street. Everyone who goes to purgatory, is getting into heaven eventually. Some of us need more help than others. And so that is why we need to pray for the souls. And so pray for your loved ones who have died. All Souls Day is a day when we should all sacrifice and pray for the souls. But we can do this every day of the year.

Have you ever seen a priest wear black during Mass? Why do you think we wear black on All Souls’ Day? 

Because Jesus cried when Lazarus died; it was a sad day. And guess what, your parents are not happy to put you in the corner and punish you if you do wrong. And just as they are sad to punish you, so was our Lord sad to see sin cause death. God did not want death, we chose death through sinning. So we wear black on All Souls’ Day to remember the sadness of sin causing our death.

--Father Jacob Meyer