Treatise on Purgatory
St Catherine of Genoa
CHAPTER XII
Know that what man deems perfection is in the sight of God a defect. All the things which have the appearance of perfection, so far as they come before the sight, the feeling, the understanding, the memory, or the will, are tainted and spoilt if not recognised as from God. For a work to be perfect, it must be wrought in us, without our co-operation as principal agents ; it must be God’s work, done in God, and man must not in any way take the lead. Such precisely is that operation of His pure and simple love which God finally works in us, without any merit of our own ; wherein he so penetrates and burns the soul, that the surrounding body is consumed away, and can no more hold up, than one could remain alive and rest patiently amid the flames of a burning fiery furnace.
It is true that the overflowing love of God bestows upon the souls in purgatory a happiness beyond expression great : but then this happiness does not in the least diminish the pain rather the pain is constituted by this love finding itself impeded ; the more perfect the love of which God makes the soul capable, the greater the pain.
In this manner the souls in purgatory at the same time experience the greatest happiness and the most excessive pain ; and one does not prevent the other.
