Please Pray for the Souls in Purgatory

I have a special concern for the souls in Purgatory, probably because I’ve met some of them. Below are two relatively short videos about “ghostly” visitations and then after, I share some of my personal experiences.

Mystic Maria Simma Encounters the Souls in Purgatory [4:18] – If you prefer to read a transcript, go to the YouTube page and, under the video where it says, “May 26, 2022 In this video we share Mystic Maria Simma Encounters the Souls in Purgatory. … “, click where it says more.

I Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts! [8:47] – Fr. Mike explains why he believes in ghosts and, more importantly, what we should do when we encounter them. He doesn’t go into demonic visitations in this video, but the response should be more or less the same. Namely, prayer. Souls in Purgatory need prayer so they can leave there and go to Heaven. And if a ghost is actually a demon, prayer will make it go away.

Now, about my experiences.

One night, I was reading when my father and a companion appeared at the end of my bed. By “appeared”, I don’t mean that I saw anything with my physical eyes; I mean that I knew they were there. This is true for all of these incidents. My father said, “I just wanted you to know that I’m okay now.” Then they were gone. Pop had been dead for about a year. I understood that he had just finished with Purgatory and was being escorted to Heaven.

Another night, a friend who had died about five years before, came to me. He asked why he had to accept Jesus and I said, “Because it’s true.” Then, he was no longer there. One time, long before he passed, I had asked him why he had made a career decision that had cost him dearly and he had said, “Because it’s true.” I think God let him come to me, because I would not be freaked out about talking to a dead person and because I knew what he needed most to hear.

One day, when I was making a Holy Hour at my church, an adolescent girl came and sat beside me in the pew. I knew who she was, because I had prayed for her soul many times. I had even named her “Hope” and “baptized” her by sprinkling holy water on a pink carnation. I understood that she was stuck spiritually and so I said, “Before you can go on, you have to forgive your mother for aborting you.” She nodded, then got up, walked up to and through the altar, then disappeared into the Tabernacle. A while later, it was time for daily Mass and, since I was the only one attending, Father asked me to do the readings. I took the Lectionary, saw the first line, and burst into tears. It said, “Hope in God.” (BTW, I’m not her mother.)

One morning, I was hauling myself out of bed, groaning with the pain that I usually kept well hidden from my family. A hole opened in my bedroom wall and I understood that my brother and a companion were watching me, kind of like through a telescope. I heard him say, “Is it like that for her all the time?” His companion said, “Pretty much.” For the next week, I felt his presence, but like he was there in the house but not there in the same time. I’ve had a really difficult life, during which time I’ve received little to no help, understanding, or kindness from my siblings. I got the feeling that part of this brother’s Purgatory was watching scenes from my past so he could understand what I had endured and repent of having done less than nothing to help.

Just to give you a taste of how badly my family has treated me, when this brother was diagnosed with brain cancer, three family members reached out to me personally to tell me to stay away. “Don’t call. Don’t write. Don’t visit.” And when he died, we were not invited to the funeral. Then, my sister sent me the eulogy that another brother had written and read at the service. In it, he listed the names of the nieces and nephews our dead brother had left behind. My daughters were not on the list. The last day I was aware of my brother’s spirit being present was on his birthday. I wrote, “Happy birthday, T.” on my big chalkboard, hoping maybe he would see it.