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A Pocket Guide to Purgatory
Certain beliefs make us uniquely Catholic one of which is purgatory.
In this quick and insightful guide, discover the important role of purgatory in your personal faith journey as well as those who have gone before you.
Best-selling author, noted defender of the Faith, and EWTN host Patrick Madrid, uses an easy Q & A format to clear up common misconceptions about the doctrine of purgatory.
Scripture is RSV Catholic edition
In this quick and insightful guide, discover the important role of purgatory in your personal faith journey as well as those who have gone before you.
Best-selling author, noted defender of the Faith, and EWTN host Patrick Madrid, uses an easy Q & A format to clear up common misconceptions about the doctrine of purgatory.
Scripture is RSV Catholic edition
Paperback
First published January 25, 2008
13 people want to read
About the author
Patrick Madrid
70 books93 followersPATRICK MADRID is the publisher of Envoy Magazine, a journal of contemporary Catholic thought, and the director of the Envoy Institute of Belmont Abbey College. Since its inception in 1996, the Envoy team has garnered numerous journalism awards, including several first-place awards in the magazine-of-the-year “General Excellence” category from the Catholic Press Association.
Patrick is the author or editor of 14 books on Catholic themes including, Pope Fiction, Search and Rescue, Does the Bible Really Say That, 150 Bible Verses Every Catholic Should Know, and The Godless Delusion: A Catholic Challenge to Modern Atheism (Spring 2010). He edited and co-authored the acclaimed multi-volume Surprised by Truth series.
He has published numerous popular articles on Scripture, Church history, patristics, apologetics, and evangelization in various Catholic and Protestant periodicals, and he has contributed scholarly articles on apologetics in the New Catholic Encyclopedia.
Active in apologetics since 1987, he worked at Catholic Answers for eight years (from January 1988 to January 1996), where he served as vice president and helped co-found that apostolate's flagship magazine, This Rock, in January of 1990.
Patrick is a cradle-Catholic, not a convert. By God's grace, he was raised in the Catholic Faith and has been a practicing Catholic his entire life.
Growing up in Southern California, he attended grammar school at the Mission San Juan Capistrano parish school, where for years he served as an altar boy for the parish's daily Traditional Latin Mass in the famed Serra Chapel. Ever since his boyhood, Patrick has loved the Traditional Latin Mass.
Patrick earned a bachelor of science degree in business from the University of Phoenix and a bachelor of philosophy degree (B.Phil.) from the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, where he is completing a master's degree in dogmatic theology. He has also done graduate studies in theology at the University of Dallas.
He is the host of several EWTN television series, including “Pope Fiction,” “Search & Rescue,” and "Where Is That In the Bible?" and he hosts the Thursday edition of EWTN Radio's “Open Line” broadcast, heard on approximately 150 AM & FM stations across the United States, as well as on shortwave and on the Sirius Satellite Radio Network (Thursdays from 3:00 p.m. — 5:00 p.m. ET). He is also a regular guest on the "Catholic Answers Live" program and Sirius Radio's "The Catholic Channel."
Patrick serves on the board of trustees of the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, CA, on the board of directors of St. Gabriel Catholic Radio, in Columbus, Ohio, and on the board of advisors for Catholics United for the Faith, Immaculate Heart Radio Network, and Catholic Scripture Study International. He authored all the original website content for CatholicsComeHome.org, where he also serves as a theologica
Patrick is the author or editor of 14 books on Catholic themes including, Pope Fiction, Search and Rescue, Does the Bible Really Say That, 150 Bible Verses Every Catholic Should Know, and The Godless Delusion: A Catholic Challenge to Modern Atheism (Spring 2010). He edited and co-authored the acclaimed multi-volume Surprised by Truth series.
He has published numerous popular articles on Scripture, Church history, patristics, apologetics, and evangelization in various Catholic and Protestant periodicals, and he has contributed scholarly articles on apologetics in the New Catholic Encyclopedia.
Active in apologetics since 1987, he worked at Catholic Answers for eight years (from January 1988 to January 1996), where he served as vice president and helped co-found that apostolate's flagship magazine, This Rock, in January of 1990.
Patrick is a cradle-Catholic, not a convert. By God's grace, he was raised in the Catholic Faith and has been a practicing Catholic his entire life.
Growing up in Southern California, he attended grammar school at the Mission San Juan Capistrano parish school, where for years he served as an altar boy for the parish's daily Traditional Latin Mass in the famed Serra Chapel. Ever since his boyhood, Patrick has loved the Traditional Latin Mass.
Patrick earned a bachelor of science degree in business from the University of Phoenix and a bachelor of philosophy degree (B.Phil.) from the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, where he is completing a master's degree in dogmatic theology. He has also done graduate studies in theology at the University of Dallas.
He is the host of several EWTN television series, including “Pope Fiction,” “Search & Rescue,” and "Where Is That In the Bible?" and he hosts the Thursday edition of EWTN Radio's “Open Line” broadcast, heard on approximately 150 AM & FM stations across the United States, as well as on shortwave and on the Sirius Satellite Radio Network (Thursdays from 3:00 p.m. — 5:00 p.m. ET). He is also a regular guest on the "Catholic Answers Live" program and Sirius Radio's "The Catholic Channel."
Patrick serves on the board of trustees of the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, CA, on the board of directors of St. Gabriel Catholic Radio, in Columbus, Ohio, and on the board of advisors for Catholics United for the Faith, Immaculate Heart Radio Network, and Catholic Scripture Study International. He authored all the original website content for CatholicsComeHome.org, where he also serves as a theologica
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October 13, 2025
This is the third offering in this series I have read. I have been able to track down all but one. The three I have read are excellent, and I look forward to reading the others in the series. This one is now be out of print and I was unable to determine if there was every an eBook edition, on Goodreads there are 2 editions both paperbacks. It is a great pity this book and series are out of print. The description of this volume states:
“Certain beliefs make us uniquely Catholic one of which is purgatory.
In this quick and insightful guide, discover the important role of purgatory in your personal faith journey as well as those who have gone before you.
Best-selling author, noted defender of the Faith, and EWTN host Patrick Madrid, uses an easy Q & A format to clear up common misconceptions about the doctrine of purgatory.”
About the author we are informed:
“Patrick Madrid, a noted apologist whose books include Where is That in the Bible?, Why is That in Tradition?, Answer Me This!, and A Pocket Guide to Catholic
Apologetics (Our Sunday Visitor), is the editor of Enviy magazine.”
The chapters and sections in this volume are:
Introduction
1. Purgatory: What It Is (and Isn’t)
2. Purgatory and the Bible
3. Purgatory and the Early Church
4, Purgatory and You
5. Purgatory and Others
Notes
About the Author
I highlighted numerous passages that really struck me while reading this volume, some of them are:
“God is a Father who loves us far beyond our ability to imagine, and he wants what’s best for each of us. In some cases, what’s best involves the suffering that necessarily comes with the healing purification, or purging, from sin and its effects on the soul.”
“This little book will take you on a guided tour of the scriptural evidence for purgatory and will consider what the early Christians believed on the subject. But before we delve into the finer details of what this means, let’s first step back and get a “big picture” look at what purgatory is (and isn’t).”
“The Catholic Church teaches that purgatory is a temporary state of purification for those who die in the state of grace and friendship with God (cf. Rom. 11:22), but who still have the vestiges of temporal effects due to sin, inordinate attachment to creatures, and whose will is not fully united with God’s will.”
“This purification involves suffering (St. Paul uses the analogy of fire to emphasize this), as God’s fiery love “burns” away all impurities that may remain. Once this is complete, the soul enters into God’s presence, the beatific vision, in which the perfect bliss of beholding Him face-to-face lasts forever.”
“Is purgatory biblical? Yes. Evidence for it is wide and deep in Scripture, as we shall soon see. The belief is also wellattested to over the course of the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church, in particular in the writings of the early Christians, including many of the early Church Fathers.”
“First, purgatory is not a place where people go to get a “second chance” from God, as Hebrews. 9:27 makes clear: It is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment. In addition to being a good verse to bring up when someone poses the possibility of reincarnation, it’s also a good clarification of the fact that purgatory doesn’t involve some kind of “second chance.””
“Second, purgatory is not a place where the soul works, earns, or in any other way does something to cleanse himself; all purification that takes place in purgatory is done by God to the soul. Those who go to purgatory are assured of their salvation; there is nothing for them to do — Christ does it all in His merciful act of preparing His beloved to enter into the wedding feast.”
“Third, purgatory is not where people end up who are “too good” to go to hell and “not good enough’ to go to heaven. This is a third common misunderstanding of this doctrine. There is no such thing as a “middle ground” when it comes to salvation.”
“Since there are only two ultimate destinies possible for all human beings, heaven or hell, the issue of purgatory must be understood as simply a part of the process for some souls destined for heaven. If you die unrepentant in the state of mortal sin, you will go to hell. If you die in the state of grace and friendship with God, you will go to heaven. You may first need to be purified of any lingering sins or selfishness, however minor, that would block your complete union with the all-holy God, but that purification — purgatory — is simply a temporary prelude to your receiving your eternal reward.”
“Purgatory is a finite process" of purification, carried out by God, through His fiery love, on the soul of one who has died in the state of grace and is destined for heaven. It has no connection with the infinite penalty (hell) merited by our sin”
“Purgatory is a formally declared doctrine of the Catholic Church. It has been part of the deposit of faith “once for all handed down to the holy ones” (Jude 3) since the time of the Apostles. Purgatory is part of the Sacred Tradition of the Church; it is clearly taught in Scripture; and it was clearly taught by the early Church councils and the early Church Fathers."”
“Why can nothing unclean enter heaven? The prophet Habakkuk says it’s because God is all holy, and He will not allow anything in heaven with Him to be less than holy and spotless: Too pure are your eyes to look upon evil [O Lord], and the sight of misery you cannot endure (Hab. 1:13). What eliminates that impurity is what the Church calls purgatory — entirely different from the punishment of the damned.”
“The temporal effects due to sin extend, sadly, far beyond just physical illness and death.” They include the spiritual impurities and weaknesses that cling to the soul. So, in addition to being purged of these impurities, we may also have to make restitution as well.”
“The most explicit extra-biblical evidence for the belief in the doctrine of purgatory in the ancient Church is found in its liturgies. Without exception, in the East and the West, the various eucharistic liturgies contained at least one memento mori, “remembrance of the dead.””
“The reason Christians have always prayed for the dead is because they have known, having learned it from the Apostles themselves, that many — perhaps most — who die in a state of friendship with God still must undergo a purification that involves suffering. Prayers on behalf of our deceased brothers and sisters in the Lord can help alleviate and even shorten that suffering.”
“But perhaps the most important lesson we can learn from these facts is that we can avoid purgatory altogether, or at least an extended stay there, by offering to the Lord our daily trials and pains. These sufferings are purgatorial in themselves, if they are offered to God with a loving and contrite heart. In this way, our suffering is purified and elevated. It becomes a participation in the redemptive sufferings of Jesus Christ (cf. Col. 1:24).”
I hope those quotes give you a feel for this volume. This is an excellent little volume. Over the last few years I have read several volumes on Purgartory and Holy Soles there, this is a great starting point for those who have not read much, or as a refresher for those of us who have. I really enjoyed working through it, and will likely return to it again. It has been a while since I had read a volume by Patrick Madrid, I have a few I have picked up over the years I have not got to, that will need to jump up in my ‘to be read’ pile.
This volume could be read by a secondary school student, or a grad student, but a theologian or a new convert and they will all get something out of it. It is an excellent volume that any Catholic or any Christian would benefit from reading.
It is a great read, thank you Patrick Madrid and Our Sunday Visitor.
This book is part of a series of reviews: 2025 Catholic Reading Plan!
“Certain beliefs make us uniquely Catholic one of which is purgatory.
In this quick and insightful guide, discover the important role of purgatory in your personal faith journey as well as those who have gone before you.
Best-selling author, noted defender of the Faith, and EWTN host Patrick Madrid, uses an easy Q & A format to clear up common misconceptions about the doctrine of purgatory.”
About the author we are informed:
“Patrick Madrid, a noted apologist whose books include Where is That in the Bible?, Why is That in Tradition?, Answer Me This!, and A Pocket Guide to Catholic
Apologetics (Our Sunday Visitor), is the editor of Enviy magazine.”
The chapters and sections in this volume are:
Introduction
1. Purgatory: What It Is (and Isn’t)
2. Purgatory and the Bible
3. Purgatory and the Early Church
4, Purgatory and You
5. Purgatory and Others
Notes
About the Author
I highlighted numerous passages that really struck me while reading this volume, some of them are:
“God is a Father who loves us far beyond our ability to imagine, and he wants what’s best for each of us. In some cases, what’s best involves the suffering that necessarily comes with the healing purification, or purging, from sin and its effects on the soul.”
“This little book will take you on a guided tour of the scriptural evidence for purgatory and will consider what the early Christians believed on the subject. But before we delve into the finer details of what this means, let’s first step back and get a “big picture” look at what purgatory is (and isn’t).”
“The Catholic Church teaches that purgatory is a temporary state of purification for those who die in the state of grace and friendship with God (cf. Rom. 11:22), but who still have the vestiges of temporal effects due to sin, inordinate attachment to creatures, and whose will is not fully united with God’s will.”
“This purification involves suffering (St. Paul uses the analogy of fire to emphasize this), as God’s fiery love “burns” away all impurities that may remain. Once this is complete, the soul enters into God’s presence, the beatific vision, in which the perfect bliss of beholding Him face-to-face lasts forever.”
“Is purgatory biblical? Yes. Evidence for it is wide and deep in Scripture, as we shall soon see. The belief is also wellattested to over the course of the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church, in particular in the writings of the early Christians, including many of the early Church Fathers.”
“First, purgatory is not a place where people go to get a “second chance” from God, as Hebrews. 9:27 makes clear: It is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment. In addition to being a good verse to bring up when someone poses the possibility of reincarnation, it’s also a good clarification of the fact that purgatory doesn’t involve some kind of “second chance.””
“Second, purgatory is not a place where the soul works, earns, or in any other way does something to cleanse himself; all purification that takes place in purgatory is done by God to the soul. Those who go to purgatory are assured of their salvation; there is nothing for them to do — Christ does it all in His merciful act of preparing His beloved to enter into the wedding feast.”
“Third, purgatory is not where people end up who are “too good” to go to hell and “not good enough’ to go to heaven. This is a third common misunderstanding of this doctrine. There is no such thing as a “middle ground” when it comes to salvation.”
“Since there are only two ultimate destinies possible for all human beings, heaven or hell, the issue of purgatory must be understood as simply a part of the process for some souls destined for heaven. If you die unrepentant in the state of mortal sin, you will go to hell. If you die in the state of grace and friendship with God, you will go to heaven. You may first need to be purified of any lingering sins or selfishness, however minor, that would block your complete union with the all-holy God, but that purification — purgatory — is simply a temporary prelude to your receiving your eternal reward.”
“Purgatory is a finite process" of purification, carried out by God, through His fiery love, on the soul of one who has died in the state of grace and is destined for heaven. It has no connection with the infinite penalty (hell) merited by our sin”
“Purgatory is a formally declared doctrine of the Catholic Church. It has been part of the deposit of faith “once for all handed down to the holy ones” (Jude 3) since the time of the Apostles. Purgatory is part of the Sacred Tradition of the Church; it is clearly taught in Scripture; and it was clearly taught by the early Church councils and the early Church Fathers."”
“Why can nothing unclean enter heaven? The prophet Habakkuk says it’s because God is all holy, and He will not allow anything in heaven with Him to be less than holy and spotless: Too pure are your eyes to look upon evil [O Lord], and the sight of misery you cannot endure (Hab. 1:13). What eliminates that impurity is what the Church calls purgatory — entirely different from the punishment of the damned.”
“The temporal effects due to sin extend, sadly, far beyond just physical illness and death.” They include the spiritual impurities and weaknesses that cling to the soul. So, in addition to being purged of these impurities, we may also have to make restitution as well.”
“The most explicit extra-biblical evidence for the belief in the doctrine of purgatory in the ancient Church is found in its liturgies. Without exception, in the East and the West, the various eucharistic liturgies contained at least one memento mori, “remembrance of the dead.””
“The reason Christians have always prayed for the dead is because they have known, having learned it from the Apostles themselves, that many — perhaps most — who die in a state of friendship with God still must undergo a purification that involves suffering. Prayers on behalf of our deceased brothers and sisters in the Lord can help alleviate and even shorten that suffering.”
“But perhaps the most important lesson we can learn from these facts is that we can avoid purgatory altogether, or at least an extended stay there, by offering to the Lord our daily trials and pains. These sufferings are purgatorial in themselves, if they are offered to God with a loving and contrite heart. In this way, our suffering is purified and elevated. It becomes a participation in the redemptive sufferings of Jesus Christ (cf. Col. 1:24).”
I hope those quotes give you a feel for this volume. This is an excellent little volume. Over the last few years I have read several volumes on Purgartory and Holy Soles there, this is a great starting point for those who have not read much, or as a refresher for those of us who have. I really enjoyed working through it, and will likely return to it again. It has been a while since I had read a volume by Patrick Madrid, I have a few I have picked up over the years I have not got to, that will need to jump up in my ‘to be read’ pile.
This volume could be read by a secondary school student, or a grad student, but a theologian or a new convert and they will all get something out of it. It is an excellent volume that any Catholic or any Christian would benefit from reading.
It is a great read, thank you Patrick Madrid and Our Sunday Visitor.
This book is part of a series of reviews: 2025 Catholic Reading Plan!
Displaying 1 of 1 review