Originally published at The Catholic Thing
It’s good to think about Purgatory as we approach All Souls’ Day, when the Church reminds us to take special note of loved ones who may now be in Purgatory yearning to be on their way to heaven. “This mountain’s of such sort that climbing it is hardest at the start; but as we rise, the slope grows less unkind.” The speaker is the Roman poet Virgil, Dante’s companion and guide in scaling the lofty mountain of Purgatory in Dante’s tour-de-force account of the afterlife, The Divine Comedy. Having already passed through Inferno, Virgil and Dante enter Purgatorio, where souls needing purification are cleansed from the stain of sin. Then: Paradiso.
