ANGELES CITY – Yes, ghosts, mangkukulams and other denizens of Halloween world are real. Catholic tradition, if not teachings, admit almost as much.
But they’re often distorted by us who find thrill in being scared. In reality, ghosts are almost always benevolent and inspire fear only because they’re out of the ordinary. Well, they can be scary sometimes, as when they portray the weight of their sins still being purgated.
Then, too, Fr. Jose Francisco Syquia, official exorcist of the Archdiocese of Manila, tells us that “kulam” is also true, and so are evil corporeal manifestations (could this include aswangs and kapres?) which, however, he points to the devil and demons (devil is satan, demons are his minions) as authors.
But on All Saints’ Day, which is presumptuous because of the tendency of people to beatify their dear departed, the focus really is on ghosts, as in souls, rather, persons from Purgatory. After all in Medjugorje, the Blessed Virgin was quoted to have revealed that most who die land first in Purgatory where they are in need of prayers to speed up their way to Heaven.
This being the case, the Unpublished Manuscript on Purgatory comes to mind. It was published eventually, with the proper old fashioned Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat to buoy its credibility. It comprises of the question- and-answer memoirs of a nun in her encounters with another nun who had died previously in her convent in the 19th century, and sought prayers of deliverance after she landed in Purgatory.
The disembodied soul in the manuscript provides an insight into the afterlife, a healthy thought alternative this Nov. 1, in lieu of tales of horrors. The manuscript should also give us hints on how to avoid being ghosts from Purgatory someday, by instead going straight to Heaven.
So here are excerpts from the soul as contained in the manuscript. The quotes were given at different times up to the soul’s ascent to Heaven. – It is so beautiful in Heaven. There is a great distance between Purgatory and Heaven.
We are privileged at times to catch a glimpse of the joys of the blessed in Paradise, but it is almost a punishment. It makes us yearn to see God. In Heaven, it is pure delight; in Purgatory, profound darkness; – I am now in the second Purgatory. Since my death, I have been in the first, where one endures such great suffering.
We also suffer in the second, but not nearly as much as in the first. Always try to be a help to your superior.
Do not speak often. Wait until you are questioned before you answer; – I have been in the second Purgatory since the Feast of the Annunciation. On that day I saw the Blessed Virgin for the first time. In the first stage, we never saw her.
The sight of her encourages us and this beloved Mother speaks to us of Heaven. While we see her, our sufferings are greatly diminished; – No one can have a real understanding of the sufferings in Purgatory.
No one thinks of them in the world. Even religious communities forget that they should pray for the poor souls and that they should inspire their pupils with this devotion. They in turn would bring this devotion to other people of the world; – Watch carefully over your interior life. Keep all your small troubles for Jesus alone.
He is well able to make up to you for whatever He takes from you. Your life must be one of unceasing interior acts of love and of mortification, but God alone must know of it; – We see St. Michael as we see the angels.
He has no body. He comes to get the souls that have finished their purification. It is he who conducts them to Heaven. He is among the Seraphim as Monsignor said. He is the highest angel in Heaven.
Our own Guardian Angels come to see us but St. Michael is far more beautiful than they are. As to the Blessed Virgin, we see her in the body. She comes to Purgatory on her feasts and she goes back to Heaven with many souls.
While she is with us we do not suffer; – In the second Purgatory, which is still Purgatory but very different from the first, one suffers a great deal, but less than in the great place of expiation. Then there is a third stage, which is the Purgatory of desire, where there is no fire.
The souls who did not desire Heaven ardently enough, who did not love God sufficiently are there. – Pray well for me that I may soon be united to the object of my long-delayed and ardent desires. I shall be more useful to you in Heaven than I am here; – Souls (in Purgatory) communicate with each other when God permits it, and after the manner of souls, but without words.
Yes, it is true I speak to you, but are you a spirit? Would you understand me if I did not pronounce words? But for myself, as God wills it so, I understand you without your pronouncing any words with your lips. There is communication between spirits and souls on earth. Thus when you have a good thought or a holy desire, they have been communicated to you by your Guardian Angel or by some saint, and sometimes by God Himself.
That is the language of souls; – (Purgatory) is in the center of the earth, close to Hell, as you saw one day after Holy Communion. The large number of souls there are confined to a limited space. There are thousands and thousands of souls there. But then what space does a soul occupy?
Each day thousands of souls come to Purgatory and most of them remain thirty to forty years, some for longer periods, others for shorter. I tell you this in terms of earthly calculations because here it is quite different; – (Sudden) deaths are sometimes an act of justice, sometimes one of mercy.
When a soul is timid and God knows it is well prepared to appear before Him, He takes it out of this world suddenly to spare it the terrors it might experience at the last moment. Sometimes, also, God takes souls in His justice.
They are not for this reason eternally lost, but their Purgatory is much more severe and prolonged than it would otherwise have been, since they were either deprived of the Last Sacraments or received them hastily and so were unprepared for their passage into eternity.
Others having filled up the measure of their crimes and having remained deaf to all inspirations of Divine Grace are taken by God out of this world so that they may not excite His vengeance still more; – When the soul leaves the body it is as if it were lost in or, if I may say so, surrounded by God.
It finds itself in such a bewildering light that in the twinkling of an eye it sees its whole life spread out, and at this sight, it sees what it deserves, and this same light pronounces its sentence.
The soul does not see God but is annihilated in His presence. If the soul is guilty as I was and, therefore, deserves to go to Purgatory, it is so crushed by the weight of the faults that still remain to be blotted out, that it hurls itself into Purgatory.
It is only then that one understands God and His love for souls and what a terrible evil sin is in the eyes of the Divine Majesty
