How Joyfully Suffering Is Endured In Purgatory.
Remember that what man considers perfect in itself, is full of
defects in the eyes of God. Everything man does which has the
appearance of perfection from the point of view in which he sees
it, or feels, understands, wills, or recalls it, is soiled and
infected if he does not attribute it to God.
Our deeds are perfect only when they are wrought by us, without
considering ourselves the principal agents, and when they are
referred to God, we being only his instruments.
Such are precisely the final operations of pure love wrought by
God himself in the soul, without any merit on our part. These
operations are so ardent and so penetrating in their effects upon
the soul, that it seems as though the body which envelops it
would be consumed as in a great fire where death alone could give
relief.
It is true that the love of God which fills the soul in purgatory
inspires it, according to my comprehension, with a joy that
cannot be expressed. But this satisfaction does not take away one
particle of the pain. Nay, it is the hindering of love from the
possession of its object which causes the pain, and the pain is
in proportion to the perfection of the love of which God has made
the soul capable.
Thus it is that the souls in purgatory at once enjoy the greatest
tranquillity and endure the greatest pain; and the one in no way
hinders the other.