The word "Purgatory" somehow brings images of fire, pain, longing, and other attributes peculiar to a place where one has to undergo a purification process.

On the other side of the coin, holy souls in Purgatory have reasons to rejoice. For one thing, no matter how long it may take, they are assured of a place in heaven. It is really just a matter of time before they are allowed the eternal joy of experiencing the Beatific Vision.

Members of the Pilgrim Church, no matter how high they may be even in the hierarchy of the Church, are not really 100% sure of going to heaven.

Time and again one is made to believe that even popes, heads of religious orders, clergymen, as well as some respected laity leaders and persons of so-called high levels of spirituality end up occupying special places in hell; they succumb to temptations of the world, the devil, and the flesh, and die without going back to the good graces of the Lord. Such is the pitfall of the mortal man.

The holy souls experience the immense joy of anticipating their final reward. As such, they are "free from bondage of sin and free from the attraction to evil" even as they stay in Purgatory to undergo the cleansing process.

St. Catherine of Genoa aptly describes their kind of joy in her "TREATISE ON PURGATORY" as follows:

"I believe no happiness can be found worthy to be compared with that of a soul in Purgatory except that of the saints in Paradise; and day by day this happiness grows as God flows into these souls, more and more as the hindrance to his entrance is consumed. Sins’ rust is the hindrance, and the fire burns the rust away so that more and more the soul opens itself up to the Divine inflowing".

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