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Intercessory prayer does carry weight and is correctly taught as such doctrine. That it does so impact our eternal destinies is part and parcel of divine law of growth and evolving and G-dly provision of mercy wherever it can be afforded on the basis of merit. The quote is underreferenced. Fire after this life is purificatory and is a work of mercy and of a duration that is commensurate with the offender's estate and is part of the law of merit and repentance. Intercessions for the departed are of long standing and a valid practice of faith and morals and are showings of piety by the living yet remaining. Alms and commemoration of those who died in Communion with Christ are an ascription of merit to the living offerors as well. Those neither so good or so wicked are further pointed out as candidates for cleansing as mentioned in Augustine. I would welcome to receive such cleansing if possible in this mortal life.The duration of the saved are some more slowly and some more quickly as they respond to the purificatory fires, and the pain therewith necessary to accompanying growth and the burning of the dross The pictures are depictions of Augustine
http://www.catholic.com/library/Roots_of_Purgatory.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo
Cyril of Jerusalem"Then we make mention also of those who have already
fallen asleep: first, the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, that
through their prayers and supplications God would receive our petition; next, we
make mention also of the holy fathers and bishops who have already fallen
asleep, and, to put it simply, of all among us who have already fallen asleep,
for we believe that it will be of very great benefit to the souls of those for
whom the petition is carried up, while this holy and most solemn sacrifice is
laid out" (Catechetical Lectures 23:5:9 [A.D. 350]).
Gregory of
Nyssa"If a man distinguish in himself what is peculiarly human from that which
is irrational, and if he be on the watch for a life of greater urbanity for
himself, in this present life he will purify himself of any evil contracted,
overcoming the irrational by reason. If he has inclined to the irrational
pressure of the passions, using for the passions the cooperating hide of things
irrational, he may afterward in a quite different manner be very much interested
in what is better, when, after his departure out of the body, he gains knowledge
of the difference between virtue and vice and finds that he is not able to
partake of divinity until he has been purged of the filthy contagion in his soul
by the purifying fire" (Sermon on the Dead [A.D. 382]).
John
Chrysostom"Let us help and commemorate them. If Job’s sons were purified by
their father’s sacrifice [Job 1:5], why would we doubt that our offerings for
the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have
died and to offer our prayers for them" (Homilies on First Corinthians 41:5
[A.D. 392]). "Weep for those who die in their wealth and who with all their
wealth prepared no consolation for their own souls, who had the power to wash
away their sins and did not will to do it. Let us weep for them, let us assist
them to the extent of our ability, let us think of some assistance for them,
small as it may be, yet let us somehow assist them. But how, and in what way? By
praying for them and by entreating others to pray for them, by constantly giving
alms to the poor on their behalf. Not in vain was it decreed by the apostles
that in the awesome mysteries remembrance should be made of the departed. They
knew that here there was much gain for them, much benefit. When the entire
people stands with hands uplifted, a priestly assembly, and that awesome
sacrificial Victim is laid out, how, when we are calling upon God, should we not
succeed in their defense? But this is done for those who have departed in the
faith, while even the catechumens are not reckoned as worthy of this
consolation, but are deprived of every means of assistance except one. And what
is that? We may give alms to the poor on their behalf" (Homilies on Philippians
3:9–10 [A.D. 402]).
Augustine"There is an ecclesiastical discipline,
as the faithful know, when the names of the martyrs are read aloud in that place
at the altar of God, where prayer is not offered for them. Prayer, however, is
offered for other dead who are remembered. It is wrong to pray for a martyr, to
whose prayers we ought ourselves be commended" (Sermons 159:1 [A.D. 411]). "But by the prayers of the holy Church, and by the salvific sacrifice, and by the
alms which are given for their spirits, there is no doubt that the dead are
aided, that the Lord might deal more mercifully with them than their sins would
deserve. The whole Church observes this practice which was handed down by the
Fathers: that it prays for those who have died in the communion of the Body and
Blood of Christ, when they are commemorated in their own place in the sacrifice
itself; and the sacrifice is offered also in memory of them, on their behalf.
If, then, works of mercy are celebrated for the sake of those who are being
remembered, who would hesitate to recommend them, on whose behalf prayers to God
are not offered in vain? It is not at all to be doubted that such prayers are of
profit to the dead; but for such of them as lived before their death in a way
that makes it possible for these things to be useful to them after death"
(ibid., 172:2). "Temporal punishments are suffered by some in this life only, by
some after death, by some both here and hereafter, but all of them before that
last and strictest judgment. But not all who suffer temporal punishments after
death will come to eternal punishments, which are to follow after that judgment"
(The City of God 21:13 [A.D. 419]). "That there should be some fire even after
this life is not incredible, and it can be inquired into and either be
discovered or left hidden whether some of the faithful may be saved, some more
slowly and some more quickly in the greater or lesser degree in which they loved
the good things that perish, through a certain purgatorial fire" (Handbook on
Faith, Hope, and Charity 18:69 [A.D. 421]). "The time which interposes between
the death of a man and the final resurrection holds souls in hidden retreats,
accordingly as each is deserving of rest or of hardship, in view of what it
merited when it was living in the flesh. Nor can it be denied that the souls of
the dead find relief through the piety of their friends and relatives who are
still alive, when the Sacrifice of the Mediator [Mass] is offered for them, or
when alms are given in the Church. But these things are of profit to those who,
when they were alive, merited that they might afterward be able to be helped by
these things. There is a certain manner of living, neither so good that there is
no need of these helps after death, nor yet so wicked that these helps are of no
avail after death" (ibid., 29:109).
