Many years ago I read a description of Purgatory as a cleansing process that allowed us to move from the darkness of sin to the brightness of God's love; that in a similar way to when we are momentarily blinded when going from a dark room into bright sunlight, the spiritual shock at going from the gloom of an earthly life stained with sin into the radiance of God's love would be unbearable to our soul, and that the cleansing of purgatory allowed us to repair, atone and prepare our soul for joyful union with God's love.
I'm no theologian and can't remember where I originally read this (I thought it was Saint Therese, but I haven't been able to find anything even close in her writings today) but it helped me understand the point of Purgatory beyond the simply punitive.
Pray for the Holy Souls - and if you can, visit a cemetery between 1 and 8 November and pray for the dead, thereby gaining a plenary indulgence which some soul in Purgatory will be - literally - eternally grateful for.
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