When we pray the apostles’ creed, we say: “I believe in the communion of saints…” What does this passage refers to? Let’s review what the successors of the apostles tell us: “Until the Lord shall come in His majesty, and all the angels with Him and death being destroyed, all things are subject to Him, some of His disciples are exiles on earth, some having died are purified, and others are in glory beholding «clearly God Himself triune and one, as He is»; but all in various ways and degrees are in communion in the same charity of God and neighbor and all sing the same hymn of glory to our God. For all who are in Christ, having His Spirit, form one Church and cleave together in Him.” (Lumen Gentium 49, CCC 954-955). Since all followers of Christ are called to Holiness (Matthew 5:48) and share with Him the grace of the Holy Spirit by virtue of our Sacraments of Initiation (CCC 1285), the Church recognizes holiness in the living and in the dead. Some of them being in the process of purification and others enjoying the glory of the presence of God.
We understand then the states of the Church, as those states in which the souls of the disciples of Christ are found, some of them, already in the Triumphant Church or Glorified Church, the Church in Heaven, in the kingdom of the Holy Trinity, the angels and the saints who have reached complete salvation with Christ (Romans 8:28-30). We, in the Church Militant or Pilgrim Church, walk through the world towards the Church triumphant, and we are militants because we are in a constant battle facing earthly temptations (Ephesians 6:13-16). Some souls find themselves being purified in the Suffering Church, those are the souls that left this world in charity with God, with true repentance of their sins, without having satisfied their sins of what they did or failed to do with true fruits of penance, purifying themselves after death with the pains of purgatory. These penance can be mitigated through actions of living beings, namely: masses, prayers, alms and other works of piety according to the provisions of the Church (Council of Lyons II).
Let’s keep fighting against earthly temptations, let us request the help of those who preceded us in the presence of our Lord, and let’s keep praying for the purification of the holy souls in purgatory.