St. Thomas Aquinas on the Principal Pain of Purgatory

The brilliant theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas thought deeply about the ends of Christian life, including and especially on the "Last Things". His comment on the souls' longing for God in Purgatory reminds us that to live virtuously is our duty.

The more one longs for a thing, the more painful does deprivation of it become. And because after this life, the desire for God, the Supreme Good, is intense in the souls of the just (because this impetus toward him is not hampered by the weight of the body, and that time of enjoyment of the Perfect Good would have come) had there been no obstacle; the soul suffers enormously from the delay.

— St. Thomas Aquinas

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Prayer for St. Thomas Aquinas' Intercession

Almighty ever-loving God, who made Saint Thomas Aquinas outstanding in his zeal for holiness and his study of sacred doctrine, grant us, we pray, that we may understand what he taught and imitate what he accomplished by his witness and holy intercession. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your only Son, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.