I made something for you, and it’s free. It’s a workbook for building a Rule of Life, and you’re welcome to download it, print it, and use it however it helps you, on your own, with a friend, or with a small group.

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Grace and peace to you in Christ,
Brian Mackey
Chaplain & Spiritual Director, Heart, Mind & Soul Care
brianmackey@heartmindandsoulcare.org

Dear friends,

There are few topics that stir as much quiet anxiety, and as much misunderstanding, as the question of what happens after death to those who die in the friendship of God yet still carry the marks of sin. Both Catholics and Reformed Protestants long for the same thing: to see the face of God without shame, with clean hands and a pure heart (Psalm 24:3-4). Where we differ is in how we understand the work of Christ to accomplish it.

I offer this reflection in a pastoral spirit. I want to state clearly what the Catholic Church teaches, present the classic Reformed concerns honestly, and note both the real points of harmony and the places where the two traditions part ways. I am not trying to win a debate. My hope is that we come away with greater confidence in the mercy of Christ and deeper love for one another in the communion of saints.

What the Catholic Church Teaches

The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks with remarkable restraint. In paragraphs 1030-1032 it teaches:

All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.
The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.
This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: “Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.” From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice.

Closely related is the doctrine of indulgences (CCC 1471):

An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.

The Church distinguishes between the eternal punishment of sin (removed when guilt is forgiven) and the temporal effects or attachments that remain. These residual disorders, it teaches, must be healed either in this life or after death. Indulgences are one way the living may participate in that healing for themselves or for the souls undergoing purification.

Scriptural Foundations

Catholics point to several passages that appear to leave room for post-mortem purification:

• 1 Corinthians 3:13-15: “If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.” The person is saved, yet suffers loss. This is neither heaven (where there is no loss) nor hell (where there is no salvation).
• Matthew 12:32: Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit “will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come,” implying that some sins can be forgiven in the age to come.
• Revelation 21:27: “Nothing unclean will ever enter” the heavenly city. Holiness is required for the beatific vision.
• 2 Maccabees 12:42-46: Judas Maccabeus offers sacrifices for the dead “that they might be delivered from their sin,” an act the text calls “a holy and pious thought” (12:45).

These texts do not use the word “Purgatory,” yet they describe a reality that is neither final bliss nor final condemnation: a process of purification for the saved.

The Classic Reformed Concern

The Reformed tradition has historically rejected the Catholic account of Purgatory and indulgences with strong language. The Westminster Confession of Faith (XXXII.1) states:

The souls of the righteous, being then made perfect in holiness, are received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God, in light and glory… Besides these two places, for souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none.

John Calvin was even more direct in the Institutes (III.5.6):

Purgatory is a deadly fiction of Satan, which nullifies the cross of Christ, inflicts unbearable contempt upon God’s mercy, and overturns and destroys our faith. For what means this purgatory of theirs but that satisfaction for sins is paid by the souls of the dead after their death? … If it is perfectly clear that the blood of Christ is the sole satisfaction for the sins of believers, the sole expiation, the sole purgation, what remains but to say that purgatory is simply a dreadful blasphemy against Christ?

William Perkins, in his work A Reformed Catholic, sought points of agreement while still drawing a firm line. He affirmed a “Christian purgatory” in the sense of the afflictions of this life and the cleansing power of Christ’s blood, but denied any post-mortem place of satisfaction:

We hold a Christian purgatory, according as the word of God has set down the same unto us. And first of all by this purgatory we understand the afflictions of God’s children here on earth… Secondly, the blood of Christ is a purgatory of our sins… We differ from the Papists touching purgatory in two things. And first of all, for the place… we for our parts deny it, as having no warrant in the word of God; which mentions only two places for men after this life, heaven and hell.

The Reformed concern is pastoral as well as theological: if Christ’s blood is truly the sole satisfaction, then any remaining “payment” after death appears to diminish the finished work of the cross and to leave the believer without the full comfort of immediate acceptance.

Points of Harmony

Despite these sharp differences, several important areas of agreement remain:

1. Holiness is required for the vision of God. Both traditions affirm that nothing unclean will enter heaven (Rev 21:27). Sanctification is not optional.
2. Christ’s work is foundational. Catholics and Reformed Protestants alike confess that we are saved by the grace of Christ. The disagreement concerns whether that work leaves residual temporal effects that require further purification, not whether Christ is the Savior.
3. Purification is a real process. Many Reformed writers acknowledge that believers die with remaining sin and that God completes the work of making us holy. C.S. Lewis, an Anglican rather than a Reformed theologian, captured a widely shared intuition in Letters to Malcolm: “Our souls demand Purgatory, don’t they? Would it not break the heart if God said to us, ‘It is true, my son, that your breath smells and your rags drip with mud and slime, but we are charitable here and no one will upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into the joy’? Should we not reply, ‘With submission, sir, and if there is no objection, I’d rather be cleansed first.’ ‘It may hurt, you know.’ ‘Even so, sir.’”
4. Love reaches beyond death. Even some Protestants have felt the natural impulse to pray for the dead. Lewis again: “Of course I pray for the dead. The action is so spontaneous, so all but inevitable, that only the most compulsive theological case against it would deter me.”

Points of Divergence

The differences remain significant:

• Immediate perfection versus progressive purification. Classic Reformed teaching (Westminster, Calvin, Perkins) holds that the souls of the righteous are made perfect in holiness at death and are immediately received into the presence of Christ (cf. 2 Cor 5:8; Phil 1:23). Catholic teaching holds that many of the saved still require a final purification after death.
• Temporal punishment and satisfaction. Catholics distinguish between the guilt of sin (forgiven) and its temporal consequences (still to be purified). Reformed theology generally rejects this distinction as introducing a form of satisfaction that competes with the sufficiency of Christ’s atonement.
• The treasury of merits and indulgences. The idea that the Church can apply the superabundant merits of Christ and the saints to remit temporal punishment is foreign to Reformed soteriology, which emphasizes the direct imputation of Christ’s righteousness and the absence of any remaining debt.
• Canonical and traditional authority. Catholics receive 2 Maccabees as Scripture and look to the consistent practice of the early Church in praying for the dead. Most Reformed Protestants do not receive the deuterocanonical books and find the later medieval development of Purgatory and indulgences to lack clear biblical warrant.

A Pastoral Word

For those of us who have entered the Catholic Church while still cherishing the best of the Reformed emphasis on the finished work of Christ, these questions are not abstract. We want to honor both the clarity of the gospel and the Church’s long memory of praying for the dead. We want the comfort of knowing that those who die in Christ are safe, and the freedom to commend them to God’s mercy without anxiety that their salvation is somehow incomplete.

Perhaps the deepest harmony lies here: both traditions confess that it is the blood of Christ, and not our own efforts, that ultimately cleanses us. Whether that cleansing is understood as completed at the moment of death or as continuing in a merciful purification afterward, the source is the same. The Catholic who offers Mass and indulgences for the dead does so trusting in the merits of Christ. The Reformed Christian who rests in the promise of immediate perfection does so trusting in the same merits. In both cases, the heart of the matter is the sufficiency of the Savior.

May we pursue the holiness without which no one will see the Lord (Heb 12:14), trusting that the God who began a good work in us will bring it to completion (Phil 1:6), whether in this life or, if necessary, in the mercy that meets us on the other side of death. And may our love for one another, living and departed, be a small reflection of the love that will one day make all things new.

In Christ,
Brian

Most mornings my mind is already running before my feet hit the floor. The schedule, the patient I’m worried about, the conversation I dread, the news I glanced at last night. Before I have said a word to God, my thoughts have already been set somewhere. Maybe you know the feeling.

Paul knew it too, and he gave the Colossians a simple, demanding word for it:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4)

It Starts with Who You Are

Notice how Paul begins. He doesn’t say, “Try harder to think spiritual thoughts.” He says, “If then you have been raised with Christ.” The command rests on something God has already done. You have died with Christ. You have been raised with Him. Your life is “hidden with Christ in God.” Setting your mind above is simply learning to live from that reality.

That matters, because many of us carry a heavy sense of failure here. We know our thoughts wander. We know how easily we are pulled into worry, resentment, or distraction. Paul starts somewhere else, with Christ’s victory. You don’t have to climb up to heaven by your own thinking. You only have to turn your attention toward the One who already holds your life.

Setting the Mind

The word Paul uses means more than a passing thought. It speaks of a settled direction, an orientation of the whole person. John Calvin noticed this. He said the word “expresses rather assiduity and intensity of aim,” and paraphrased Paul this way: “Let your whole meditation be as to this: to this apply your intellect, to this your mind.”

Paul says something similar in Romans: “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6). And again: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2). Isaiah adds a promise: “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3).

Setting our minds above is not the same as ignoring earth. Paul goes straight on in Colossians 3 to talk about very earthly things: how we speak, how we forgive, how we treat our families and our coworkers. C. S. Lewis put it well: “Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.” A heart set on Christ becomes more patient and more loving right here.

Putting Off and Putting On

The rest of the chapter shows what this looks like. First, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you” (Colossians 3:5). Then, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:12-14).

I find it helpful that the virtues Paul lists are so ordinary: kindness at the nurses’ station, patience with a slow driver, forgiving someone at the dinner table. A mind set on heaven tends to show up in small places like these.

How Reformed and Catholic Christians Read It

Both the Reformed and the Catholic traditions have treasured this passage, and each brings out something important. Reformed Christians stress that renewal flows from union with Christ and from God’s sovereign grace. Catholics put the weight on how that renewal is received and nourished in Baptism, the Eucharist, prayer, and a life of charity. The Catechism of the Catholic Church borrows the words of Romans 6 when it says, “Incorporated into Christ by Baptism, Christians are ‘dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus’ and so participate in the life of the Risen Lord” (CCC 1694). Here is a simple way to compare the emphases:

Area	Reformed Emphasis	Catholic Emphasis	Common Ground
Source of renewal	The sovereign grace of God applied by the Holy Spirit through union with Christ.	Sanctifying grace infused by the Holy Spirit, healing and elevating the soul.	Renewal begins with God, not with us.
Christ-centered identity	The believer is united to Christ in His death, resurrection, and heavenly session.	The believer participates in Christ’s life through Baptism, Eucharist, prayer, and charity.	Both see Christian life as participation in the risen Christ.
Justification and sanctification	Justification is by faith alone, distinct from sanctification yet inseparable from it.	Justification includes forgiveness, inward renewal, sanctification, and growth in grace.	Grace produces real holiness and a changed life.
Means of grace	The Word preached, sacraments rightly administered, prayer, discipline, and fellowship.	Word, sacraments, liturgy, prayer, Tradition, the teaching office, and the communion of saints.	Renewal happens within the life of the Church.
Scripture and formation	Scripture is the supreme rule of faith and life, renewing the mind through truth.	Scripture is received and interpreted within Sacred Tradition and the Church’s teaching life.	Scripture stands at the heart of Christian formation.
Growth in holiness	Mortification and vivification: dying to sin and living to righteousness by the Spirit.	Growth in virtue, charity, sacramental life, penance, and cooperation with grace.	Visible fruit is expected: love, humility, repentance, perseverance, and obedience.
Goal	Conformity to Christ and glorification in the new creation.	Union with God in charity, holiness, and final beatitude.	The end is communion with God and the restoration of the human person in Christ.

We use different words, and sometimes we disagree. Still, in both traditions it is God who begins the work, and the goal is a life that looks more and more like Christ’s.

A Few Simple Practices

Here are some ways I have found to set my mind above in ordinary days:

• Scripture before the phone. Even one verse is enough. Colossians 3:1-4 is a good place to start.
• Pray a psalm slowly. The Psalms train our hearts to look up from our troubles to the Lord.
• Practice turning. When you notice your mind spinning, don’t scold yourself. Turn your attention back to Christ with a short prayer like “Lord Jesus, You are my life.”
• Look for one chance to “put on” love. Pick one person today and show them kindness, patience, or forgiveness.
• Before sleep, give thanks. Name a few of the gifts God gave you that day.

Augustine began his Confessions with a prayer that I come back to often: “you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” Setting our minds on things above is really learning to rest our restless hearts in Christ, who is our life.

Lord Jesus, You are seated at the right hand of the Father, and my life is hidden with You in God. When my thoughts run toward fear and worry, turn them gently back to You. Teach me to put on love today. Amen.

For Further Reading

• Augustine. Confessions. Translated by Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
• Brother Lawrence. The Practice of the Presence of God.
• Calvin, John. Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. Translated by John Pringle. Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1851.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 1691-1698 and 2705-2708. 2nd ed. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997.
• Chalmers, Thomas. The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.
• Francis de Sales. Introduction to the Devout Life.
• Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity. Book III, chapter 10, “Hope.”

Every so often a small book does more for my prayer life than a whole shelf of big ones. Fr. Joseph Simler’s Catechism of Mental Prayer is one of those. It is a short question-and-answer guide, first published in 1888 and still in print from TAN Books, and it walks the reader through mental prayer one step at a time. I keep coming back to it because it is honest about distractions and dry seasons, and because it keeps asking a practical question: what will I do differently today because I prayed? Below is a summary of the book, a few quotations, and some questions for reflection.

What the Book Is About

Catechism of Mental Prayer is a brief, very practical question-and-answer manual that teaches the method of mental prayer (meditation) as an accessible, essential practice for all Christians seeking salvation and holiness. Structured around preparation, the body of prayer (considerations, affections, resolutions), conclusion, and handling difficulties, it distills traditional Catholic wisdom into clear, actionable steps. Fr. Simler emphasizes perseverance, good will over consolations, and concrete fruits in daily virtue. It is a good fit for beginners, novices, and busy laity or religious. The booklet shows that mental prayer is not only necessary but doable and life-changing, countering common obstacles like distractions and aridity with encouragement and remedies. Its enduring value lies in its simplicity, orthodoxy, and focus on producing lasting resolutions aligned with God’s will.

About the Author

Very Rev. Joseph Simler, S.M. (Society of Mary, the Marianists) was a French priest, educator, and religious superior. From 1876 until his death in 1905 he served as the fourth Superior General of the Marianists, the congregation founded by Blessed William Joseph Chaminade, with a strong emphasis on education and interior spirituality. Simler wrote the larger Guide of the Man of Good Will in the Exercise of Mental Prayer, and this Catechism is an accessible summary of it, edited by Fr. L. Beck. His writings reflect the Marianist charism of simplicity, devotion to Our Lady, and practical formation of souls, particularly the young. The work carries ecclesiastical approval (Imprimatur) and draws deeply from Scripture, the saints (especially St. Teresa of Ávila), and masters of the spiritual life.

Chapters

The book is structured in logical sections mirroring the flow of mental prayer itself.

• Preface: Introduces the work as a helpful summary for beginners, especially the young in religious formation. It invokes St. Teresa of Ávila and seeks the intercession of Our Lady for those who study it.
• I. General Ideas (Nature of Mental Prayer; Necessity and Excellence of Mental Prayer; Facility of Mental Prayer): Defines mental prayer as a pious communication of the soul with God through considerations, affections, and resolutions (distinct from vocal prayer). It stresses its absolute necessity for salvation and spiritual progress, its excellence as an “audience” with God, and its relative ease for those of good will, while acknowledging common obstacles like sloth or sin.
• II. Preparation for Mental Prayer (Remote or Habitual Preparation; Proximate Preparation; Immediate Preparation): Explains the three layers of preparation: habitual (removing obstacles like dissipation and cultivating recollection, purity, and mortification), proximate (choosing a subject suited to one’s needs and foreseeing points/fruit), and immediate (invocations to the Holy Ghost, Mary, and guardian angel; acts of faith in God’s presence, adoration, humility, contrition, etc.). Preparation ensures respectful and fruitful engagement.
• III. Body of Mental Prayer (Principal Acts; Considerations; Affections; Resolutions; The Order and Connection of These Acts): Describes the core “interview” with God, beginning with recalling the subject and desired fruit. It details considerations (pious reflections in the light of faith to penetrate truths or events), affections (sentiments of the heart leading to love, contrition, petition, etc.), and resolutions (firm, practical, personal purposes). The acts interconnect flexibly according to grace.
• IV. Conclusion of Mental Prayer: Covers acts of thanksgiving, regret for faults, renewal of resolutions, the “spiritual bouquet” (a key maxim or prayer to carry through the day), colloquy, and closing vocal prayers. It warns against post-meditation dissipation.
• V. Examination of Mental Prayer: Advises daily self-examination on the parts of prayer, especially the principal resolution, to foster progress. Suggests keeping accounts and consulting a director.
• VI. Mixed Mental Prayer: Explains combining mental prayer with vocal prayer, reading (e.g., Imitation of Christ, Scripture), the Rosary, Stations of the Cross, Mass, etc. It is recommended especially when pure mental prayer is difficult, with cautions against it becoming mere reading.

Putting It into Practice

• Establish habitual preparation: Practice recollection, silence, purity of heart, and mortification daily; cultivate the habitual sense of God’s presence and ejaculatory prayer.
• Choose subjects wisely: Align with personal needs, grace, and director’s advice; frequently return to the Last Things, the Life/Passion of Christ, and virtues/Marian themes.
• Structure each session: Make solid immediate preparation (especially the act of faith in God’s presence); balance considerations, affections (especially supplications), and precise resolutions; conclude with thanksgiving, bouquet, and colloquy.
• Examine daily: Review your meditation briefly, focusing on fidelity to the main resolution; renew it and impose small penances if needed.
• Persevere through difficulties: Combat distractions calmly by returning to God’s presence; in aridity, make simple acts of will and humility; judge success by fruits in virtue, not consolations.
• Practice mixed prayer when helpful: Integrate with reading, Rosary, or liturgy.
• Seek accountability: Share progress with a spiritual director; aim for regularity (e.g., morning and evening).

Quotations and Citations

• Opening: “The devil knows that he has lost the soul that perseveringly practices mental prayer.” (Saint Teresa of Ávila, quoted in the Preface)
• On nature: “Mental prayer is a pious communication of the soul with God by means of considerations, affections, and resolutions.” (Ch. I).
• On excellence: Mental prayer “keeps sin far from us and saves us from Hell… [and] is the common source of all virtues.” (Ch. I).
• On resolutions: “Resolutions… constitute the principal fruit of mental prayer; without them this exercise would, for the most part, remain sterile.” (Ch. III).
• Practical: “Mental prayer is more the work of the heart and will than of the head.” (On affections).

Citations refer to the standard structure in the 1888/1911 editions as reproduced in modern reprints (e.g., TAN Books).

Questions for Reflection and Contemplation

1. How does my current prayer life reflect the definition of mental prayer as an intimate communication with God? What one change could I make this week?
2. Am I convinced of its necessity, or do I treat it as optional? What excuses (busyness, dryness) do I commonly use, and how does the book counter them?
3. In my preparations, do I truly place myself in God’s presence, or rush in distracted? How can I improve the act of faith?
4. Do my “resolutions” tend to be vague or concrete and personal? Recall a recent one. How faithfully did I keep it?
5. How do I handle distractions or aridity? Does the book’s advice to value the “meditation of patience” shift my perspective?
6. What subject for mental prayer does my soul most need right now, and why?
7. How might incorporating “mixed” prayer enrich my practice of the Rosary or attendance at Mass?

Appendix: Resources for Further Study and Reflection

• Primary: The Ways of Mental Prayer by Dom Vitalis Lehodey (deeper systematic treatment).
• Classics: Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales; The Imitation of Christ (especially Book IV); works of St. Teresa of Ávila and St. John of the Cross; The Spiritual Combat by Fr. Lorenzo Scupoli.
• Modern/Complementary: Conversation with Christ by Peter Thomas Rohrbach (on St. Teresa); Progress Through Mental Prayer by Edward Leen.
• Scripture: Psalms, Gospels (especially passages on Jesus praying), Jeremiah 12:11 (cited in the book).
• Practice Aids: Daily examen, spiritual director, regular retreats, visits to the Blessed Sacrament.
• Online: Public domain editions or audiobooks of Simler’s work; Catholic sites with traditional prayer resources.

This little book is a gift for anyone looking for a structured yet flexible way to draw closer to God. It takes the mystery out of mental prayer and gives the reader simple tools that have stood the test of time. I recommend it for beginners, and as a refresher for those who have prayed for years. Keep at it, and the fruit will show up in a more patient, loving, God-centered life.