On Purgatory...

The word purgatory is sometimes taken to mean a place, sometimes as an intermediate state between hell and heaven. it is, properly speaking, the condition of souls which, at the moment of death, are in a state of grace, but which have not completely expiated their faults, nor attained the degree of purity necessary to enjoy the vision of God.
It is not a trial by which merit may be gained or lost, but a state of atonement and expiation.
On this subject the Church proposes two truths clearly defined as dogmas of faith; first, that there is a Purgatory; second, that the souls which are in Purgatory may be assisted by the suffrages of the faithful, especially by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
--Purgatory, Explained by the Lives and Legends of the Saints
Fr. F. X. Schouppe, S. J. (1986). Originally published in 1926, Burns & Oates, London.

Reflection: "It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins."--2 Machabees, 12:46
"But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgement." --Matthew, 12:36