Here is where most people, after active purification, and some consoling moments, go into the illuminative stage.
If we are purified on earth, we shall not have to be purified in purgatory.
Purification which is active we can all do, such as fasting and abstinence.
We must also conform our minds to Christ and accept suffering.
That is all part of active purification. Do not fight suffering. I did for years, as I was thinking like a Protestant, either that all suffering was evil and had to be overcome, instead of endured.
Once I gave in to suffering, I understood the value and could experience joy and peace in the midst of it.
Abandonment, cancer, poverty, it does not matter.
Be open to renewal, in God's time...
Here is Garrigou-Lagrange on the beginning of the illuminative stage:
We are here at the aurora of the illuminative life; it richly deserves that we show generosity in our passage through the dark night which precedes it. Here it is a question of being purified from the remains of the seven capital sins that stain the spiritual life; if one is not purified from them on earth while meriting, one must be cleansed in purgatory without meriting.
The passive purification which we are speaking of is in the normal way of sanctity, which may be defined as union with God and sufficient purity to enter heaven immediately. This degree of purity is certainly in the normal way of heaven, whether a person obtains it on earth, or only at the end of his purgatory. Purgatory, which is a penalty, presupposes sins that could have been avoided. Therefore the soul should trust in God while this painful work of purification is being accomplished.
Read that last sentence again.
Read that last sentence again.