Purgatory is punishment, not merely cleansing, as Garrigou-Lagrange quotes several saints and religious writers. There is no merit gained in purgatory, none. One does not gain a status of grace for heaven in that punishment. The merit for heaven comes with suffering and purification. The entrance into the Illuminative State begins with the second conversion. In this state, one is called to the life of the virtue, which happens more easily and without effort, as God is holding one's hand and leading one into quiet and solitude.
It is hard for the laity to understand that they are called to these ways as well as religious. The religious vocation is merely a short-cut. There is no opt-out for holiness for all of us who have been baptized.
What are the characteristics of this second conversion?
Here is a list.
Complete trust in God and Divine Providence
An awareness of one's nothingness in the Face of God
Humility and a desire for brutal honesty about one's self
A call to quiet and deeper, intense prayer
A release of the gifts of Confirmation, which may be blocked by sin and the tendencies to sin
The giving up and hatred of the seeking of consolation and the awareness that consolations are not necessary
The desire to be with God alone, to be His child, student, and finally, bride.
These are just some of the signs of the second conversion given in Garrigou-Lagrange. He is using Thomas Aquinas, John of the Cross and Catherine of Siena quite a bit.
The passive purification of the senses is done by God, without one being in control of the process. One merely needs to be orthodox and compliant. Orthodoxy is absolutely ABSOLUTELY necessary for this road to holiness.
We are given the infused virtues, but temptations occur, of course. One of the greatest temptations at this stage is spiritual pride. Impatience is another great temptation, which one experiences in this passive purification, as one wants things to move on. Not so, as God has His own plan.
Here is a section from Garrigou-Lagrange:
If we bear these trials well, they produce precious effects in us. It is said that "patience produces roses." Among the effects of the passive purification of the senses, must be numbered a profound and experimental knowledge of God and self.
St. John of the Cross points out: "These aridities and the emptiness of the faculties as to their former abounding, and the difficulty which good works present, bring the soul to a knowledge of its own vileness and misery." (20)
This knowledge is the effect of nascent infused contemplation, which shows that infused contemplation is in the normal way of sanctity. St. John of the Cross says: "The soul possesses and retains more truly that excellent and necessary virtue of self-knowledge, counting itself for nothing, and having no satisfaction in itself, because it sees that of itself it does and can do nothing. This diminished satisfaction with self, and the affliction it feels because it thinks that it is not serving God, God esteems more highly than all its former delights and all its good works." (21)
With this knowledge of its indigence, its poverty, the soul comprehends better the majesty of God, His infinite goodness toward us, the value also of Christ's merits, of His precious blood, the infinite value of the Mass, and the value of Communion. "God enlightens the soul, making it see not only its own misery and meanness, . . . but also His grandeur and majesty." (22)
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This knowledge is the effect of nascent infused contemplation, which shows that infused contemplation is in the normal way of sanctity. St. John of the Cross says: "The soul possesses and retains more truly that excellent and necessary virtue of self-knowledge, counting itself for nothing, and having no satisfaction in itself, because it sees that of itself it does and can do nothing. This diminished satisfaction with self, and the affliction it feels because it thinks that it is not serving God, God esteems more highly than all its former delights and all its good works." (21)
To be continued......