Perfectionism sucks

My mother (may her soul, and all the souls of the dearly departed rest in peace, amen) always called me a perfectionist. I thought she was crazy because I was then and am now a total slob. I now know what she meant. In my world, everything had to be "just so" or it wasn't worth doing. It took me hours to find a template for this blog that I thought suitable and twice as long to come up with a name. There is no perfection on Earth. Heaven is Perfect in every sense of the word. We, in our imperfection's cannot enter the Perfection that is Paradise. We need a way of purifying ourselves, scrub our souls clean of the temporal effects that have stained our soul due to sin. All sin offends God. All sin is forgiven when we ask Him and it is forgiven. But that stain remains. We can remove most of these stains on Earth by practicing penance and mortification or it is removed in Purgatory. My mother wasn't Catholic nor even particularly religious. But since her death 1 month ago, I have thought scarcely of anything else that she is there and needs my prayers. I think this way because to think otherwise would be to doubt God's Mercy.
I have always had a devotion to the Holy Souls after reading one of the best books on the subject: Read Me or Rue It by Fr. Paul O'Sullivan.(Read it here, it's not long and so valuable I wish it was required reading for all Catholics). It was thing one good spiritual work of mercy I can actually perform without forgetting or being timid. There are so many little things one can do to offer up for their benefit. Such as the prayer the the top of this blog. Think how many souls could enter into the Glory of Heaven if every person said that prayer 5 times, or 10 times or 20 times a day! Just that many more saints in Heaven interceding on our behalf! It all amounts to the Doctrine of the Communion of Saints: The Church Triumphant prays for The Church Militant which prays for the The Church Suffering. This is just one fraction of what The Communion of Saints contains. I have more to share which is why I started this blog, to spread the word that the Holy Souls need our assistance, and how in this day and age are largely forgotten or even denied. Sadly there are Catholics who thought the Church "did away with" Purgatory after Vatican II. Nothing could be further from the truth.