St Catherine of Genoa on purgatory

 MAGNIFICAT had a "Meditation of the Day" for All Souls Day that I found an interesting read, and to which I have returned in the days since. It was an extract from St Catherine of Genoa, from a treatise on purgatory whose English translation used as the source for the meditation dates back to 1946. (A quick look at Amazon suggests that there are more recently published editions.)

The extract first articulates a teaching that, whilst guilt for sin has been forgiven, there remains a stain or harm caused by sin that is still to be removed (the added italics are mine):

The souls in purgatory have wills accordant in all things with the will of God, who therefore sheds on them his goodness. And they, as far as their will goes, are happy and cleansed of all their sin. As for guilt, these cleansed souls are as they were when God created them, for God forgives their guilt immediately who have passed form this life having confessed all they have committed and having the will to commit no more. Only the rust of sin is left them, and from this they cleanse themselves by pain in fire. Thus cleansed of all guilt and united in will to God, they see him clearly in the degree in which he makes himself known to them, and see too how much it imports to enjoy him and that souls have been created for this end.

There then follows an account of how God and the soul are related in this process of cleansing, first of all from the perspective of God himself:

I perceive there to be so much conformity between God and the soul, that when he sees it in the purity in which his divine majesty created it he gives it a burning love, which draws it to himself, and which causes it to be so transformed in God that it sees itself as though it were none other than God. Unceasingly he draws it to himself and breathes into it, never letting it go until he has let it to the state whence it came forth, that is to the pure cleanliness in which it was created.

And then, secondly, from the point of view of the soul: 

When with its inner sight the soul sees itself drawn by God with such loving fire, then it is melted by the heat of the glowing love for God, its most dear Lord, which it feels overflowing it. And it sees by the divine light that God does not cease from drawing it, nor from leading it lovingly and with much care and unfailing foresight to its full perfection, doing this of his pure love. But the sould, being hindered by sin, cannot go where God draws it; it cannot follow the uniting look with which he would draw it to hismelf. Again the soul perceives the grieviousness of being held back from seeing the divine light; the soul's instinct too, being drawn by that uniting look, craves to be unhindered. I say that it is the sight of these things which begets in the souls the pain they feel in purgatory.

The meditation ends with a reflection that suggests the soul might even look forward to the experience of purgatory (again, the added italics are mine): 

Not that they take account of their pain; most great though it be, they deem it a far less evil than to find themselves going against the will of God, whom they clearly see to be on fire with extreme and pure love for them. Strongly and unceasingly this love draws the soul with that uniting look, as though it had nothing else than this to do.