Words to Live by – from Catholic Tradition

The Tremendous Value of the Crosses Which God Sends to Us

By trials the sensory part of the soul is purified and strengthened, and the spiritual part is refined, purged, and disposed.  Since unpurified souls must undergo the sufferings of fire in the next life [viz., in Purgatory] to attain union with God in glory, so in this life they must undergo the fire of these sufferings to reach the union of perfection.  This fire [viz., trials] acts on some more vigorously than on others, and on some for a longer time than on others, according to the degree of union to which God wishes to raise them, and according to what they must be purged of.

St. John of the Cross, Mystical Doctor of the Church, Living Flame of Love, Stanza 2, #25 (emphasis and bracketed words added).