# St. Faustina Reveals 3 Regrets of Souls in Purgatory

An episode of [AfterMass](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1823710125), 15 Apr 2026, 12 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO6267341534.mp3

In her visions, St. Faustina Kowalska recorded what souls actually experience after death, and what they wish they had done differently while they were still alive.If you’ve been putting off confession, ignoring prayer, or assuming you have more time, this is your reminder that eternity is not theoretical.📖 Based on the writings of St. Faustina (Diary of Divine Mercy) #catholic #purgatory #divinemercy #stfaustina #catholictiktok #christianity #afterlife #faith

## Transcript

[0:00] If you died today and could come back for just one minute, just
[0:03] one, what would you do with it? Because according to Saint
[0:07] Faustina Kowalska, souls in Purgatory already know the
[0:09] answer to that, and it's not even close to what we spend our
[0:13] time on right now. This whole idea of the three
[0:16] things that souls regret isn't coming from this random story or
[0:20] something made-up. It really comes from Saint
[0:23] Faustina's diary. And if you've ever heard of
[0:25] Divine Mercy Sunday, we just had it this past Sunday.
[0:28] But all of that Divine Mercy Sunday devotion, the chaplet, it
[0:31] all traces back to her and what she wrote down.
[0:33] So she was born in 19 O 5 in Poland.
[0:36] She was born into a very poor family.
[0:38] She was one of ten kids, no formal theological training,
[0:42] there is no platform, nothing like that.
[0:44] And from a young age, she had this sense that she was being
[0:47] called to religious life. But even entering the convent
[0:50] wasn't easy for her. She was actually turned away at
[0:53] first because she didn't have the education or the money to
[0:56] support herself. So she worked as a housekeeper
[0:59] to save up to be able to enter the convent.
[1:01] Then eventually she joins the Congregation of the Sisters of
[1:04] Our Lady of Mercy. And there her life was just
[1:09] about as ordinary as it gets on the outside.
[1:11] She worked in the kitchen and in the garden as a Porter and just
[1:16] daily hidden work that nobody would look at from the outside
[1:19] and think that there was anything extraordinary going on.
[1:21] But at the same time, she was also experiencing these very
[1:24] intense mystical encounters, and she wasn't just writing them
[1:28] down on her own initiative. Her spiritual director actually
[1:31] told her to document everything under obedience, which is why we
[1:35] even have her diary at all. Divine Mercy in my soul is
[1:39] literally her recording what she saw and experienced in real time
[1:42] conversations with Jesus, moments of suffering, insights
[1:46] into sin, mercy, and also what she witnessed when it came to
[1:50] the afterlife, including purgatory.
[1:52] In the Catholic Church, this is what's called private
[1:54] revelation. So this isn't on the same level
[1:56] as scripture. You are not required to believe
[1:59] every single detail. But the church did approve her
[2:01] writings and even canonized her, and Pope St.
[2:04] John Paul the Second established Divine Mercy Sunday for the
[2:08] entire church. So this isn't something fringe.
[2:10] It's been taken seriously at the highest level.
[2:13] And when you read about what she actually wrote about purgatory,
[2:17] it's not focused on visuals or trying to paint some kind of
[2:21] scene. What stands out is what the
[2:23] souls understand. Once they're there, everything
[2:26] is clear. There's no distractions, no
[2:28] excuses, no. Oh, I didn't realize they really
[2:32] see their lives exactly as they were.
[2:35] Not how they justified them, not how they explained things away,
[2:39] but just the truth of it all. And what they regret isn't what
[2:43] we spend most of our time worrying about.
[2:45] So I'm going to walk you through the three things that show up
[2:47] the most in what she describes. Maybe it'll change how you look
[2:50] at your time, your relationships, your relationship
[2:53] with God in a practical way, not just in theory.
[2:58] So the first thing that comes up is how much the soul realizes
[3:01] the value of time, not in in the general way that we all do like
[3:06] God, time is precious, but in a very exact, almost shocking way
[3:10] once they no longer have access to it.
[3:12] And what St. Faustina Kowalska wrote and in
[3:15] the records, the souls understand something after death
[3:18] that we just don't see clearly right now, which is that while
[3:21] you're alive, you're able to act, you're able to choose, You
[3:25] can love, you can repent, you can offer something to God.
[3:28] And every single one of those actions actually does something.
[3:32] It carries weight. It changes your soul.
[3:34] And once that time, that opportunity is gone, it's gone.
[3:39] Then she describes this idea that if a soul in purgatory
[3:42] could come back for even one minute, not a day, but just 60
[3:46] seconds, they wouldn't use it to fix their career or talk to
[3:49] people or go experience something.
[3:51] They would use it for one act of love toward God, one sincere
[3:54] prayer, one moment of patience, something small that right now
[3:58] we wouldn't even think twice about.
[4:00] Because what the soul in purgatory sees clearly is that
[4:04] those small moments had very real value.
[4:06] And I don't mean value like they were meaningful, but actual
[4:09] value like something that could have reduced what they now have
[4:13] to go through. And the part that's
[4:14] uncomfortable is how that contrasts with how we actually
[4:17] spend our time here while we have it.
[4:20] Most of our days made-up of things that we treat like
[4:22] nothing. Scrolling and distractions, even
[4:25] watching this video, getting irritated over small things,
[4:29] wasting time and conversations that don't matter, and putting
[4:32] off prayer because we'll just do it later.
[4:34] And none of those things are inherently sinful or maybe even
[4:37] feel serious when we're doing it.
[4:39] But from the perspective of these souls in purgatory, these
[4:43] things are damaging. It's more like being handed
[4:46] something extremely valuable over and over again and just not
[4:49] using it. And what St.
[4:51] Faustina describes is that the souls don't just regret big sins
[4:54] in this area. They regret the ordinary moments
[4:57] they passed through without ever turning them toward God.
[5:00] Moments that could have been redeemed in a way that we just
[5:02] don't think about while we're living in these moments.
[5:05] Because on Earth, we're active. We can still respond, we can
[5:08] still change something. But in purgatory, the soul is no
[5:12] longer choosing in that same way.
[5:13] It's undergoing purification. It's receiving.
[5:16] It's not initiating. So the regret isn't just that I
[5:20] wasted time. It's realizing that what looked
[5:22] like nothing was actually something, and now there's no
[5:25] way to go back and use it. And that's why even something as
[5:28] simple as stopping for a second and saying a real prayer or
[5:31] choosing patience instead of reacting or maybe even offering
[5:34] something small to God actually matters in a way that maybe we
[5:39] don't feel in the moment. The second thing that comes up
[5:41] is how we treated people. And this one is a lot more
[5:44] specific than just, oh, be a good person.
[5:46] Because what shows up isn't just general behavior.
[5:49] It's very concrete things that people remember, things they
[5:52] said or maybe things they didn't say, moments that they held on
[5:55] to instead of letting go. And what St.
[5:57] Faustina records, the soul sees every relationship in the light
[6:01] of truth, without the excuses it used while it was alive.
[6:05] So all of these justifications that made sense here on earth
[6:08] just don't hold up anymore. And what stands out is how much
[6:11] regret is tied to these things that felt small in the moment.
[6:15] Like choosing not to forgive someone or staying silent
[6:17] instead of saying what needed to be said.
[6:19] Or maybe holding on to pride in an argument, letting distance
[6:23] grow instead of fixing it. Because while we are here on
[6:26] earth, those things feel manageable.
[6:28] We tell ourselves that there's time, or that it's not that
[6:30] serious, or that the other person should be the one to fix
[6:33] it first. I know I've said that one, but
[6:36] what St. Faustina describes is that after
[6:38] death, those moments are seen clearly for what they were.
[6:41] Opportunities to repair something, to humble yourself,
[6:44] to love in a way that actually cost you something to love like
[6:48] Christ. And instead they were left
[6:51] unresolved. And it's not just the conflicts,
[6:54] it's also the absence of things that should have been there.
[6:57] Not saying I love you when you could have.
[7:00] Not affirming someone, being emotionally distant, being
[7:03] present physically but not actually showing care.
[7:05] All of these things become visible in a way that can't be
[7:08] ignored. And one of the harder parts of
[7:10] this is that the soul sees the effect that it had on other
[7:12] people. Like the actual impact of words
[7:15] or silence. Not just what was intended, but
[7:19] what it caused. So things like gossip, sarcasm,
[7:23] passive comments, coldness, they are not brushed off as
[7:28] personality or just, oh, it's just a mood.
[7:31] They're not dismissed like that. They're seen for what they did
[7:33] to somebody else. And at that point, there's no
[7:36] way to go back and repair it. You can't have that
[7:39] conversation. You can't apologize face to
[7:41] face. You can't fix the relationship
[7:43] in the same way that you could have when you were here on
[7:46] Earth. And that's where the regret
[7:48] comes in. It's not just that something
[7:49] went wrong, but it's that something could have been made
[7:52] right and it wasn't. And then there's another layer
[7:55] to this that St. Faustina points out, which is
[7:57] the way that we love in general, because it's not just about
[8:00] obvious wrongs. It's also about how much of our
[8:03] love was actually real. For example, how often your love
[8:07] was conditional. How often was it tied to being
[8:09] appreciated or being noticed getting something back in
[8:12] return? How often was it actually
[8:15] selfless love? And that becomes very clear
[8:17] after death. So it's not just I should have
[8:20] been nicer, it's seeing how many chances there were to love well,
[8:25] to forgive, to speak up, to repair, and realizing how many
[8:29] of those moments were passed over.
[8:31] The third thing, and this is the one that everything kind of
[8:34] builds towards, is not about time or other people directly.
[8:40] It's about God. And what St.
[8:42] Faustina describes is that the deepest regret isn't fear of
[8:45] punishment, it's realizing how little God was actually loved
[8:50] while there was still time to love him.
[8:51] And that's different than saying, oh, I just didn't pray
[8:53] enough. Because what becomes clear to
[8:55] the soul is that God was never distant.
[8:58] He wasn't hard to find. He wasn't hidden somewhere far
[9:00] away waiting to be discovered. He was present the entire time
[9:05] in our ordinary life, in our daily responsibilities, in
[9:08] moments of suffering and opportunities to trust him, and
[9:11] especially in the Eucharist. And all of that was available
[9:15] constantly. And what the soul sees after
[9:17] death is how many times it pushed that aside.
[9:20] Maybe in small repeated ways, or maybe in big ways.
[9:24] Choosing other things, staying distracted, putting it off,
[9:27] treating God like maybe something optional in your life
[9:30] instead of someone real. And the regret is tied to that
[9:33] realization. Not just that God exists because
[9:36] we believe he exists, but who he actually is.
[9:39] Because once the soul sees God clearly, it also sees how he was
[9:42] present all along. How he was waiting and offering
[9:45] himself and how often that was ignored or delayed or maybe even
[9:49] treated as something to come back to later.
[9:51] And there's no way to relive that relationship in the same
[9:54] way. We can't go back and choose to
[9:56] trust more or love more or respond differently in those
[9:58] moments. So that regret is very specific.
[10:02] It's looking at your life and seeing how many opportunities
[10:04] there were for a real relationship with God, not just
[10:07] obligation, not out of routine. The true actual love and how
[10:12] often that was replaced with something else.
[10:15] And what makes this last one different from the other two is
[10:18] that it touches everything because how you used your time,
[10:21] how you treated people, all of that is connected to this one.
[10:26] And once it's all clear, it's not something that you can
[10:29] explain away. So if you take all of these
[10:31] three things together, what you end up with isn't this
[10:34] complicated formula. It's actually very simple.
[10:37] You have time right now, which means that you can still act,
[10:41] you can still choose, you can still turn even the smallest
[10:44] moment into something real, not because it feels imortant, but
[10:48] because it actually is. You have people in your life
[10:51] right now, which means whatever is unresolved, whatever you've
[10:53] been putting off, whatever conversation you know you should
[10:56] have, but you've been avoiding, whatever forgiveness you've been
[10:59] holding back, that is still in your control.
[11:01] And you have access to God right now.
[11:03] Not later, not when life slows down, not when you feel more
[11:06] ready right now, in the middle of your normal day, in ways that
[11:09] are honestly easy to overlook because they're so ordinary.
[11:13] And what St. Faustina shows, what she wrote,
[11:16] is that none of these things are theoretical.
[11:18] It all becomes very concrete once life is over, and the only
[11:21] difference is that at that point you can't go back and change how
[11:25] you responded to it. So this isn't about trying to
[11:27] overhaul your entire life overnight or suddenly becoming
[11:31] perfect. It's about not brushing off the
[11:33] moments that you already have, choosing to actually pray
[11:37] instead of putting it off again, fixing something with someone
[11:40] instead of letting it sit, being patient in a moment where you
[11:43] would normally react, even just saying something simple to God
[11:47] and meaning it. Because those are the exact
[11:49] kinds of things that don't feel like much right now.
[11:52] But according to this, there are things that actually mattered.
[11:55] And if you were given one minute back, that's what you would have
[11:57] used it for if you're one of these souls in purgatory.
[12:00] So the only real question is, what are you doing with the
[12:03] minutes that you still have? That's all I have for today.
[12:06] I will see you guys next time. Bye.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.