Archbishop Fulton Sheen: Building Our Heavenly Home

"Believe me,you will never lose your soul if you use your blessings to spread the faith."

~ Servant of God Fulton J. Sheen ~

Insights from the Bible and Servant of God Fulton Sheen on building our true home in heaven:

St. Faustina's Vision of Two Roads: Destination Heaven or Hell

One day, I saw two roads. One was broad, covered with sand and flowers, full of joy, music and all sorts of pleasures. People walked along it, dancing and enjoying themselves. They reached the end without realizing it. And at the end of the road there was a horrible precipice; that is, the abyss of hell. The souls fell blindly into it; as they walked, so they fell. And their number was so great that it was impossible to count them. And I saw the other road, or rather, a path, for it was narrow and strewn with thorns and rocks; and the people who walked along it had tears in their eyes, and all kinds of suffering befell them. Some fell down upon the rocks, but stood up immediately and went on. At the end of the road there was a magnificent garden filled with all sorts of happiness, and all these souls entered there. At the very first instant they forgot all their sufferings.

~ St. Faustina; excerpt 153 from The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska ~

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta: The Decision to Be Holy

"In order to be saints, you have to seriously want to be one. Saint Thomas Aquinas assures us that holiness 'is nothing else but a resolution made, the heroic act of a soul that surrenders to God.'

"And he adds: 'Spontaneously we love God, we run towards him, we get close to him, we possess him.”

"Our willingness is important because it changes us into the image of God and likens us to him! The decision to be holy is a very dear one. Renunciation, temptations, struggles, persecutions, and all kinds of sacrifices are what surround the soul that has opted for holiness."

~ Blessed Teresa of Calcutta ~

Pope Paul VI: The Voice of Conscience--a Law Written by God

16. In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not impose upon himself, but which holds him to obedience. Always summoning him to love good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience when necessary speaks to his heart: do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law written by God; to obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged.

Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes in his depths.

 

~ Pope Paul VI: excerpt from Gaudium Et Spes ~

Mother Angelica: Heaven, Purgatory, or Hell

"Everyone in Heaven radiates God in a different way and degree. Each one will have that degree of love and union he had at the moment of death. When we die, we cease to merit; we cease to use our talents; it is the time of reward or punishment. Whatever talents we have been given, used, and increased will be ours for all eternity. We will be rewarded in proportion to the way our free will chose God above ourselves and the world."

~ Mother Angelica: excerpt from Inside the Kingdom ~

A Heroic and Inspiring True Love Story: The Sanctifying Power of Sacrificial Love

Now my Dad was not a person who would ever seek or relate to mystical experiences. So much so that if I would have told him that I had a vision while praying in church he would have scoffed and probably left the room.

I was therefore astonished as Dad related the following to me. He said that the previous night he was again awakened to find red light in his bedroom. This time there were three lights instead of one. He said he again got up and looked out the window to discover whether the light could be emanating from outside the bedroom. He said he even closed his door and the curtains to eliminate the possibility. He then again sat on the edge of his bed to smoke a cigarette to make sure he was awake. After the cigarette was put out he said, “I looked into the lights and suddenly the bedroom disappeared and there was Heaven. And there sat Vera on a throne. She was wearing a beautiful blue robe and looked as she did when she was about 30 years old but even more beautiful. There was a great light shining on her from beyond the edge of what I could see. Also standing beside her was an unrecognizable person all made of light. I thought it was her Guardian Angel. Seated on her lap were four children. I said to Vera, “I recognize the two sitting on your knees as Roger and Patricia (my brother the first born of my siblings, and my sister Patricia the last born both of whom died within one week of their birth) but who are the other children sitting on your lap?” And Vera said, “These are the two children we lost through miscarriage. They do not have any names. What do you want to call them?” Dad answered,, “Joseph and Mary.” Dad then said that standing near Vera’s side was a little girl. Dad asked, “Who is the little girl?” And Mom answered, “This is Katherine, the little girl that Phyllis and Richard lost through crib death." (She was our daughter who we lost at seven months.) Next my Dad said, “Then I saw the most amazing thing. Below Vera, beside her on both sides, and above her, as far back as I could see there were millions of babies. All of them looked different. And I asked Vera, “What are all these babies?” And she answered, “We got these from the abortion chambers.” Then Dad said, “Vera told me many other things but they are not your business.” And until the day he died in 1992 he never told me what Mom told him.

It is for the reader to discern both the validity of the experiences my Dad related to me and to glean insights meaningful to him or her. As for me, I have thought and prayed about what my Dad told me many times in the years since his death and am personally comfortable with any number of personal insights and interpretations. These I will keep mostly to myself. There are some the reader will find obvious, the consolation Dad received in seeing Mom and the children in Heaven, the joy of speaking to her and seeing her whole and happy. One can speculate about the secrets and assume some of them concerned my Dad’s destiny to be with Mom forever in heaven. But of all that transpired while Dad was caring for Mom and of all those things he related in his vision of her, there are these two that I think about most often. The first is Mom’s often repeated statement, “The Blessed Mother told me things.” I have often thought that, while Mom was in her coma, the Blessed Mother gave her a choice -- to die right then or, for reasons unknown to any of us on this earth, to accept the sacrifice of a 6 ½ year crucifixion. I do believe that Mom’s sacrifice, among other things, involved the salvation of her family and perhaps the Blessed Mother made that precise promise to her.

The second involves Dad’s vision of the aborted babies in Heaven. My mother was an ardent right-to-life activist, literally from the time of the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion in the United States. I find it fascinating and heartwarming to think that God will for all eternity associate my mother with those children whose lives she prayed and worked so diligently to protect.

~ Deacon Richard Tappe: Read the whole inspiring story  here ~

Blessed James Alberione: What is Heaven Worth?

"Heaven is worth giving up everything to gain. 

We ought to relinquish everything to gain everything.

Heaven is always a bargain, no matter what it costs.

Our days are valuable in proportion to what they earn for eternity."

~ Blessed James Alberione ~

Jesus to Sr. Josefa Menendez: Where True Peace and Happiness are to be Found

"My appeal is addressed to all:

to those consecrated in religion and to those living in the world,

to the good and to sinners,

to the learned and to the illiterate,

to those in authority and to those who obey.

To each of them I come to say:

if you seek happiness you will find it in Me.

If riches, I am infinite Wealth.

If you desire peace, in Me alone is peace to be found.

I am Mercy and Love!

and I must be sovereign King..."

~ Jesus to St. Josefa Menendez from The Way of Divine Love ~

St. Josemaria Escriva: "Heaven Awaits Us"

"If at any time you feel uneasy at the thought of our sister death because you see yourself to be such a poor creature, take heart. Heaven awaits us. And consider: what will it be like when all the infinite beauty and greatness, and happiness and Love of God will be poured into the poor clay vessel that the human being is, to satisfy it eternally with the freshness of an ever new joy?"

~ St. Josemaria Escriva, excerpt from Furrow, 891 ~

Revelation of Jesus to St. Bridget: Only Pure Souls Enter Heaven

"Tell my friends three things. When I was bodily in the world, I adjusted my words so that good men were made stronger and more fervent in doing good things, and evil men became better, as was seen in the conversion of Magdalene, Matthew, and many others. I also adjusted my words so that my enemies were not able to refute them. For that reason, may they to whom my words are sent, work with fervor, so that through my words, the good may become more ardent in goodness, the evil repent from wickedness, and that they themselves be on guard against my enemies so that my words are not obstructed. In truth, I do no greater injustice to the devil than to the angels in Heaven. For if I wanted, I could speak my words so that the whole world hears them. I could also open up hell so that everyone may see its torments, but this would not be justice, since all men would then serve me out of fear, when they should serve me out of love. For no other than the one who has love shall enter the kingdom of Heaven. For I would be doing injustice to the devil if I took away from him one who is rightfully his, because of sin, and who is devoid of good deeds. I would also do injustice to the angel in Heaven, if I placed the spirit of an unclean man as an equal to the one who is pure and most fervent in my love.

"Therefore, no one shall enter Heaven, but the one who has been purged like gold in the fire of purgatory or who has proved himself over a long duration of time in good deeds on earth so that there is no stain in him left to be purged away. If you do not know to whom my words should be sent, I will tell you: The one who is worthy to have my words is the one who wants to gain merit through good deeds in order to come to the kingdom of Heaven or who already has deserved it with their good deeds in the past. To such as these shall my words be opened up to and enter into them. Those who have a taste for my words and who humbly hope that their names are written in the Book of Life keep my words. But those who have no have taste for my words, consider them first, but then throw up and vomit them out immediately."

~ Jesus to St. Bridget ~

The Narrow Gate to Eternal Life

Eric Clapton: Tears in Heaven

Eric Clapton wrote this song after the death of his 4 year old son.

What Heaven Is Like

"I am going to try to make you understand, as far as you can upon earth, what Heaven is like. There are ever new feasts which succeed each other without interruption. There is happiness, always new and such, it would seem, as has never been enjoyed. It is a torrent of joy which flows unceasingly over the elect. Heaven is above all and beyond all — GOD: God loved, God relished, God delighted in; in one word, it is to be satisfied with God without ever being satisfied!

"The more a soul loves God on earth, the higher she advances in perfection, the more she will love and understand God in Heaven."

"All things pass and pass quickly. Do not fret so much about things that will end one day. Aim at what will never end. By our holy actions united to Jesus, let us embellish our heavenly throne. Let us raise it up a few steps nearer to Him whom we shall contemplate and love throughout eternity."

~ Sr. M.G., a deceased nun: Excerpts from An Unpublished Manuscript on Purgatory ~

St. Padre Pio: Aim for Our Eternal Homeland

"Our present life is given only to gain the eternal one and if we don't think about it, we build our affections on what belongs to this world, where our life is transitory. When we have to leave it we are afraid and become agitated. Believe me, to live happily in this pilgrimage, we have to aim at the hope of arriving at our Homeland, where we will stay eternally. Meanwhile we have to believe firmly that God calls us to Himself and follows us along the path towards Him. He will never permit anything to happen to us that is not for our greater good. He knows who we are and He will hold out His paternal hand to us during difficulties, so that nothing prevents us from running to Him swiftly. But to enjoy this grace we must have complete trust in Him."

~ St. Padre Pio ~

Rev. James Root talks about a miracle performed by Padre Pio:

Pope Benedict XVI: God's Justice--Heaven, Hell, Purgatory

Fr Pietro Riggi, a Salesian from Don Bosco Boys' Town: ... My question is: on 25 March 2007, you spoke extemporaneously complaining how seldom the "last things" are mentioned today. In fact, in the catechisms of the Italian Bishops' Conference used for teaching our faith to children for confession, Communion and confirmation, it seems to me that certain truths of the faith have been omitted. Hell is never mentioned, nor Purgatory, Heaven only once, sin only once and then only original sin. In lacking these essential parts of our belief does it not seem to you that the whole system of logic which leads one to see Christ's Redemption has crumbled? By the absence of any mention of sin, by not speaking of Hell, even Christ's Redemption seems diminished. Do you not think that this has encouraged a loss of the sense of sin, hence, of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and even of the saving, sacramental figure of the priest himself, who has the power to absolve and celebrate in Christ's name? Today, unfortunately, when the Gospel speaks of Hell we priests circumvent even the Gospel. Hell is not mentioned. Or we are unable to talk about Heaven. We cannot speak of eternal life. We risk giving faith a purely horizontal dimension or one where the horizontal is too detached from the vertical. And this unfortunately occurs in catechesis for children, quite apart from the initiatives of parish priests; it lacks a basic structure....

Pope Benedict XVI: You correctly spoke of the fundamental themes of the faith which unfortunately rarely appear in our preaching. In the Encyclical Spe Salvi I wanted to speak precisely about the Last Judgement, judgement in general, and in this context also about Purgatory, Hell and Heaven... When one does not know the judgement of God one does not know the possibility of Hell, of the radical and definitive failure of life, one does not know the possibility of and need for purification...

...In the Encyclical I tried to show that it is God's Last Judgement that guarantees justice. We all want a just world. Yet we cannot atone for all the destruction of the past, all the people unjustly tortured and killed. God alone can create justice, which must be justice for all, even for the dead, and as the great Marxist Adorno said, only the resurrection of the body, which he claimed as unreal, would be able to create justice. We believe in this resurrection of the body in which not all will be equal. Today people have become used to thinking: what is sin? God is great, he knows us, so sin does not count; in the end God will be kind to us all. It is a beautiful hope. But both justice and true guilt exist. Those who have destroyed man and the earth cannot suddenly sit down at God's table together with their victims. God creates justice. We must keep this in mind. Therefore, I felt it was important to write this text also about Purgatory, which for me is an obvious truth, so evident and also so necessary and comforting that it could not be absent. I tried to say: perhaps those who have destroyed themselves in this way, who are for ever unredeemable, who no longer possess any elements on which God's love can rest, who no longer have a minimal capacity for loving, may not be so numerous. This would be Hell. On the other hand, those who are so pure that they can enter immediately into God's communion are undoubtedly few - or at any rate not many. A great many of us hope that there is something in us that can be saved, that there may be in us a final desire to serve God and serve human beings, to live in accordance with God. Yet there are so very many wounds, there is so much filth. We need to be prepared, to be purified. This is our hope: even with so much dirt in our souls, in the end the Lord will give us the possibility, he will wash us at last with his goodness that comes from his Cross. In this way he makes us capable of being for him in eternity. And thus Heaven is hope, it is justice brought about at last. He also gives us criteria by which to live, so that this time may be in some way paradise, a first gleam of paradise. Where people live according to these criteria a hint of paradise appears in the world and is visible. It also seems to me to be a demonstration of the truth of faith, of the need to follow the road of the Commandments, of which we must speak further. These really are road signs on our way and show us how to live well, how to choose life. Therefore, we must also speak of sin and of the sacrament of forgiveness and reconciliation. A sincere person knows that he is guilty, that he must start again, that he must be purified. And this is the marvellous reality which the Lord offers us: there is a chance of renewal, of being new. The Lord starts with us again and in this way we can also start again with the others in our life.

MEETING WITH THE PARISH PRIESTS AND THE CLERGY
OF THE DIOCESE OF ROME

Excerpt from ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Hall of Blessings
Thursday, 7 February 2008

Our Lady of Fatima Confirms That Heaven Exists

St. Patrick: Baptism Necessary to Enter Heaven

"The Lord hath given to me, though humble, the power of working miracles among a barbarous people, such as are not recorded to have been worked by the great Apostles; inasmuch as, in the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, I have raised from the dead bodies that have been buried many years; but I beseech you, let no one believe that for these or the like works I am to be at all equaled with the Apostles, or with any perfect man, since I am humble, and a sinner, and worthy only to be despised."

~ St. Patrick ~

In the country of Neyll, a King Echu allowed St. Patrick to receive his beloved daughter Cynnia as a nun, though he bewailed the fact that his royal line would thereby end without issue. The king exacted a promise from Patrick not to insist that he be baptized, yet to promise him the heavenly kingdom. Patrick agreed, and left the matter in the hands of God.

Sometime later King Echu lay dying. He sent a messenger to St. Patrick to tell him he desired Baptism and the heavenly kingdom. To those around him the King gave an order that he not be buried until Patrick came. Patrick, then in the monastery of Saballum, two days' journey away, knew of the situation through the Holy Spirit before the messenger even arrived. He left to go to the King, but arrived to find Echu dead.

St. Patrick revived the King, instructed him, and baptized him. He asked Echu to relate what he had seen of the joys of the just and the pains of the wicked, so that his account could be used for the proving of Patrick's preaching. Echu told of many other-world wonders and of how, in the heavenly country, he had seen the place that Patrick promised him. But the King could not enter in because he was unbaptized.

Then St. Patrick asked Echu if he would rather live longer in this world, or go to the place prepared for him in the heavenly kingdom. The King answered that all the world had was emptiest smoke compared to the celestial joys. Then having received the Eucharist, he fell asleep in the Lord.

~ Excerpt from Saints Who Raised the Dead, True Stories of 400 Resurrection Miracles,
by Fr. Albert J. Hebert, S. M.,

found here.

Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture: Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory

Catechism of the Catholic Church: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory