E-mail from Heaven: Is your computer on?
Hell: we don’t hear much preaching on it today, but the saints talked about it frequently. And their warnings should give us pause and inspire us to lives of prayer and penance. Meditate on hell frequently like the saints to avoid going there.
St. Faustina on the tortures of Hell: Today, I was led by an Angel to the chasms of hell. It is a place of great torture; how awesomely large and extensive it is! The kinds of tortures I saw: the first torture that constitutes hell is the loss of God; the second is perpetual remorse of conscience; the third is that one’s condition will never change; the fourth is the fire that will penetrate the soul without destroying it – a terrible suffering, since it is a purely spiritual fire, lit by God’s anger; the fifth torture is continual darkness and a terrible suffocating smell, and, despite the darkness, the devils and souls of the damned see each other and all the evil, both of others and their own; the sixth torture is the constant company of Satan; the seventh torture is terrible despair, hatred of God, vile words, curses and blasphemies. These are the tortures suffered by all the damned together, but that is not the end of the sufferings. There are special tortures destined for particular souls. These are the torments of the senses. Each soul undergoes terrible and indescribable suffering, related to the manner in which it has sinned. There are caverns and pits of torture where one form of agony differs from another. I would have died at the very sight of these tortures if the omnipotence of God had not supported me. Let the sinner know that he will be tortured throughout all eternity, in those senses which he made use of to sin. I am writing this at the command of God, so that no soul may find an excuse by saying there is no hell, or that nobody has ever been there, and so no one can say what it is like. (Diary - 741)
St. John Bosco’s Dream of Hell: We took the road. It was beautiful, wide and neatly paved….Both sides were lined with mgnificent verdant hedges dotted with gorgeous flowers. Roses especially peeped everywhere through the leaves. At first glance, the road was level and comfortable,…but soon I noticed that it insensibly kept sloping downward….I became aware that the Oratory boys and very many others whom I did not know were following me….As I was looking at them, I noticed now one, now another fall to the ground and instantly be dragged by an unseen force toward a frightful drop, distantly visible, which sloped into a furnace….Traps were everywhere, some close to the ground, others at eye level, but all well concealed. Unaware of their danger, many boys got caught and tripped….Then when they managed to get back on their feet, they would run headlong down the road toward the abyss….Carefully examining many of the traps, I saw that each bore an inscription: Pride, Disobedience, Envy, Sixth Commandment, Theft, Gluttony, Sloth, Anger and so on. Stepping back a bit to see which ones trapped the greater number of boys, I discovered that the most dangerous were those of impurity, disobedience and pride. In fact, these three were linked together…Still watching, I noticed many boys running faster than others. “Why such haste?” I asked. “Because they are dragged by the snare of human respect.”….I felt an indescribable terror and dared not take another step. Ahead of me I could see something like an immense cave…walls, ceiling, floor, iron, stones, wood and coal – everything was a glowing white at temperatures of thousands of degrees. I simply cannot find words to describe the cavern’s horror.” You can read John Bosco’s entire dream at here. It is worth meditating on and sharing with others for the salvation of their souls.
St. Francis Borgia: At the end of the day when St. Francis made his examination of conscience, he would mentally place himself in hell and ask himself, “My soul, what have you done this day to land you in this place?”
Desert Father Xanthias: “The thief was on the cross and he was justified by a single word; and Judas who was counted in the number of the apostles lost all his labour in a single night and descended from heaven to hell. Therefore, let no one boast of his good works, for all those who trust in themselves fall.”