Purgatory: The Attractive Impulse of His Burning Love
Having a foretaste of divine glory and knowing what sublime purity is necessary in order to share it worthily, the soul longs to be made pure.
Throwing Yourself Away, or Yielding Yourself to God
In Hell, on the contrary, there is no society—only individuals. It is the triumph of individualism. They stand in disarray, like an abstract painting, formless and void of meaning; they feel no sympathy, they receive no compassion.
Hell is Real, and You Could Go There
As St. Thomas Aquinas says, “Let our thoughts. . .dwell on retribution, imitating the holy King Hezekiah: ‘I said, in the midst of my days I shall go to the gates of hell’ (Is 38:10). A mind which goes down to hell often in life will not easily go down there in death.”
The Fear of Hell is the Beginning of Wisdom
Advent Reflections from the Master of Thomism Part I: On Death Part II: On Judgment Part III: On Heaven Hell. If there is one doctrine that is most offensive to the ears of fallen man and in particular modern man, it is this doctrine. If there is one doctrine that is not preached anymore,…
On Judgment
It is written: You shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you invoke as Father him who, without respect of persons, judgeth according to every one’s work: converse in fear during the time of your sojourning here. – 1 Peter 1:16-17 The Judgment. It’s something that few wish to think about in our…
On Death
Death. It’s something we all experience, something that will always come. It is unavoidable, uncharitable, unalterable. When man reaches the end of his life, and his soul is torn from his body to its judgment, death not only takes place but engulfs any reality that we knew. How many of us really contemplate the reality…
God Made Us for Heaven
It is the simple truth: God created us for happiness. Not jealous of the good He has (or rather is), God fashioned finite intellectual beings—angels and men—capable of sharing His good through knowledge and love, and thus capable of entering into His eternal joy. We honor and love Him by seeking and welcoming this gift…
Different Kinds of Moral Monsters: Responding to Hart’s Caricature of Catholics
Recently, I read an article in which the author quoted David Bentley Hart’s perspective on the significance of believing in the existence of hell, that is, a place of eternal punishment for those who die estranged from God, without sanctifying grace. Hart concludes that either people do not really believe what they say they do…
Pornocracy and the Coming Reign of Antichrist
In our first essay we discussed some of the horrors of the three pornocracies of the Church, and suggested the term “Third Pornocracy” to be an accurate historical description of our own epoch. It is helpful, I believe, because the term truly describes the reality of how bad the corruption is, but it also reminds…
Advent Reflections: Hell
They asked him: Say then, Scibboleth, which is interpreted, An ear of corn. But he answered, Sibboleth, not being able to express an ear of corn by the same letter. Then presently they took him and killed him in the very passage of the Jordan. And there fell at that time of Ephraim two and…
Advent Reflections: Judgement
Continuing in our theme of the traditional mediation of the Four Last Things, this week we will consider the reality of Judgement. To begin, we must distinguish between the two forms of judgement that pertain to our eternal life. First, we will each experience our own Particular Judgement. This means that we will stand before…