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It is God's wish that our Catholic churches be recognisably houses of prayer. We enter, on the threshold of Heaven; and it is right that we should see reminders of our fellow-worshippers, the Saints and Angels - and of the Saviour Who welcomes us from the tabernacle - and not see merely a bare plaster wall.
If we persevere in fervent love of God and of our neighbour we can arrive at the top of the mountain of holiness, and enter Heaven as soon as we die. Those friends of Christ who grow luke-warm or careless are collected, at death, and taken to Purgatory, to be made fully-alive and joyful, ready for Heaven. People who have walked down the mountain, of their own free will, are heading towards the Abyss, and doom.
The Christian Way is like a ladder into Heaven. The only way into Heaven is the Way made by Christ, Who Himself came down from Heaven, and knows the Way and is The Way; unlike the leaders of other religions - despite their good intentions and what is good amongst some of the practices they recommend.
Wherever someone calls out to a Saint in Heaven, to ask for his or her prayers, grace pours down upon the needy as surely as sunlight pours through gaps in a huge cloud.
Although God pours down grace upon us, like sunlight through a great cloud, whenever we ask for the prayers of one of the Saints of Heaven, even greater graces are given to us when we go to the shrine of one of the Saints, and there ask for his or her intercession, at a shrine authorised and blessed by the Church.
We can gain great graces from Heaven through the prayers of the Saints; yet the greatest graces are given by Christ Himself, directly, in the Mass, in the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle, and in Exposition and Adoration.
We are right to ask for the prayers of Our Blessed Lady, and to honour her as the Mother of God, and Queen of Heaven; but we are wise to remember how much she loves us with a tender, motherly love, longing for us to become holy. She is a mother who, at the edge of Heaven, is looking out, waiting for her children to come home.
How do we gain entry to Heaven? The Godhead is like an impenetrable cloud that no-one can enter by his own efforts, or by earning entry, or bargaining, or using skills. It is entered by humble souls who surrender to God; the Holy Spirit lifts them into the heart of the Godhead, where, at the centre, they join Christ and His Saints.
It is as if, far above the earth, the Godhead holds at its heart an oasis of light. This is the city of God, home of the Saints and Angels for Eternity; and it is foolishness, in the Lord's sight, to risk losing an Eternity of bliss, there, for a moment's earthly pleasure or gain followed by Eternal pain and darkness.
If we 'offer up' our sufferings in union with Christ, interceding for sinners, we can help people who have not yet heard Christ's message, and have not yet repented. By the grace of Christ, we can help save those people who would otherwise fall into Hell, far below the glory of Heaven.
As the Son of God looked down from Heaven towards the filth and darkness which He would enter, far below, when He came into our sinful world, He saw the Blessed Virgin Mary, who had been prepared, at her consent, as a safe place for Him who is all purity and goodness. She was like an 'ark', to hold and protect Him for a while.
Some people want intimate friendship with Christ, but refuse to keep His Commandments. In refusing, it is as though they insist on walking a different road from His Way to Heaven. They end up on dangerous side-roads or cul-de-sacs.
By ourselves, we cannot penetrate the bright cloud which is the Godhead. But God reaches out to some of us with a firm invitation to enter - in a sudden conversion - or reaches out at the very instant that someone calls out for His help. Unless we enter His life we shall, in the end, fall into the void.
Catholics, more than other people, have so many opportunities for prayer, yet many cannot be bothered to praise Christ for Creation, or for His Incarnation, or for His Church, or when receiving Him in Holy Communion, or when near the tabernacle, or during each day as He sustains our lives, or at death when we shall meet Him and find out what we have done with our lives and whether we are ready for Heaven.
The Lord asked me to look at all the people who were standing beside the balustrade at Lourdes, watching the Rosary Procession. He said: A great deal more prayer and penance would rise up to Heaven from this place if they all joined in, instead of just watching.
Christ showed me that from every floor of the hospital of St Frai in Lourdes we can see the sunlight and the Heavens. At every Mass, likewise, we are in contact with the Father - Who reaches out to us - and with Heaven, no matter whether the Mass has to be conducted outdoors, or underground, or in any sort of building, because of unusual circumstances.
Our Lady lives in Heaven, close to Jesus Christ her Divine Son. She longs for us to reach Heaven. When she sees sincere people who do good and try to honour their Creator but who do not know Christ or His Way, it is as though she leans over to pull those people onto the right trajectory for Heaven, at the last moment.
I saw brave men, in clerical garments, who stood close to the Father's throne. In the heights of Heaven there was a small group of members of the Clergy - Bishops as well as priests - who had fulfilled God's Will completely, on earth, by teaching the Catholic Faith in its fullness.
A person who has welcomed the Spirit of Christ into his soul can count on the Holy Spirit to carry him across the Abyss when he dies, to meet Christ and to make his way into Heaven - even if through Purgatory. But the man who has persisted in saying to God: "I don't need you", will find, at death, that he falls into the Abyss.
As I praised the Blessed Virgin Mary on the feast of her Assumption, I was shown by the Lord a 'mountain', with the narrow path which leads to great sanctity. We can all become holy and pure, like Our Lady and the Saints, by God's grace - though we cannot yet enter bodily into Heaven, as she has, and her son.
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