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The Lord Showed me one woman being released from Purgatory, and another requiring further purification. Both had been baptised, then had sinned. Each was saved at death through having been anointed in the Sacrament of the Sick. One spent a short time in Purgatory, because she had been badly taught, as a Protestant, about sin. The other, a cradle Catholic, was more blame-worthy, and should have known better.

Our Blessed Lady and Saint John were with Christ in His Passion not only to comfort Him by their presence. It was part of the Father's plan that they should be witnesses to Christ's last hours in order to share with all who love Him the last words He uttered, and the complete 'picture' of His dying and death.

Around the City of God, where people live according to God's laws, is a place only dimly-lit, where people who sin hide from the light, like medieval outlaws staying outside the city. When people in darkness eventually die, they cannot rise up to Heaven to the God they have rejected but must fall into the Abyss.

Those who love God and live according to His laws, following the Way made by Jesus, the Son of God, can rise up when they die to join the Father in Heaven, to share His glory, and to experience bliss at His heart, in the Communion of Saints. Those who rejected Him have rejected Heaven.

During our life on earth, if we lift up our hands to God, He will draw us upwards towards holiness, through the grace of Christ and our trust. He will even draw us up as far as Heaven, when we die. If we refuse to trust in Him, however, or refuse to believe in Him, we shall slide into the pit, at death, by our own choice, with no-one to blame but ourselves.

One of the darkest cellars in which people choose to live is the 'cellar' of disbelief which is atheism. A person who refuses to believe in the existence of God cannot therefore thank God for the gift of life, or turn to Him in sorrow-for-sin. By his own acts, he locks himself in a dark cellar, perhaps loses the key, and is unable to follow Christ when, at the end of his life, Christ calls to him.

The Lord has a plan for every life: an invitation which, when heard and accepted, enables each one to love and serve Him and to find true happiness, both in this world, even amidst differences, and in life after death.

The Son of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, became man, and bore suffering and death in order to fulfil His Mission, for our sakes. He knew He would rise from the dead; and by His Resurrection He proved that He has conquered death; and He can conquer our sins, if we put our trust in Him.

The living God is a 'Holy Fire', blazing with love in our sanctuary, it seems, as we gather to offer Him honour and praise in His house of prayer, through the Holy Mysteries. Christ is Present; with His Angels and Saints, enfolded in the glory of the Father: glory into which we hope to plunge at death, having been purified in the Sacred Liturgy. Our reverent attention should be drawn towards God, for Whose glory this Church was built.

It seems outrageous that men had the power of life and death over others, who simply had skin of a different colour, in the time of the slave trade. It seems outrageous, today, to all good people, that the power of life and death has been given to many, over other little people, simply because those human beings are very small, unwanted, and unborn.

As people grow old, there is something more important to think about than pensions, grandchildren or hobbies. What state shall we be in, when we die, and go to God? Shall we be able to meet Him with joy and gratitude, or shall we be ashamed of our hidden sins, hidden no longer?

When we die, and enter God's presence - if we have not immediately hurled ourselves away from the God we hate, into Hell - we shall hear Him say to us, gently: "What have you done with your life, my child?" How happy we shall be if we have loved and served Him and our neighbour; but how sad, if we had been solely in search of pleasure, or preoccupied by trivia.

A person who arrives in God's presence, at death, with all sins forgiven, has died a happy death. She stands before God, clothed in a bright wedding garment. The doors to the various areas of her past life are all shut and bolted, because the sins within have been forgiven and carried away. She has nothing to hide, nor to be ashamed of, by God's grace.

To arrive in God's presence, at death, without having given up one's sins, is like appearing in filthy garments, with muddy footprints, and with doors open wide into the areas of one's life which are full of sins, foolish thoughts and other clutter, not yet cleared away. It is to be deeply ashamed, and not fit for Heaven.

There are near-misses on the roads every day, and even fatal crashes. Christians in other circumstances even risk death for their Faith. Are we all ready for Heaven, if we meet sudden death? Christ wants us to examine our lives, to make an honest assessment of our spiritual state, in case we have not repented of mortal sins.

To arrive in God's presence, at death, without being clothed in the life of grace, is like arriving on earth at a wedding, in a naked state, having to endure the embarrassment, and the embarrassed gaze of fellow-guests. We need to prepare our 'wedding garment' for Heaven, by our holiness of life and love for Christ.

A wise person tries to lead a life worthy of Heaven, and so is already living in God's glorious light, when at death, she is called to step forward into Heaven. People who are trapped in mortal sin, by their own free choices, are as if held in a deep pit, in this life. If they do not repent before they die, they will be in that pit at death, unable to enter Heaven, separated from God for all Eternity, by their own fault.

When we die, perhaps unexpectedly, a person is in one of three states: either standing in the Light of God, ready to enter Heaven, or still at the foot of the stairway to Heaven, so that our Purgatory will consist of necessary purification, or else still trapped, by our free choice, in a grossly selfish way of life: trapped in unrepented sin, unable to enter Heaven, and therefore in Hell for all Eternity.

To meet Christ at death whilst in a state of grace is to be wearing the wedding garment necessary for Heaven, even if it is stained, and must be washed clean in Purgatory. Good people who have never known Christ meet Him at the edge of Heaven; some greet Him gladly, when told He is the Saviour of the world and so receive a white garment. Others refuse to accept Him, and condemn themselves, and cannot therefore enter Heaven.

By His Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension, Christ made a Way to Heaven. It's as if His head is in Heaven, as He speaks to the Father from our midst at every Mass, as a great mass of needy people encircles the altar on earth.