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Our prayer is like a lifeline let down from Heaven to help those lost and trapped in difficulties. Yet they must be willing to seize it, and to move up; and we must pray patiently if the response is slow in coming.

Our prayer is like a lifeline let down from Heaven to help those lost and trapped in difficulties. Yet they must be willing to seize it, and to move up; and we must pray patiently if the response is slow in coming.

Those who refuse to follow the safe way into Heaven will eventually languish, far from Heaven's light, in the depths of the dark Abyss - by their own free, tragic choice.

Someone who refuses to forgive, and who hates and despises someone else, is as if piling up furniture against the inside of the door of her soul. God and His Light cannot shine in. She freely chooses to make a tomb of her own soul, and will find herself in Hell, if she perseveres in sin.

The Lord sees behind the image we present to the world. The Lord sees 'behind' our masks, our exteriors. He sees the state of our souls. He sees sinful souls as being grievously 'sick' and wounded, in desperate need of help - if they will accept it.

A very sinful person is in a pitiful state, in God's sight, and in the 'sight' of those who are permitted by God to 'read' souls - as the sickest of sick human beings. Someone in serious sin, who denies that he is sinful, or persists in it, is like a person with festering sores who refuses to have his wounds treated.

In His unchanging Will, God is like the perpetual and steady descent of a vast forest waterfall. Just as the water cannot suddenly flow upwards or sideways, so God never changes in His desire to offer us true life, true freedom, forgiveness and holiness, if we will accept them.

As people move towards death, and the Abyss, some cannot see the bridge to the other side. Others know where to find Christ, the bridge, and walk steadily towards Him. Some people have heard about the bridge but have allowed themselves to be swept away, in serious sin, towards disaster.

What does the 'eternity' of hell or heaven mean? It means 'captured unchangeably', whether in selfishness or a state of grace; either being held eternally without God, by the free choices of an individual soul, or being held forever in friendship with God, to the degree to which the soul enjoyed at the moment of death. As a fly, suddenly imprisoned by a drop of amber, is held 'forever' in the state it was in when the liquid fell upon it, so the soul retains forever its state at the moment of death - even though those held in God's friendship can undergo some purification.

Our spiritual Communion, in the Communion of Saints, is like the connection in a conference call. We must keep the transmitter in good order, and the lines open by taking care of our souls. If we refuse to forgive anyone, for example, it's as if we deliberately walk away from God and our friends.

The Communion of Saints is like a whispering gallery in a Cathedral dome that can unite those far away. Each person can choose to be 'in communion' or to board himself away. Some, half-boarded, are not full members of the Catholic Church, or half-hearted Catholics. Those completely exposed are in communion even if very far apart geographically. Those absent have chosen to live in mortal sin.

Christ can see the life of each one of us, from start to finish. Through His omniscience as God, He sees exactly what use we will make of our free-will, and His gifts and graces. He sees the good choices and the bad, and sees all of our reactions to His invitations and interventions. He sees who will reach sanctity.

Christ can see the life of each one of us, from start to finish. Through His omniscience as God, He sees exactly what use we will make of our free-will, and His gifts and graces. He sees the good choices and the bad, and sees all of our reactions to His invitations and interventions. He sees who will reach sanctity.

It's as if souls are like seed pods - we can respond to the sunlight, which is God's perpetual love for everyone, and produce beautiful plants, or we can choose to remain 'shut-in', and shrivel.

We fail in our duty if we never warn others of the consequences of serious sin and irreverence. It's as if we were to walk past people who are trapped in a swamp because they did not take the right path. They are in danger, even if they imagine all is well.

Someone who refuses to repent of wrong, refuses to show contrition, or refuses to make reparation to those whom he has wronged, is in a dangerous place as if on the sloping side of the crater of a volcano. He might live in hope of reaching the top. But each new movement of rebellion makes him slide closer to the sheer precipice, from which only a miracle of grace can rescue him.

Christ showed me plainly that there is only one Way from earth to Heaven: the narrow way made by Him, so that all Who will trust in Him can follow the Way and arrive safely in Glory. Those who refuse to follow the safe Way inevitably fall, at death, into the dark Abyss.

Someone who sees a warning about thin ice, and deliberately disobeys, even stomping on the ice in a display of 'bravery', will certainly fall into the freezing depths. So it is with grave sin, committed by persons who refused to listen to warnings. Through such sins, people risk disaster: the worst of all being the loss of God.

Just as a person who deliberately skates on thin ice is bound to fall through it, so people who willfully ignore God's laws risk falling and being lost.

Just as a person who deliberately skates on thin ice is bound to fall through it, so people who willfully ignore God's laws risk falling and being lost.