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Through the goodness of God the Father and the merits of His Son, our Lord, we can help the Holy Souls by our prayers, including those who usually have no-one to pray for them. We can help them towards Heaven, where they are greeted, and welcomed into glory, to join the Saints at God's Heart. It was with a similar welcome that Christ greeted the Saintly Souls, such as prophets and patriarchs, in the underworld, after His death and before His Resurrection; and He told them that their long wait was nearly over.

Are we ready for Heaven, if God calls us now? We are wise if we sometimes think about the moment of our death. When we arrive before the Father's throne, and hear His loving voice, will He be leaning forward, asking, 'Is there anything you've forgotten, my child?' He will mean: Is there unconfessed sin that we regret, or good deeds left undone?

We are not expected to be imprudent or foolish; yet Christ delights in seeing people treat one another with respect, with displays of sincere kindness towards everyone, whether employers or employees, older people or young, in imitation of Christ, Who loves everyone.

Christ wants His faithful people to realise the truth: that all their efforts to serve Him and to pray for others are immensely worthwhile. Even when it seems as if there will always be another hill to climb on the Holy Mountain, we are doing great things for God and other people by our penances and intercessions. It's as if we are hauling a trolley-full of needy people towards Heaven.

No-one is exempt. At the end of time, God will bring the 'dead' to life. Everyone has to account to God, at death, for his life and behaviour; but in the end, everyone will rise to hear the Last Judgement of God, as described in Sacred Scripture and the Tradition. We can be glad if we have tried to serve God in humility, and if we have helped other people towards holiness by our intercessions, in earthly life.

Christ has shown us the Way to Heaven; but many people rush around from one job to another, anxious and tired, forgetting to pause and ask God's help, and some yearning for marvellous spiritual experiences or assurances about the future. The best sort of yearning is directed towards loving and pleasing God. Life becomes simple, if we pray, trust, work, and persevere in all trials.

If we share our faith we ought not to complicate matters. Without being over-eager, or tactless, we ought to seize every suitable opportunity to share the Good News about our Faith: about the existence of God, the one, true God who has come down to share our lives, in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Everyone can have the power, from Him, through His Church, to conquer sin and misery, to do good, and to look forward to Heaven.

Nothing can happen to us except what God permits, in this life. Someone who trusts in Christ has no need to panic when illness arrives. There are problems to face, with unpleasant symptoms, procedures - and ways of sustaining the family. But if we are on our way to Heaven, anyway, we are wise if we not only consult doctors, and make day-to-day wise decisions, but also abandon ourselves to God's plans, allowing Him to carry us closer towards Heaven, as if on an escalator.

If we decide, by God's grace, to leave our hiding-places, where we were nearly paralysed by fear at the thought of doing God's risky work, that requires sacrifices, we must perhaps emerge backwards from our hiding-places, in a posture of humility. Then, free from remorse, fear, and all that bound us, we can stand upright, breathe deeply, and find joy in living in the light as confident children of God.

A pony waits patiently before moving up with his load; and the Holy Spirit 'waits' in patience, until we are recollected in prayer, before drawing us up high towards God's heart.

I used to lie in the long warm grass, in summer, overwhelmed by the beauty around me, looking at the little insects that ran up and down a grass-stalk, or following the pattern of the clouds in the sky: aware of the 'hand' or presence of our Creator.

Some people, through their obscene conversations and sinful desires, proceed in a way of life which leads towards Hell - unless they are fortunate enough to realise it, and to change.

Some souls have not heeded the warning that the evil one, like a lion, prowls around seeking those he can devour. They do their own will, not God's Will, until death; then are horrified to enter the 'lion's mouth', which is the evil one's 'embrace'.

There are many people who look upon the Church's teaching on celibacy as being something medieval that belongs to a time of fairy stories and superstition. They have no realisation that it is an heroic way of life on a par with the costly ventures undertaken by military forces. The military go out in order to save a nation, but the priests to save souls, by a radical way of life, like that of Jesus.