Tag Archives: Hell

2022-03-28 · 10:14 am

“What is worse than seeing bad people falling into hell?”

What’s worse than seeing bad people fall into hell?

Wrong question. First of all, it’s not a bad thing at all to see bad people falling into hell. It’s devastating, surely, for us here while we’re still on earth. I get it. The saints speak about being wrecked after having seen a vision of hell. Just look at the Fatima kids after they saw a vision of hell. They’re wiped out.

But remember what Jesus answered to Saint Teresa of Avila when she asked how she could be happy in heaven when she knew that her relatives were in hell: You will be happy to praise my justice. Yep. That’s right. Because those in hell want to be hell. They wouldn’t come out of hell if they had the chance to go to heaven. They are so filled with arrogance and hatred that they want to be in hell to spite God. So, good riddance. I want to go to heaven (and it’s a good and holy thing to rejoice in the hope we are given), and I don’t want all of hell torturing me in heaven. Nope. They can go to hell if that’s where they want to be. While they are here on earth I will pray that people convert and don’t go to hell. Great! But if they’re already in hell, well, I will respect God’s justice. The Fatima kids didn’t lament that people were in hell, but that there were so few to pray that the living don’t end up in hell, so much so that they were falling into hell like snowflakes in a blizzard.

So, what’s the worst thing ever?

In this world, there are terrible emotional sufferings, terrible physical sufferings, terrible spiritual sufferings as one is dragged through the dark nights as Saint John of the Cross describes them. But we can recognize that we’re with Jesus, that He has us, through all of that.

So, what’s the worst thing ever?

Could it be that I would think that if I myself went to hell that that would be the worst thing ever? No. That wouldn’t happen. Those in hell want to be there. And they would immediately start up to add to the aggression of what is actually the worst thing ever.

Do you want to know where the heart of a priest is concerning the worst possible thing? Let’s jack up the stakes here. Let’s talk about bad sins, really bad, say, of a Pope. That’s what my interrogator, a layman, did. Could it be sexual abuse? Could it be desecration of the Blessed Sacrament? Could it breaking the seal of Confession? Could it be idol worship? Could it be abortion, abortifacients, infanticide, euthanasia, promoting an abortion-tainted “vax”? Could it be leading others into sin on a world scale? Fill in the blank. He did, with many more entries.

If we want to know what the worst thing ever is, perhaps we should ask Jesus. What He thinks is important, right? He had a discussion about all this with His Heavenly Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. Remember that? When He was in His agony, when He was sweating great drops of blood, when His human nature was shaken, when the will of His human nature was tempted to be diverse from the will of His Heavenly Father, so much so that He had to insist, out loud: “Not my will, but Thine be done.”

Was His passion and death, being tortured to death, you know, the pain of it all, the worst thing ever? After all, this is God. He’s innocent. This is the sin, right? But that’s us proclaiming that, like an answer to an academic question. But, as I say, let’s go to the heart of a priest, the Sacred Heart of The High Priest, Christ Jesus, to find our answer.

For Himself, Jesus couldn’t care less about the pain and sufferings of such a death. He said He longed to be baptized with the baptism for which He came, that baptism in His own blood. He’s a man’s Man, Divine. He just want’s to get the job done, standing in our place, the Innocent for the guilty, having the right in His own justice to have mercy on us. He laid down His life for us with enthusiasm, while we were yet sinners. All sins will be forgiven against the Son of Man, he proclaimed.

But the sin against the Holy Spirit? No. For instance, if someone sins all the way to hell while arrogantly, blasphemously presumptuously despairingly mockingly shrieking that ♬ God forgives everything ♬ even the rejection of His forgiveness ♬ Ha ha ha ha hah. ♬, well, that person will not receive forgiveness because they don’t want that forgiveness. They just want to continue sinning with the purpose of not being forgiven. That’s a sin against the Holy Spirit.

But is the unforgivable sin the worst thing possible?

Perhaps the worst thing ever, unbearably too awful for mankind to bear, is the truth, what some have somehow started to call a manifestation of conscience. It’s too awful for mankind to witness their sins as they are. We would all be crushed by the truth of it.

But that’s not the worst thing ever.

Again, let’s ask Jesus what He really thinks is the absolute worst thing.

I think it’s His dearest Immaculate Virgin Mother having to see Him, her dearest Son, tortured to death right in front of her. Her Immaculate Conception (see Genesis 3:15 and Luke 1:28) gave her such agility of soul, such purity of heart, such clarity of vision, such profundity of understanding, such a super-abundance of love, that she would see such an offence for what it truly is, all of the sin from Adam until the last man is conceived vomited out on her Son, her Innocent Son. She would crushed more than any of us and all put together could possibly be crushed by knowing our sin. We are so obtuse.

To see His Mother suffer because of Him being tortured to death right in front her, that’s the worst possible thing.

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2021-09-10 · 11:03 am

Superb Vortex on the targets of Satan in hell [and a little correction on how bad hell really is…]

This is supremely clarifying not only about COmission of sins particularly contradictory to being a priest and bishop, but also, so very appropriatel,y about sins of Omission of priests and bishops.

Michael speaks of souls of those baptized, and of those who are also priests and bishops, who will not be able to hide in hell. They will stand out. They, who had responsibilities to bring souls to heaven, but only brought souls to hell.

Sorry Michael, just a little correction: the other souls in hell won’t be horrified at the punishment meted out to the baptized, to those also priests and bishops in hell. No, no. They will be adding as much as they can to the punishments. Imagine. They were betrayed, misled. And for what? To be “men of consensus”? The consensus of all will be the worst of punishments for them. And, just to say how bad hell is: those baptized, and those also priests and bishops in hell will welcome as much punishment as they can get, in all hatred and arrogance. They will not try to escape hell. The gates of hell are open. No one wants to leave. It’s their way of shaking their fist at God and neighbor and Satan and themselves. For. Eternity.

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2021-08-13 · 6:15 am

Fatima 13 August? No. But then…

[[ // The following is from the EWTN Fatima page. I like how the one summarizing the background in the first paragraph puts “criminals” in scare-quotes, intimating that these were, instead, under cover interrogators placed by the Mayor and Administrator. Yep. That would be right. // ]]

Under the pretext of providing his personal automobile, so that the children could travel safely through the crowds pressing around their homes, the civil Administrator or Mayor of the district in which Fátima was located, arrived in Aljustrel on the morning of August 13th. A previous attempt on August 11th to obtain the “truth” from the children having been unsuccessful, Artur Santos, an apostate Catholic and high Mason, had devised a scheme by which he would take them into custody and force them to reveal all. With a show of good will he now offered to take the three and their parents to see the parish priest, whom he claimed wished to see them, and then to the Cova. At the parish house he abandoned this ruse, and the parents, taking the children alone from there to the district headquarters in Vila Nova de Ourem, some 9 miles away. Here he tried bribes, threats of death and locking them in a cell with other “criminals” in order to get them to recant their story. It was to no avail. Despite their ages, their belief in the Lady and their courage was unshakeable.

Meanwhile, in the Cova at noon on the 13th the characteristic external signs of the Apparition appeared for the benefit of the crowd, the greatest crowd to that time. After they ended the crowd dispersed, as yet unaware of the trickery of the government.

The “trial” of the children, however, continued for two days, to the consternation of their families. Finally, on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, the Administrator had them driven back to Fátima and deposited on the steps of the rectory. Here they were seen as the people, who had just come from Mass, were trying to determined from Ti Marto where the children were. Their anger was poured out on the driver, and on the Mayor when he arrived a little later, both of whom were no doubt glad to be rid of their little charges and to escape unscathed. It would effectively be the only serious effort of the civil authorities to interfere with the Lady of Fátima.

As it was the Lady’s plans were delayed slightly. On Sunday the 19th Lucia, her brother John, and Francisco, were grazing the sheep at a place known as Valinhos. It was located on the side of the same hillock opposite Aljustrel where the angel appeared twice, though a little farther north. At apout 4 o’clock, sensing that Our Lady was about to appear, Lucia tried unsuccessfully to get John to fetch Jacinta, until she offered him a couple pennies for the errand. As she and Francisco waited they saw the characteristic light. The moment Jacinta arrived the Lady appeared.

  • “What do you want of me?”
    • Come again to the Cova da Iria on the thirteenth of next month, my child, and continue to say the Rosary every day. In the last month I will perform a miracle so that all may believe.
  • “What are we to do with the offerings of money that people leave at the Cova da Iria?”
    • I want you to have two ardors [litters to carry statues] made, for the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. I want you and Jacinta to carry one of them with two other girls. You will both dress in white. And then I want Francisco, with three boys helping him, to carry the other one. The boys, too, will be dressed in white. What is left over will help towards the construction of a chapel that is to be built here.
  • Lucia then asked for the cure of some sick people.
    • Some I will cure during the year. (looking sadly at them) Pray, pray very much. Make sacrifices for sinners. Many souls go to hell, because no one is willing to help them with sacrifice.

Having said that she departed as she had on the other occasions.

/// This is the providence of the Lord, who so often provides that we are in the circumstances He Himself suffered, allowing us the opportunity to be in more complete solidarity with Him. Christ Jesus was betrayed and interrogated and thrown in prison overnight, the next day to face judgment by a puppet and then to be ripped to shreds and tortured to death on the cross.

In the case of the children, they had other tasks to be accomplished, the first amongst them being to pray the Rosary.

Typical of believers, Lucia, amidst all the chaos and suffering and then the apparition, asked about some sick people. Recall Jesus on the cross, who paid attention to His dear mother and to John.

Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of the Rosary, said: “Pray, pray very much. Make sacrifices for sinners. Many souls go to hell, because no one is willing to help them with sacrifice.“ The purpose of this, practically speaking, is to get these fallen souls to GO TO CONFESSION! or, failing that, to help them as they die to turn to Jesus. Should they get to purgatory, they will in the end get to heaven. That’s what we want for Jesus and our Blessed Mother. We gotta get to heaven; we gotta help each other get to heaven.

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2019-12-13 · 7:56 am

Fr Byers: excommunicated heretic? Daring + Paglia to do it.

Paglia

Judas is in hell. There, I said it. According to + Paglia, that makes me an automatically excommunicated heretic. For all of us merely automatically excommunicated heretics, that’s not enough. I want my automatic excommunication declared and publicized for all the world to hear. + Paglia has the ear of Pope Francis. Regardless of any Canon Law, declaring my excommunication from on high can easily be forced through. I insist! I entrench! I’m contentious! I’m obstinate. I’m persistent. Do it!

But will + Paglia slit my throat? Pffft. He’s just full of bluster and is a coward and would never do such a thing. He won’t because he knows that if he does, I’ll be able to appeal, which means I’ll be able to defend myself. I happen to have a bit more expertise in these matters, even on a jesuitical level, having degreed out at the Jesuit’s most academic of all their institutions in the world, the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and Jerusalem. I would really enjoy this. I would move to Rome and write a study on this as a response and defense, using all the libraries in Rome, particularly that of the Biblicum. The conclusion of all that will be about the abuse of office of + Paglia throwing around cowardly threats. The conclusion of all that will be about how + Paglia needs to have his heresy and therefore his automatic excommunication declared. Pfft.

But there’s more, much more.

Not that there’s necessarily any connection at all, but I find it striking that + Paglia connects his thoughts about Judas Iscariat being a saint with priests who “accompany” people – holding their hands – people who are in the very act of committing suicide (which accompaniment is scandalous to all involved, sending the wrong message].

To the priest writing this blog, such a connection by + Paglia is stunning because of an incident related to Terri Schiavo [Theresa Marie Schiavo (née Schindler)], who was put to death with the full encouragement of her bishop down in Florida. Remember that? At the time, I sent a message to that Bishop stating the case for Terri and saying that he, the bishop, was clearly a Judas for encouraging her murder. He objected, saying that, after all, he had thought about it. I’m sure Judas also thought about his own part in the murder of Jesus.

I was frantic to save Terri. Having secured cooperation, I had a moral analysis of the case I had worked up before her murder delivered to the moral theologian guy in the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. That analysis was accepted and taken up. But it was too late. Dear Terri was murdered.

For myself, that means I’m on record for such things, and that record in my own file is open, of course, to all prefects, particularly to + Paglia, who would have it front and center when studying assisted suicide, as it would have been sent to his “dicastery” at the time, with comment, and filed under that topic and in my name.

I’ve put myself on the radar with + Paglia much more recently by making comments on his destruction of the Saint John Paul II Institute for Marriage and the Family. See, for instance:

With that remote background, take a gander of these bits of a story on LifeSiteNews worked up by Edward Pentin and reported by Diane Montagna. Read the whole thing there. [my comments]

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/abp-paglia-on-judas?utm_source=OneSignal

Vatican Archbishop says those who say Judas is in hell are heretics and priests may accompany assisted suicides – by Edward Pentin – reported by Diane Montagna

ROME, December 11, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — In a statement difficult to reconcile with Scripture and Tradition, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, has claimed on behalf of the Catholic Church that anyone who says Judas Iscariot is in hell is a heretic.

In an even more disturbing statement, the Italian archbishop also asserted that a priest may legitimately remain at the beside of someone undergoing assisted suicide in order to “hold their hand” and “accompany” them. […]

Archbishop Paglia, who serves as chancellor of the new John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences in Rome (and presided over the former institute’s demolition), said  he […] doesn’t believe that “anyone should ever be abandoned.”

[Speaking out of both sides of his mouth, he said:] “We are against assisted suicide because we do not want to do the dirty work of death [only emotion, then, that we have to heroically overcome? Just. Wow.] and because we are all well aware that, for believers, life goes on,” he continued. [So: “What difference does it make?” That’s frightening. That’s the rationalization of a murderer.] “To accompany and hold the hand of those who are dying” is therefore the “great task“ of every believer [Encouraging murder, participating in murder is the great task of every believer?] he said, along with fighting the culture of assisted suicide, which represents “a great defeat for society.” [But go ahead and encourage and assist suicides? This is like Satan talking.

“We cannot turn [assisted suicide] into a wise choice,” he said. [But it’s a choice that must be respected and accompanied and encouraged and assisted according to + Paglia.]

Archbishop Paglia then clarified: “I always celebrate funerals for those who commit suicide, because suicide is always a question of unfulfilled love. We must also remember that, for the Catholic Church, if someone says that Judas is in hell, he is a heretic.” […] [Copyright 1997-2019 LifeSiteNews.com. All Rights Reserved.]

There’s much more extremely worthwhile commentary on real Catholic doctrine and tradition and the teaching of Sacred Scripture and the Fathers of the Church and the great sainted theologians in that magnificent article of LifeSiteNews. Again, go there and read the whole thing.

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2019-05-02 · 7:32 am

Flowers for the Immaculate Conception (The very flames of hell, edition)

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Rhododendron calendulaceum or Flaming Azalea is native to these mountains in WNC. This one is next to the Samuel the Angry Donkey pasture some miles down the mountain from the hermitage. A “snitty” florest on the internet calls it “Satan,” as if Satan has rights over anything to do with flames. No.

God is love, and God’s love which we witness with Jesus is ardent. We poetically speak of the ardent flames of love. The Scriptures speak of the flames issuing from the majestic throne of God. Those flames are symbolic of God’s love. God’s love does not itself change for the recipient. It is the receiver whose changing capacity to take in God’s love which put’s a limit or less so on God’s love.

  • In heaven all receive fully of God’s love and rejoice in those ardent flames of love.
  • In purgatory those very same flames of love, so to speak, instruct those preparing for heaven, purging them of their lack of thanksgiving, and in this they also rejoice as they know they are on their way and are progressively more capable of thanking the Divine Son of the Immaculate Conception. They are learning, but, mind you, they are also holy, as they are in the state, as we say, of sanctifying grace.
  • In hell all are also provided with the ardent love of God, but they, fallen angels and damned souls, have chosen to have no capacity to take in that ardent love. They perceive that love as punishing flames, writhing in spiritual and intellectual frustration even while choosing to be that way.

How to say it? God’s love is God’s love.

But what about Mary, the Immaculate Conception? She was free of any need for purging so she knows nothing of our weakness and anguish and struggles, right? So, she can’t actually be a good mother to us, right? Wrong.

It’s because of her purity of heart and agility of soul and clarity of spiritual vision that she saw exactly our need in all it’s horror, much more than we could even begin to know, and at the same time she was in solidarity with her Divine Son in His mission to redeem us, and, if we so choose to cooperate with His grace, to save us. Mary knew all about the ardent flames of God’s love from the perspective of those on earth, those in purgatory, and, analogously, as one fully in grace that is to turn to glory, as Saint Paul says.

So, whatever it’s called, a fiery flower for you, Mary, Jesus’ good mom.

shepherd boy

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2019-04-22 · 8:19 am

Paul Harvey – An Easter Story

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2019-04-03 · 11:26 am

Day Off: guns & spiritual conversations – Jesus bragging on His mother in hell

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Not having bought any ammo since, I think, sometime in late 2018, the “long-way” was taken to the hermitage, passing by a number of Walmarts with variously stocked ammo desks, some desk managers being more on top of things than others. Then, after hitting the UPS Store, it was up and up and up “the mountain.” BTW, can you spot the huge cross made out of I-beams partially hidden by the trees towering above the driveway in the picture above? The neighbor to the hermitage is a master welder.

After a couple of hours of quiet time – a day off after all – energy returned, prayers were said, protection of angels was requested, targets went up, mags were loaded, timers were set, “ears” were adjusted, adrenaline was forced, trigger fingers, left and right, were steadied, concentration was narrowed…

The first course consisted of some six stages of drills, supposedly of a SEAL team, surely dumbed down and from “back-in-the-day.” Here’s a picture of the first stage, just three yards out, from cover/holstered, with an 8 1/2 x 11 target of the usual “body” (inside the two vertical lines: 5:3/4″ x 10:1/2″) and “head” (consisting of a 2″ x 4″ box at the top, an eye-forehead shot instantly “stopping the threat”). The first stage is just one shot from holster to the “head” ≤ 1.5 seconds. Dunno why, but this time I was much more accurate and quick for all stages of all courses, coming in mostly (way) under time and with smaller more centered patterns, mostly inside the “inside bottle” representing the spinal cord. Prayers for priests and the bishop while moving, marking, changing out targets.

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The target then moves further away for different stages until 75 feet away up the ridge.

DIGRESSION: Someone had given me some massively oversized targets (23″ x 35″), I guess to poke fun at my aim, the comment surely being that I’m not able to hit the side of a barn… from inside the barn! I took those dozen or so roll of wallpaper-esque targets just to see if there was anything superimposed. Nope. Having ascertained that, those targets will now go back to the giver. As of a couple years, the most recent policy really is no gifts from intel, ever, zip, zero, zilch… can’t happen. I’m guessing the targets are for zeroing in rifle scopes, say, from a mile out. But I’m not a sniper. I don’t own or use rifles. Not my thing. With a Glock, as the saying goes, aim small, shoot small.

After that, it was time for an FBI course with reduced QIT 97-99 inside bottle targets (that partial detail fitting on legal paper), and then the pre-2001 Federal Air Marshal courses (that target consisting of foam dessert plates propped up by pigtail wires), and then some swinging breakfast blend plastic coffee buckets on ropes and filled with dirt (out to about 15 yards), totaling for day I’m guessing about 175 bullets. Not much, but enough. It was a good day for review and keeping edgy.

With the Glock thoroughly cleaned and oiled and the target-ammo changed out for appropriate carry-ammo, I was eager to go to the neighbors of the hermitage. That’s when the real happiness of the day began.

The spiritual conversations after plinking are becoming a thing, as it were, something that’s expected and to which we all look forward. We spoke of judgment, heaven, hell, purgatory, witnessing to the point of martyrdom, suffering, angels, Jesus, our dearest Heavenly Father, the state of the Church, the state of our souls, the patience of our Lord with us sinners, and being happy for Jesus that after all He has gone through for us, He is now in heaven with our Heavenly Father.

But most of all – at length – we spoke about our Blessed Mother, Jesus’ good mom, about what she went though in this world, what with her purity of heart and agility of soul and clear vision confronting this fallen world, how it is that she was in solidarity with her Divine Son Jesus as He was tortured to death right in front of her. If recorded, these conversations would be good material for an ongoing series of blog posts.

A repeat-topic about our Lady came up, you know, which of the 14 Stations of the Cross would be most – how to say? –  involving to Jesus. The neighbor said it would surely be the meeting with His mother. I agreed, but in another way, saying that it may well be when Jesus is taken down from the cross and put in the arms of His blessed mother.

Aquinas says that the divinity of Jesus never left His body even when that body died and He, with His soul, descended to hell to preach to the fallen spirits. It struck me then, devastated as He would be in His soul that His mother was so devastated holding His dead body, that He would be bragging on His mother to the fallen spirits: “Look at her! She’s the mother-warrior who crushes you, Satan, under her heel. She’s remained faithful in the most adverse circumstances, all of hell attacking. You have failed! She has won souls for heaven!” These are the words, so full of love, which will torture those fallen spirits, so full of hate, for eternity.

Much better to have our souls in order, frequenting the Sacraments, to go to heaven and rejoice to be happy that, after all they went through in this world for us, both Jesus and our Blessed Mother are there.

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2019-03-21 · 5:49 pm

Homily 2019 03 21 My child: Stay in hell!

dives lazarus

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2019-01-21 · 10:06 am

“When Hell freezes over…”

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  • In the summertime we hear: “It’s hot as hell!”
  • In the wintertime we hear: “It’s cold as hell!”

In all actuality, one or the other physical torment of hell would be a relief, a distraction from what hell is really all about, which is the intellectual frustration of pretending that one wants to be there, but not really, for all eternity, and which is the spiritual frustration of trying to escape God’s goodness and truth and love, to which the writhing worm that doesn’t die shrieks: “Noooooooooooooooooo!”

It’s better to just go to Confession. “Yeah! Sure! When hell freezes over!” Don’t think hell will be so easy as all that. No, no. Really, just go to Confession, and go to heaven.

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2018-09-26 · 7:03 pm

Homily 2018 09 26 Give ’em hell: Jesus instructs His Apostles vs belligerents

hell is real

“If any town rejects you, give ’em hell.”

“But Lord, there are children in that town. They’ll see us giving their elders hell.”

“Those children will be great saints.”

fatima children hell

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