A letter from a woman in Hell

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Xanthippe_Voorhees said:
She didn’t want children because she was more focused on having nice things. I see this as clearly not that simple…people who were unwanted children tend to find ways to fill an unfillable void. In the end the emphasis was that “things” were more important than children. But not wanting children isn’t a sin–only contraception is. Her hero-worship of her husband is a clear echo of the breakdown of her parent’s marriage.
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This is an unknowable person whose story was received by way of a dream. It is not something that can be documented. It is possible that someone in her position could be culpable because it is possible that she could have had the grace to choose God instead of worldliness and chose God, instead.

We cannot judge in someone’s favor any more than we can judge against them, except to point out the ways that even in our human appreciation of human frailty a person might not be culpable for objective wrong-doing.

It is worthwhile to point both how we could be culpable or could be weak past our ability to cope under circumstances that look exactly the same from the outside. I don’t think the perspective of the letter is “wrong” (if it were actually a first-person narrative) any more than the perspective of a letter-writer with the perspective you are talking about. Either could be the truth, depending on the individual person, and I am sure there are many other back-stories that could explain very similar outward behavior. That is, after all, why we may not judge.
 
Tulitas said:
Indeed. The fact that a “letter” is sent from heel ought to be your first clue.

Sometimes those who wish us to learn something use various methods of instruction.

There is no mail service of any sort, supernaturally, or naturally from hell,

Cautionary tale? Perhaps.
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The Screwtape Letters is one of my favorite books. Not a letter of it is anything but fiction, yet it tells a lot of truth in a way that other modes of instruction could not get across!
 
Kei said:
I didn’t see any sort of super focus on her not wanting children.
I saw the painting of a picture.

She rejecting the healing of Christ, and went astray.

Let me ask you, is anyone in danger of damnation to you? If I really wanted to, I could probably find some psychological reason behind much evils, even of such despised men like Pol Pot and Stalin and Hitler. I think it is a destructive idea that if something can be shown to have some psychological reasoning that it means you have no duty to fight the temptations, and incites one to weakness or a fatalism that is dangerous to the individual.

This woman did not go to communion since getting married, and presumably did not receive absolution since either. Do you think she managed to avoid mortal sin this whole time?
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I think this is a poorly written “cautionary tale” as if it was Krampus.

Can anyone sin? Yes.

Can people go to hell? Yes.

The case here? I feel like it’s a case of “the lady doth protest too much”. The background need not be included…there’s really no reason for it. What it does is present a wholistic picture, which to me, shows a deeply injured individual who made decisions from that background.
 
I too felt that she had a very broken background…but more so a broken life. Instead of accepting the healing she needed, she turned down that, preferring an easy brokenness than a difficult healing.

She had the easier of torments as she fell from weakness…according to the letter.
 
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PetraG said:
My bet is that if this were presented not as an instructive dream pointing out the very real dangers of “polite worldliness” but as a pronouncement that some particular person is in Hell, it would not get an imprimatur.
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An imprimatur doesn’t pronounce that it’s true necessarily, just that it has no errors. Footnotes going more into detail on this can be found on the site I linked.

I doubt it will ever be approved based on the fact that it would mean the Church is saying that specific person is in Hell for certain, as you said.
 
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I feel that it is a bit of a stretch to be honest but that might be the cynic in me.
Some parts (mentioned by previous posters) make me think that it may have been a creative exercise rather than a revelation. I don’t know though so good to keep an open mind.

Additionally, as someone above me mentioned, if it has been thought-provoking for someone then it is a worthwhile read.
 
TLDR: Woman bought two pairs of shoes and ended up in hell.

I’m trivialising it but really it is supposed to be a letter (sent via a dream) from a woman who reject God throughout her life for different reasons, presumably in her final judgment ran away (odd image) from God. She ended up in Hell (supposedly torment because they know the love of God’s love but hate it) and wrote a letter to a former colleague to tell her about it it.

It’s quite interesting if you have a few mins. Personally, I take it with a pinch of salt but it’s all above my pay grade so who knows?
 
I like how the letter turned to ashes after she read it. It reminds me of Mission Impossible. 😎
 
Is there any chance the letter was just spiritual junk mail? I get stuff like that all the time these days. I don’t even open most of it.
 
“Anne” didn’t really have an adequate grasp of what the Mass is about for it to be a mortal sin subjectively. She missed Mass for a petty or- maybe this is a better word- “shallow” reason… She just didn’t place any importance in her relationship with God and was “too busy” to pray. But you’re right, missing Mass could be a mortal sin. I just don’t really get why somebody would do it.
 
Vincible ignorance is, in Catholic ethics, ignorance that a person could remove by applying reasonable diligence in the given set of circumstances. … When little or no effort is made to remove ignorance, the ignorance is termed crass or supine; it removes little or no guilt.
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She may have been ignorant of the importance of mass, but that doesn’t excuse missing it. One can still be guilty of mortal sin without knowing the inherent value of it. Same with human law.
 
I was very moved by the letter. My question is - what was the purpose of the letter? She started off by saying NOT to pray for her. But what was the message she was sent to convey exactly?

Did God “force” her to caution others? If so, why do you think the nun did not make it public?
 
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PetraG said:
The Screwtape Letters is one of my favorite books. Not a letter of it is anything but fiction, yet it tells a lot of truth in a way that other modes of instruction could not get across!
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Those letters came to my mind also, particularly in regards to the shoes: the precious preference for the details sounded a lot like the woman who only wanted a bit of toast, though it must be prepared “just so.”
 
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Were I the nun, I guess I would ask my spiritual director had to say and do that. As there would be people mentioned in the letter who would be recognizable to contemporaries (as others in this thread have noted) I would think the verdict would be to publish anonymously or not at all.

The writing is, after all, about an instructive dream. No one said it really happened. People would make rash judgments, though.
 
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I’d rather spiritual junk mail than a lot of the other stuff that shows up in my spam box.
 
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