Can you pray for those in hell?

  • Thread starter Thread starter CRATUS
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
truetofaith said:
I’m getting tired of repeating myself. If someone’s in hell, you can pray for them, but you can’t get them out of there.

I said many posts ago…God looks into the future & hears those prayers & applies them to the same person before they are dead and sent to their reward or punishment.

If nobody understands this, too bad, I can’t say it any clearer.
Click to expand...
Sure, that’s true, but the interesting application of the question arises with respect to how we should act. How intensely should Catholics pray for others’ salvation? The answer to that turns on the inevitability of damnation.

Perhaps you should revisit whether your assumption of the person’s being in hell at all is a foregone conclusion. It’s a nuanced question with no known answer because we don’t know the mechanism of God’s mercy and judgment in our final moments, and the lead up.

If you believe in the omnipotence of God and the infinite grace of His self-sacrifice, why should you a priori assume that God’s infinite sacrifice is insufficient to make amends for finite human transgressions? Does God not have the power to save all souls? Of course He has! The Church outlines the theoretical moral conditions in which banishment to hell occurs, which you have accurately stated, but we don’t know whether being sent to hell ever actually occurs for human souls.

Given the logical possibility that there could be no human souls in hell ever, the irreversibility of hell could be rendered moot.

From a practical standpoint, if we know that any given soul could tilt from being damned to saved by one prayer or sacrifice on our part, applied through the lens of God’s perfect mercy, how much more motivated we should be to suffer for one another! That’s a REALLY powerful insight, and it dramatically changes the messaging we should take when discussing the topic. It shifts our role from a fatalistic resignation to damnation to an empowered position where we should sacrifice everything and devote every second of our lives to others! I don’t mean we should abandon all practicality and absolve ourselves of material responsibilities, but rather that all our worldly efforts can become priceless spiritual offerings.
 
alphawoman said:
Sure, that’s true, but the interesting application of the question arises with respect to how we should act. How intensely should Catholics pray for others’ salvation? The answer to that turns on the inevitability of damnation.

Perhaps you should revisit whether your assumption of the person’s being in hell at all is a foregone conclusion. It’s a nuanced question with no known answer because we don’t know the mechanism of God’s mercy and judgment in our final moments, and the lead up.

If you believe in the omnipotence of God and the infinite grace of His self-sacrifice, why should you a priori assume that God’s infinite sacrifice is insufficient to make amends for finite human transgressions? Does God not have the power to save all souls? Of course He has! The Church outlines the theoretical moral conditions in which banishment to hell occurs, which you have accurately stated, but we don’t know whether being sent to hell ever actually occurs for human souls.

Given the logical possibility that there could be no human souls in hell ever, the irreversibility of hell could be rendered moot.

From a practical standpoint, if we know that any given soul could tilt from being damned to saved by one prayer or sacrifice on our part, applied through the lens of God’s perfect mercy, how much more motivated we should be to suffer for one another! That’s a REALLY powerful insight, and it dramatically changes the messaging we should take when discussing the topic. It shifts our role from a fatalistic resignation to damnation to an empowered position where we should sacrifice everything and devote every second of our lives to others! I don’t mean we should abandon all practicality and absolve ourselves of material responsibilities, but rather that all our worldly efforts can become priceless spiritual offerings.
Click to expand...
Wow, now I’ve heard everything!.. :eek:

“but we don’t know whether being sent to hell ever actually occurs for human souls.
Given the logical possibility that there could be no human souls in hell ever, the irreversibility of hell could be rendered moot.”

You better read Matt.25 : 31 - 46…Jesus doesn’t share your opinion!
 
truetofaith said:
I’m getting tired of repeating myself. If someone’s in hell, you can pray for them, but you can’t get them out of there.

I said many posts ago…God looks into the future & hears those prayers & applies them to the same person before they are dead and sent to their reward or punishment.

If nobody understands this, too bad, I can’t say it any clearer.
Click to expand...
Thank you truetofaith, I totally agree.
To the post in general – It may helpful to note that in The Prophecies and Revelations of St. Bridget of Sweden, Our Lord states, “When you pray any prayer to me, always end your prayer with the intention that my will always shall be done and not yours. For when you pray for the already condemned I do not hear you.” (Chapter 14)

“I do not hear you” could mean a) that God does not hear our prayer at all and the prayer is wasted, or b) that God hears our prayer and allows another soul to benefit from it. In support of the latter, Our Lord knows that it is impossible for us to know who is or isn’t condemned and that our Catholic faith tells us that we should pray for all the faithful departed. Also, there is a comparison that can be made here in regard to the state of some purgatorial souls, who likewise do not receive relief from our prayers. St. Faustina writes, “On one occasion, when I dropped by the chapel for a five-minute adoration and was praying for a certain soul, I came to understand that God does not always accept our petitions for the souls we have in mind, but directs these to other souls. Hence, although we do not relieve the souls we intended to relieve in their purgatorial suffering, still our prayer is not lost.” (Diary of St. Faustina, para 621)

We should simply pray for all the faithful departed and end our prayers that God’s will be done, which is most pleasing to God.

God Bless

Josie
 
truetofaith said:
Wow, now I’ve heard everything!.. :eek:

“but we don’t know whether being sent to hell ever actually occurs for human souls.
Given the logical possibility that there could be no human souls in hell ever, the irreversibility of hell could be rendered moot.”

You better read Matt.25 : 31 - 46…Jesus doesn’t share your opinion!
Click to expand...
Catholic theologians have debated the extent to which Jesus’ words in the (excellent) passage you quoted are an admonition or a prediction. It is unknown. There are multiple scenarios expounded by Church Doctors and modern Popes on the number of human souls in hell, ranging from the possibility of few or no souls to almost all souls in hell. The reality is that we don’t know.

That hell exists for those who die in unrepentant mortal sin is indisputable. But Church teaching calls us to hope and pray for the salvation of all, as God has not predestined any soul for hell.

CCC 1058: 1058 The Church prays that no one should be lost: “Lord said:
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p123a12.htm
Click to expand...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top