Does anyone pray in hell?

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Yes, my main question is: Does anyone pray in hell? It’s got to be awful… and people must wish to get out. Do those people ever pray? Does God answer or ignore them? I know hell is suppose to be a place without God, but could a person still have a relationship with God even though he may not be there? What led to these thoughts comes from this random day experience below-

When you’re ever going through a tough situation, has anyone else wondered “If life is uncomfortable now, at least it can get better…hell is forever.”? A couple days ago, I was trying work out for the sake of losing weight before the holiday gain. I went into the steam room at a new gym I joined. It was empty, and much hotter than the previous two other times I sat in it.

As I sat there, it was quiet. I wanted to sit in there a while but I was bored and uncomfortable. I started using my finger tips, to represent rosary beads and began doing some hail marys – because sometimes I just don’t have a lot of quiet time to pray…and I thought i was a great opportunity.

The heat was unbearable for me, I wanted to rush out, but I had a few hail marys left that I wanted to complete and I didn’t want to rush them. Suddenly I started to almost panic when the thought crossed my mind:
Its hot in here, i’m sure its hotter in hell, but there aren’t any doors to escape through on our own free will. I envisioned a person running around, feet on fire, looking for a way out but never finding one… then I started to wonder “do people ever pray in hell?”

Ok forum… you always make my mind think when I read your replies!
 
jmoburg said:
Yes, my main question is: Does anyone pray in hell? It’s got to be awful… and people must wish to get out. Do those people ever pray? Does God answer or ignore them? I know hell is suppose to be a place without God, but could a person still have a relationship with God even though he may not be there? What led to these thoughts comes from this random day experience below-

When you’re ever going through a tough situation, has anyone else wondered “If life is uncomfortable now, at least it can get better…hell is forever.”? A couple days ago, I was trying work out for the sake of losing weight before the holiday gain. I went into the steam room at a new gym I joined. It was empty, and much hotter than the previous two other times I sat in it.

As I sat there, it was quiet. I wanted to sit in there a while but I was bored and uncomfortable. I started using my finger tips, to represent rosary beads and began doing some hail marys – because sometimes I just don’t have a lot of quiet time to pray…and I thought i was a great opportunity.

The heat was unbearable for me, I wanted to rush out, but I had a few hail marys left that I wanted to complete and I didn’t want to rush them. Suddenly I started to almost panic when the thought crossed my mind:
Its hot in here, i’m sure its hotter in hell, but there aren’t any doors to escape through on our own free will. I envisioned a person running around, feet on fire, looking for a way out but never finding one… then I started to wonder “do people ever pray in hell?”

Ok forum… you always make my mind think when I read your replies!
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I have no idea whether or not people in hell pray but I would assume that they would. After all, they’d want to do anything possible (even if it’s too late) to get out of that place. We picture fires in hell but I wonder if that’s a true picture. Maybe hell is simply a place without God but with constant memories of the terrible life that was led by those who are there. Having to spend eternity with nothing but bad memories would be punishment. Just a thought!
 
pigtown said:
I have no idea whether or not people in hell pray but I would assume that they would. After all, they’d want to do anything possible (even if it’s too late) to get out of that place. We picture fires in hell but I wonder if that’s a true picture. Maybe hell is simply a place without God but with constant memories of the terrible life that was led by those who are there. Having to spend eternity with nothing but bad memories would be punishment. Just a thought!
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I question if they want to get out. I think that nearness to God would be even more painful than their present state. God does not send one to hell; one chooses to go there to get as far from God as possible. Thus they do not pray or seek to communicate with God.
 
Without God, there is no hope. I would imagine that they would do the exact opposite. I would imagine that they would curse everything. They would curse God, the angels, each other, us (the living), themselves.
 
Given Roman theologumenia that only two sins are “Straight To Hell” for sure*, those being apostasy of the Holy Spirit and Denial of Christ after having accepted him, the classes of people we know to be in hell are the types who rejected Holy Christian Tradition.

Do they pray? Maybe, but those two categories are unlikely to pray to the God we know and worship. We also have reason to believe that their own prayers are insufficient to get them out of hell. Hence, All Souls Day.

It’s possible, that, in a moment of clarity before death, even die hards of these two groups might repent before their particular judgement, and thus not be condemned (but boy, howdy, they are going to have a time of it in purgatory)…

Given the Eastern Churches (Catholic and Orthodox) view on Sin and Purgation, even those in hell may not be permanently condemned, for Christ Opens the Gates of Hell… But the entire theological construct there is different…
  • Faith and Life, 6th grade Teacher’s Edition
 
jmoburg said:
Yes, my main question is: Does anyone pray in hell?
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One theory is that Hell is in fact here. In which case, of course, we do pray.

However the orthodox understanding is that Hell and Heaven are both states of completion, where the soul has all its desires. If those include God the soul is in heaven, if not then Hell.
 
Joe_Kelley said:
I question if they want to get out. I think that nearness to God would be even more painful than their present state. God does not send one to hell; one chooses to go there to get as far from God as possible. Thus they do not pray or seek to communicate with God.
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I think this was an excellent response to the question. We don’t know much about hell, except God is not there, and that there is pain and suffering.

I guess everything painful we experience here on earth, in terms of physical and psychological agonies, one would experience the same in hell, but in an immesurable amount. The pain and separation from God is then known to them, and they know it will never end. "Weeping and gnashing of teeth’’ is hardly a way to express what is going on there.

Prayer in hell? Not a chance.

peace
 
My view on the topic is this:

I think despair - the complete loss of hope - is just as manifest and magnified as all the other sins in hell. When one despairs, one can only think of himself and how bad his situation is, that’s why despair is such a dangerous sin, because you don’t think you need to get out of it and that you’re ‘coping.’

That being said, if everyone’s despairing in hell (I think it’s safe to say that that’s the case), they may be able to pray, but who would think to do so, when they’re so hopeless?

I think it’s our human nature to hope for an ‘out’ ‘just in case’ we die with a Mortal sin on our soul… but I’m pretty sure that the ‘h’ in hell stands for ‘hot’ and not ‘hope.’ (What the ‘e’ and two 'l’s stand for, I dunno… perhaps the ‘ll’ could even stand for ‘llama’ because hell wouldn’t be hell without getting your face spit in).

Another question, while we’re on the topic of praying and hell… can we, nay, should we, pray for the souls in hell? I think of all those poor, poor people looking up for just a drop of water on their tongue… oy. I guess we’d be questioning God’s infallible judgement if we do… I dunno.
 
Aramis said:
Given Roman theologumenia that only two sins are “Straight To Hell” for sure*, those being apostasy of the Holy Spirit and Denial of Christ after having accepted him, the classes of people we know to be in hell are the types who rejected Holy Christian Tradition.

Do they pray? Maybe, but those two categories are unlikely to pray to the God we know and worship. We also have reason to believe that their own prayers are insufficient to get them out of hell. Hence, All Souls Day.

It’s possible, that, in a moment of clarity before death, even die hards of these two groups might repent before their particular judgement, and thus not be condemned (but boy, howdy, they are going to have a time of it in purgatory)…

Given the Eastern Churches (Catholic and Orthodox) view on Sin and Purgation, even those in hell may not be permanently condemned, for Christ Opens the Gates of Hell… But the entire theological construct there is different…
  • Faith and Life, 6th grade Teacher’s Edition
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If I remember my Catechism correctly All Souls Day is for us to pray for the suffering souls in Purgatory and NOT the souls in Hell.
 
palmas85 said:
If I remember my Catechism correctly All Souls Day is for us to pray for the suffering souls in Purgatory and NOT the souls in Hell.
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Both, actually. Mostly because we do not know the difference on any case by case basis.
 
jmoburg said:
Yes, my main question is: Does anyone pray in hell? It’s got to be awful… and people must wish to get out. Do those people ever pray? Does God answer or ignore them? I know hell is suppose to be a place without God, but could a person still have a relationship with God even though he may not be there? What led to these thoughts comes from this random day experience below-…

!
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I understand hell is the state of rejecting or turning away from God. If you die in that state then you remain in it until the end of time. Why would a person pray to something (God) that they have rejected?
 
hell is for those who purposefully chose to be damned,God condems no one,they go out of freewill.and since there is a gulf between hell and heaven,i think the idea of prayeris out of the scene.THEREFORE FORGET ABOUT PRAYERS FOR HELLERS,THEY WON’T CARE FOR THAT
:cool:
 
Many of the saints have been shown hell in visions. This is of course considered private revelation and we are not bound by it. But what they do say is that the hatred is so great that all they do is curse God and one another. This does not sound like prayer to me. Years ago I saw a brief bio on TV about Madeline Murray O’Hare (sp). In it when she was asked about Jesus, she answered with such curses and hatred that it shocked me to the core. Needless to say I changed channels immediately. From what I can gather, she remained like this her entire life. We can still pray for people like this, and if they are in hell, prayers do them no good, but God in his infinite mercy does apply those prayers to the Church Suffering. So pray - pray and trust in God’s mercy. It is infinite.
Deacon Ed B
 
This might be one of those things we just can’t know as humans. Surely, it’s a possibility that it’s a possibility for people to pray wherever they, whether or not they would.

Thinking of The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis, there could be perhaps a time before everything is ‘final,’ and souls could be taken out of hell to some sort of in-between place, where they might then pray, if they so chose.

But again, I don’t know. It would be impossible to know without divine revelation.

It couldn’t be said for sure either way, and saying its impossible would be placing short on God.
 
Does the parable of the rich man in Hell who asks to have Lazarus sent to advise his 5 living brothers about his fate constitute a prayer? I think this is found in Luke.
 
I can’t imagine that they would. They freely chose to be where they are.
 
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