Don Bosco's vision of Hell

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Interesting that you mention that he’s harsh to people who have confessed but not in the correct way.
After reading Don Bosco’s vision of hell, it made me rethink how I should be confessing. I do go into detail unless the priest tells me not to do so. I want to learn from what I’m doing wrong. However, I’ve heard priests say from the pulpit not to go into detail. You shouldn’t be giving excuses for your behavior. The priest should be asking the probing questions if it’s a mortal sin.
 
I had a NDE and did not see heaven. I didn’t see hell either.
 
Hello.

All I remember is that whatever position one of the boys was in was how he remained in Hell.

Another thing that comes to mind is that we choose Hell → the door’s on the outside. We choose to be persistently unrepentant, we choose to pick and choose from doctrine what we feel like doing and what we don’t. We choose to be self-righteous, we choose to rationalize our actions so we won’t have to look at ourselves.

God’s mercy is infinite, I think choosing to appeal to this is a preferable choice.
 
Hmm,
I may have to include years of obedience to authority figures to my next confession! And maybe some under exaggeration as well!

I wonder after I read these private revelations if the bar is really that high. It is really not worth taking any chances over. I mean these were saints, do we really want to not take them seriously? If we get to Heaven and someone says “wow, you really were extra hard on yourself down there” isn’t that better than better than lamenting being to slack in hell? We are only on Earth as they say, for a short time. And then we are somewhere else forever.
 
JimR-OCDS said:
Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven a lot more than the two times he mentioned hell.
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He talked about both. “Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’” Mark 9:47-48

It is simply not true that there is something intrinsically wrong with talking about Hell with vivid realism.

I am not saying that this is without its dangers. Our Lord exhibited anger, too, and we all know the dangers there.

I have been told by a priest that the danger in vivid accounts of Hell is not that it makes people afraid of Hell but that there is a way in which it becomes a sort of spiritual pornography. People spend too much time dwelling on descriptions that don’t cause a healthy sort of fear but rather perversely bring about an unhealthy fascination with the gory details.

Some people also refuse to believe that a just and good God could have ever created Hell. That isn’t true, either.
 
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I just want to try my best with God’s help along with the BVM and the saints to avoid hell. I know I can’t get to heaven on my own.
 
setarcos said:
Anyways, about Don Bosco’s vision…anyone have an opinion on what I asked?
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setarcos said:
So, is this “dream” of Don Bosco’s supposed to be accurate to reality or a personal interpretation? I get the sense of it being a narrated story written in the present tense to emphasize a point. I’ve read many cases of visions of hell and n.d.e.’s and have yet to see a consistent experience between them. Might this mean that ones experience of hell is unique to the individual or effected by and/or a product of ones cultural and environmental experiences?
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The Saints’ ones I have read have consistent elements. Not so much the NDE’s—although some do. I think some of them could be authentic, but some could be demonic, some could be products of trauma, or neurology, or dreaming. Hard to say.

All of them are subjective, because you have a human person trying to describe the indescribable, and so they bring to bear what descriptive capacity they inherently possess, on top of their own experiences and their own perceptions. What I notice after watching an intense brief film will be entirely different from what you notice. With some areas of similarity. Some people might see the exact same thing.

Further, the person who experienced the vision may narrate it in such a way as to teach something in particular, rather than just writing exactly what they saw. That would shift the focus a bit.

They were shown what they were shown for a particular message. Therefore, they weren’t all shown the same thing in the same way.

As to hell itself: yes, according to the visions of some of the Saints, there are general sufferings in hell, shared by all, and particular sufferings in response to your own unique ways of rejecting God. I can’t remember if that was St. Faustina, St. Catherine of Sienna, or St. Teresa of Avila. One of them was very specific about it.

Those are my thoughts in response to your question.
 
PetraG said:
I have been told by a priest that the danger in vivid accounts of Hell is not that it makes people afraid of Hell but that there is a way in which it becomes a sort of spiritual pornography. People spend too much time dwelling on descriptions that don’t cause a healthy sort of fear but rather perversely bring about an unhealthy fascination with the gory details.
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I can understand this. It’s sort of the same way some people end up fetishizing self-mortification, like starving or flogging yourself.

At the same time, St. Jacinta Marto used to say that if sinners could just see Hell they would stop sinning immediately and she would wonder why Our Lady didn’t just show everybody Hell.
 
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PetraG said:
I have been told by a priest that the danger in vivid accounts of Hell is not that it makes people afraid of Hell but that there is a way in which it becomes a sort of spiritual pornography. People spend too much time dwelling on descriptions that don’t cause a healthy sort of fear but rather perversely bring about an unhealthy fascination with the gory details.
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That is probably more about the person doing it than about the visions themselves. A danger to be aware of, not an evil in the visions themselves. (Which isn’t what I thought you meant, just a thought.)
 
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God sent His Son in order to redeem man and to restore him to his original state —union with God.
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Which is the same as what I posted.

We’re saved to share eternal happiness with God.

God didn’t send Jesus to change his mind about man, but to change men’s minds about God.

Jim
 
He spoke more about the Kingdom and why he came into the world.

He himself said he did not come to condemn the world.

People who are so focused on sin management, fail to experience God’s love and mercy. As a result fail to do as Jesus commanded, to Love God and neighbor.

They see themselves as unworthy, but others as even less worthy.

God loves us irrespective of our own self-worth.

Jim
 
JimR-OCDS said:
We’re saved to share in eternal happiness with God.
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That doesn’t make much sense… here I’ll fix it for you.

“We’re saved from eternal death to share in eternal happiness with God.”

There, that’s better.
 
setarcos said:
Might this mean that ones experience of hell is unique to the individual or effected by and/or a product of ones cultural and environmental experiences?
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Absolutely 100%

In Eastern Christianity we make no distinction of “places” of heaven or hell. To the sinner, the Fire of God is torment and pain. To the saint, the Fire of God is bliss and ecstasy.

Pope Benedict touched on this in his Encyclical Spe Salvi.

Everybody’s experience of heaven, hell, or purgatory is unique. There are different levels of blessedness in heaven, and different levels of torment in hell.
 
When Our Lord talked about Hell, he talked both about what to avoid doing (sin management? It includes judge not lest you be judged, right?) and things one must do (like showing mercy if you hope to receive it).

He didn’t talk a lot about what you think or feel about yourself, one way or another. He talked about whether you actually did good things and chose virtuous thought-patterns. He rated the person low who thanked God for how they were succeeding at virtuous acts and rated the one high who did not presume he’d get mercy but who ardently and humbly begged for mercy.

Is that self-loathing? It is sin-loathing and avoidance of any self-congratulations. Other than examination of conscience, the red letters don’t go in for a lot of self-attention.
 
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JimR-OCDS said:
Which is the same as what I posted
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Hell is real. Real people go there, and they spend eternity there. We are saved from that reality in order that we might be happy with God forever.
JimR-OCDS said:
God didn’t send Jesus to change his mind about man, but to change men’s minds about God.
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You said that already. It’s very nice bumper sticker theology. But it begs the question of what happens if man doesn’t change? The answer is that isn’t saved. He’s lost.
 
The Magesterium can never be wrong.

When he says everyone except Jesus, he’s including the Church with Jesus, as they are inseparable.
 
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