How exactly does a person get into Heaven when they die?

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mjb472012

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I’m afraid that I won’t make it for some reason. I do regular confession, I attend Mass, read my Bible and pray daily. I also try to love others and do kind works to reflect Christ’s love. But for some reason, I still fear hell. Maybe my confessions aren’t valid? I try to be genuinely sorry for my sins but I keep slipping back into mortal sin every couple days. What should I do?
 
mjb472012 said:
I’m afraid that I won’t make it for some reason. I do regular confession, I attend Mass, read my Bible and pray daily. I also try to love others and do kind works to reflect Christ’s love. But for some reason, I still fear hell. Maybe my confessions aren’t valid? I try to be genuinely sorry for my sins but I keep slipping back into mortal sin every couple days. What should I do?
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Keep doing what you’re doing.You’re on the right track.However,the fear of hell should be a secondary motive to avoid sinning as the fear of offending God should be primary.I’m near certain that your confessions are valid.People simply do not change over night,unless you were thrown from your horse and blinded,of course.Saving one’s soul is a life long commitment,where damning one’s self can happen over night.keep doing what you’re doing.

JMJ
 
Spend less time trying to save your soul, and more time thanking Jesus in anticipation of Him doing it for you! 🙂
 
mjb472012 said:
I’m afraid that I won’t make it for some reason. I do regular confession, I attend Mass, read my Bible and pray daily. I also try to love others and do kind works to reflect Christ’s love. But for some reason, I still fear hell. Maybe my confessions aren’t valid? I try to be genuinely sorry for my sins but I keep slipping back into mortal sin every couple days. What should I do?
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Well the only way that you can get into Heaven is with you having no sin. Now you are probably saying that no one can have NO sin. Well that’s why there is purgatory. Purgatory is for the people with sins. They are, metaphorically, getting cleaned up. When you are done with your time in purgatory then you get to enter Heaven because then you will have no sin.

Mortal sin, which it seems like you know what it is, is when you commit a sin knowing it’s wrong but doing it anyway. The only way to stop committing that sin is to go to confession whenever it happens and pray the rosary. That IS the greatest weapon against any mortal sin.

Fearing Hell is a normal thing. I don’t think anyone is not afraid of burning in Hell for eternity… think about that. But, all you can do to avoid it is to go to confession and pray.

God Bless!
 
mjb472012 said:
I’m afraid that I won’t make it for some reason. I do regular confession, I attend Mass, read my Bible and pray daily. I also try to love others and do kind works to reflect Christ’s love. But for some reason, I still fear hell. Maybe my confessions aren’t valid? I try to be genuinely sorry for my sins but I keep slipping back into mortal sin every couple days. What should I do?
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Keep doing what your doing believe it or not we are all going through the same struggles. Don’t let satan make you believe you are bad. You are a good person. Keep up the struggle and God will one day say to you welcome into my kingdom good and faithful servant.
 
I read the title and automatically thought - Well you have to go through Atlanta…😃
It is a reference to a comment made years ago by a friend of mine who was a frequent flier and was commenting on how every flight seemed to be routed through Atlanta…

Anyway - to your concern…
mjb472012 said:
I’m afraid that I won’t make it for some reason. I do regular confession, I attend Mass, read my Bible and pray daily. I also try to love others and do kind works to reflect Christ’s love. But for some reason, I still fear hell. Maybe my confessions aren’t valid? I try to be genuinely sorry for my sins but I keep slipping back into mortal sin every couple days. What should I do?
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Given what you describe above, I am hesitant to think that you fall back into “Mortal sin” every couple of days…You may sin “gravely” but the very fact that you are struggling so makes me hesitant to agree that the sins are Mortal…This is perhaps something that you should talk over with your confessor…

What is happening is your fear is preventing you from feeling God’s Love. It could be that satan is working overtime to nudge you toward fear, or it could simply be that your faith has not matured enough yet. But in any event, the main thing to remember is that Love drives out fear. It takes time…but it odes happen.
So the thing to do is to forget about hell. Forget about what it is that you are running away from. That is like running a marathon while looking backwards over your shoulder…
Instead…Turn and focus on God…on Jesus…on His cross…on His Love…give praise for His many blessings.
Do not say “I fear you”, instead say “I love you”…When fears come…Laugh at them and say - “My God is my Love - who shall I fear”…

If there is a particular sin that you are struggling with (and all of us have one of those), pray for grace and help from your Love - then build a program to overcome the sin. You probably won’t quit all at once…Bad habits are like that…but you can commit to getting better. Depending on what the sin is you might even be able to track your progress.

But the bottom line is to concentrate of God’s Love and not on His Judgement. His Judgement will always be fair and how could he condemn one who struggles so to be worthy of His Love???
So you see…You have nothing to fear from your Heavenly Father…

Hope some of this helps.

Peace
James
 
JRKH said:
I read the title and automatically thought - Well you have to go through Atlanta…😃
It is a reference to a comment made years ago by a friend of mine who was a frequent flier and was commenting on how every flight seemed to be routed through Atlanta…

Anyway - to your concern…

Given what you describe above, I am hesitant to think that you fall back into “Mortal sin” every couple of days…You may sin “gravely” but the very fact that you are struggling so makes me hesitant to agree that the sins are Mortal…This is perhaps something that you should talk over with your confessor…

What is happening is your fear is preventing you from feeling God’s Love. It could be that satan is working overtime to nudge you toward fear, or it could simply be that your faith has not matured enough yet. But in any event, the main thing to remember is that Love drives out fear. It takes time…but it odes happen.
So the thing to do is to forget about hell. Forget about what it is that you are running away from. That is like running a marathon while looking backwards over your shoulder…
Instead…Turn and focus on God…on Jesus…on His cross…on His Love…give praise for His many blessings.
Do not say “I fear you”, instead say “I love you”…When fears come…Laugh at them and say - “My God is my Love - who shall I fear”…

If there is a particular sin that you are struggling with (and all of us have one of those), pray for grace and help from your Love - then build a program to overcome the sin. You probably won’t quit all at once…Bad habits are like that…but you can commit to getting better. Depending on what the sin is you might even be able to track your progress.

But the bottom line is to concentrate of God’s Love and not on His Judgement. His Judgement will always be fair and how could he condemn one who struggles so to be worthy of His Love???
So you see…You have nothing to fear from your Heavenly Father…

Hope some of this helps.

Peace
James
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Atlanta Hartsfield–hilarious

Everything after that–very helpful and inspiring, thanks
 
Ad_Infinitum said:
Purgatory?
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Yes, that’s the place that people go when they die because they have sin and need to be cleaned of that sin. Only venial sin, not mortal sin. Mortal sin will send you to Hell. Once you are cleaned of your sins, then you may enter Heaven.

This is why people are always saying “pray for the people in purgatory.” It’s because they want them to get to Heaven.
 
If you’re “slipping” into mortal sin every two days, you have cause to be concerned. It’s time to take drastic measures. Only you can decide what those drastic measures will be. You are not putting God first. Forgive me for being harsh, but I have been in your shoes (except I wasn’t reading the Bible or praying or going to Confession). And the only thing that snapped me out of it was fear of Hell. Yes, our motivation should be love of God, but if we aren’t quite there yet, fear of Hell can be a great motivator. You can read about the saints’ visions of Hell here: doeshellexist.com/holy_saints.html You are choosing to be separated from God every couple of days. Your fears are real. They are God warning you that you need to straighten up now. Again, if you are needing to confess mortal sin every couple of days, you need to think about whether your repentance is sincere. The path to Heaven is narrow and the road to Hell wide–stay on the narrow path, my friend, no matter what measures you’ve go to take!!!
 
Put your trust in the Lord. Whenever you are tempted to sin, think of Jesus on the cross. Sin put Him there. Do you really want the pleasure of that sin so much that you are willing to scoff at the punishment He was willing to endure because He loves you? Confessions are only valid if you have a sincere desire to stop sinning. If you are so attached to that sin that you fall into serious sin so frequently, that sounds like you really don’t have the intention to repent. A good confession brings two kinds of grace. First, sanctifying grace to make you holier, and second, actual grace to help you not commit that sin again. Call on God when you are severely tempted. He will send you all the actual grace you need not to sin. Good luck and God bless.
 
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