Physical description of heaven and purgatory

[CelticSword]

Most of us have heard about the visions of Hell granted to Sr. Faustina and the children at Fatima. In both cases, great chasms, lakes of fire, and smoke were described. I now have a pretty good idea as to what Hell looks like. I can relate to canyons, and fire, and smoke.

So what does Heaven look like? How about Purgatory?

I’ve never seen a description of Heaven–much less Purgatory–outside of “you will be thoroughly enveloped by God’s infinite love for you” or “you will experience eternal happiness as you share in the beatific vision.” Heaven is presumably every bit as real as Hell (at least, we all sure hope so! ) . So if Hell has chasms, and lakes of fire, and smoke (I’m kind of thinking Mordor in The Lord of the Rings movies), does Heaven have fields, forests, mountains, waterfalls, oceans?

Has anyone ever been granted a vision of Heaven or Purgatory?

 

[WhatMeWorry]

Allegedly there have been visionaries who have seen heaven and purgatory, but the only ones I’ve heard of are from places that do not yet have church approval. There have also been people who have come back from near-death experiences who describe things, too, but those aren’t “official,” either.

 

[Mommyof02green]

It’s not a literal description of Heaven, and Purgatory, and Hell, however it may help Dante’s “Divine Comedy”. EWTN did a program regarding Dante and his poetic work “Divine Comedy”.

To listen to the EWTN program click here. Program 1 is what you want “Dante-Divine Comedy”. There are other programs listed, those might help too (I don’t know for sure, but it might)

If you listen to the program from EWTN you hear about a book that is written. I believe this is the book they are talking about click here

Also you can read the “Divine Comedy” by clicking here

 

[Fidelis]

The Book of Revelation is the clearest picture we have. I’d highly recommend “The Lamb’s Supper” by Scott Hahn.

Other than that, as St. Paul says:

But as it is written: “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him,” (1 Corinthians 2:9)

 

[mosher]

I will also second “The Divine Comedy” as a good image of Heaven, Purgatory and Hell. While it departs from the traditional view of hell it seems to be more accurate in its allegory. It is full of good catholic cosmology.

 

[GEddie]

I will also second “The Divine Comedy” as a good image of Heaven, Purgatory and Hell. While it departs from the traditional view of hell it seems to be more accurate in its allegory. It is full of good catholic cosmology.

There have been saints who have had Heavenly visions. A google search might be fruitful.

ICXC NIKA

 

[Jster1489]

Most of us have heard about the visions of Hell granted to Sr. Faustina and the children at Fatima. In both cases, great chasms, lakes of fire, and smoke were described. I now have a pretty good idea as to what Hell looks like. I can relate to canyons, and fire, and smoke.

So what does Heaven look like? How about Purgatory?

I’ve never seen a description of Heaven–much less Purgatory–outside of “you will be thoroughly enveloped by God’s infinite love for you” or “you will experience eternal happiness as you share in the beatific vision.” Heaven is presumably every bit as real as Hell (at least, we all sure hope so! ) . So if Hell has chasms, and lakes of fire, and smoke (I’m kind of thinking Mordor in The Lord of the Rings movies), does Heaven have fields, forests, mountains, waterfalls, oceans?

Has anyone ever been granted a vision of Heaven or Purgatory?

St. Thomas Aquinas was granted a vision of Heaven. At that moment, he quit writing and dictating the pieces he was working on. He said something along the lines of, “it is not possible to describe what I saw.” Therefore, Heaven is so beyond what we can possibly imagine, that to try to give a definition is, in all reality, an injustice. Still, I think you did a good job with saying, “you will be thoroughly enveloped in God’s infinite love for you.” I think that is about as good as it gets - there is nothing else better in existence, than to be with God.

 

[Mintaka]

Poetic and visionary imagery are just trying to point you to the general idea or feeling of supernatural things. They aren’t National Geographic.

Heck, even with National Geographic, the photographers make the big bucks for being able to turn real life into pictures that show feelings and ideas. If I take a picture, it will look like a blah picture. They have the know-how and equipment to stand in the same place, take the same picture, and make it show what their minds saw, not just their eyes. (As well as adjusting for the different perceptive qualities of eye/mind versus camera.)

St. John of the Cross talks a lot about the relationship between spiritual knowledge that God gives certain people, and the ways their minds and souls are able to process it. You can read about this in The Ascent of Mount Carmel and its sequel, The Dark Night of the Soul.

So yeah, I don’t know exactly what a “lake of fire” is, but I know I don’t want anything to do with anything like that. The Fatima visions are probably the best picture those kids could get of what these spiritual realities were. I don’t know exactly what those were pictures of, but they certainly taught me a useful refresher on how to feel and think about those things. I’m not worried whether it looked exactly the same, as long as it’s a useful road marker to keep me out of trouble. I’ll die and know the exact truth of these things soon enough, I’m sure.

 

[empther]

I trying to gues what Heaven looks like, we have to be logical.

Aquinas says the body will be resurrected in Heaven because it too deserves to be rewarded.
Heaven wouldn’t be Heaven if we lost anything in the sense of leaving it behind. Not seeing the beauty of nature on Earth would be a loss, so it’s reasonable that Heaven will have physical geography, mountains, and valleys and waterfalls etc.

Of course this is all way down on the list of priorities, but God could create all these things by a mere thought, so … why not?

 

[Jster1489]

I trying to gues what Heaven looks like, we have to be logical.

Aquinas says the body will be resurrected in Heaven because it too deserves to be rewarded.
Heaven wouldn’t be Heaven if we lost anything in the sense of leaving it behind. Not seeing the beauty of nature on Earth would be a loss, so it’s reasonable that Heaven will have physical geography, mountains, and valleys and waterfalls etc.

Of course this is all way down on the list of priorities, but God could create all these things by a mere thought, so … why not?

Yep. He mentioned the Resurrection of the Body - literally - in the Summa Theologica.