Picturing Heaven

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Limoncello4021

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Do you think about heaven a lot? If so, what images come to mind? I just don’t think of it much because my imagination fails in this regard. But since it is our goal I want to think of it more ofte.
I’m a rather nerdy intellectual book reading introvert type, nearly always trying to diet while surrounded by feast worthy food, so the prospect of one big banquet table filled with people who love you and can’t wait to hug you is not terribly attractive. I’d like my own mansion, please, or better yet a cozy cottage with only a cat and dog. On the other hand, I look forward to good conversations with Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Maybe not all three at once 🙂
I do like the image of a new city, a new Jerusalem.
 
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Just seeing God face to face is overwhelming enough to imagine. Everything else pales in comparison.
 
Well, Heaven is like an Eternal Mass, so you can imagine the most beautiful landscape, add to it a Choir of Angels and Saint adoring God, and, in the center, the Trinity “face to face” to us.

I also like an image my priest one time explained: to be sitting and drinking mate (a traditional infusion of my country) with Mary, chatting with her like with a relative or a friend.
 
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I’d be happy to see my husband, parents, and ex-boyfriend again. I like to picture a garden. Or my hometown/ house where I grew up.

For me the great thing about Heaven will be that it is truly timeless and limitless and you can go or be anywhere you want immediately with no effort. Like, if you want to visit the rolling green hills of one state or the lakeside of another, just think it and you’re there. If you want to live in a row house or a farm house or a little Irish cottage, just think it and you’re there.

When I was a child I used to wonder a lot about what Heaven was like. Then when I was an older teen and a young twentysomething, I had a couple of dreams that I think answered the question because they were extremely euphoric dreams, and not influenced by any medication, alcohol, other stuff because I hadn’t had any. This only happened to me about 3 times and has not happened in many decades at this point, but I never forgot those particular dreams. I had a body that would do anything I wanted it to, like any dance move, effortlessly and without getting tired. I could also fly. And everything felt great. I know flying dreams are said to be common but the flying wasn’t the main point of the dream (although it was really cool to see an aerial view of my neighborhood in the dream), it was the way I felt.
 
1 Corinthians 2:9

That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him.
 
1 Corinthians 13:12

“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

To have complete clarity and understanding of God. To be face to face in the infinite bliss of the beatific vision. To share this eternally in communion of all the saved, those we’ve known on Earth and those we didn’t know. This is my picture. Anything else is a bonus.
 
You won’t need your imagination at worship services in Heaven !
Rev 7:9
After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were robed in white with palm branches in their hands.
And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
All the angels stood around the throne, the elders, and the four living creatures, and they fell face down before the throne and worshiped God
 
Blessed Henry Suso (1295 - 1366) Dominican and German mystic

-Now, then, ascend thou on high with Me. I will carry thee thither in spirit, and will give thee, after a rude similitude, a distant glimpse into the future. Behold, above the ninth heaven, which is incalculably more than a hundred thousand times larger than the entire earth, there is another heaven which is called Coelum Empyreum, the fiery heaven, so called, not from its being of fire, but from its immeasurably transparent brightness, which is immovable and unchangeable in its nature; and this is the glorious court in which the heavenly hosts dwell, where the morning star with the rest praises Me, and all the children of God rejoice.

There stand, encompassed with inconceivable light, the everlasting thrones, from which the evil spirits were hurled, in which the elect are seated. See how the delightful city shines with beaten gold, how it glitters with costly jewels, inlaid with precious stones, transparent as crystal, reflecting red roses, white lilies, and all living flowers. Now, look on the beautiful heavenly fields themselves. Lo! here all delights of summer, here sunny meads of May, here the very valley of bliss, here the glad moments are seen flitting from joy to joy; here harps and viols, here singing, and leaping, and dancing, hand in hand for ever! here the gratification of every desire, here pleasure without pain in everlasting security!

Now, look how the countless multitude drink to their hearts’ desire at the living fountains of gushing water; look how they feast their eyes on the pure, clear mirror of the revealed Divinity, in which all things are made plain and evident to them. Steal a little nearer, and mark how the sweet queen of the celestial kingdom, whom thou lovest with so much ardour, soars aloft in dignity and joy over the whole celestial host, reclining tenderly on her beloved, encircled with rose-flowers and lilies of the valley. See how her ravishing beauty fills with delight and wonder all the heavenly choirs.

Continue-
 
Oh, now behold what will rejoice thy heart and soul, and see how the mother of compassion has turned her compassionate eyes towards thee and all sinners, and how powerfully she appeals to her beloved Son, and intercedes with Him. Now, turn round with the eyes of thy pure understanding, and behold also how the high seraphim and the love-abounding souls of the seraphic choirs blaze up perpetually in Me; how the bright company of the cherubim have a bright infusion and effusion of My eternal inconceivable light, how the high thrones and hosts, the lordships, powers, and dominations, regularly fulfill My beautiful and eternal order in the universality of nature.

Mark, too, how the third host of angelic spirits executes My high messages and decrees in the particular parts of the world; and see, how lovingly, how joyfully, and variously the multitude is marshalled, and what a beautiful sight it is! Turn next thy glance and see how My chosen disciples and best beloved friends sit in repose and honour upon their awful judgment-seats, how the martyrs glitter in their rose-coloured garments, the confessors shine in their vernal beauty, how refulgent the virgins appear in their angelic purity, how all the heavenly host overflows with divine sweetness! Oh, what a company! Oh, what a joyous band!

Blessed, thrice blessed is he who was born to dwell where they dwell! Lo, to this very fatherland I shall carry home from misery and tribulation, arrayed in all the richness of her rich morning gift, My beloved bride in My arms. I shall adorn her interiorly with the beautiful garment of the eternal light of that glory which will exalt her above all her natural powers. She will be clothed exteriorly with the glorified body, which is seven times brighter than the sun’s light, swift, subtle, and to suffering, impassive; then I shall put on her the crown of delight, and on the crown a golden garland.

http://www.catholictreasury.info/books/eternal_wisdom/ew13.php
 
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An Unpublished Manuscript on Purgatory

Excerpt :

I am going to try to make you understand, as far as you can upon earth, what Heaven is like. There are ever new feasts which succeed each other without interruption. There is happiness, always new and such, it would seem, as has never been enjoyed. It is a torrent of joy which flows unceasingly over the elect. Heaven is above all and beyond all — GOD: God loved, God relished, God delighted in; in one word, it is to be satisfied with God without ever being satisfied!

The more a soul loves God on earth, the higher she advances in perfection, the more she will love and understand God in Heaven.

Jesus is the true joy upon earth and the eternal felicity of Heaven.

 
What a fun question! I think about heaven a lot. My “image” has changed over my lifetime. Nowadays I picture a beautiful field in the mountains where Jesus the Good Shepherd is tending his lambs. I like to imagine arriving there and Jesus handing me the baby we lost so I can hold him/her for the first time.
 
I have no idea what heaven will look like. But I know what we’ll be doing. We’ll be glorifying the Father through Jesus with the Holy Spirit supporting all creation.

Day & night, ceaselessly praying to Our God on behalf of all creation through men.

I believe that’s why we need to be like Him. Eternally, selflessly, humbly giving of ourselves.
 
Standing on a cloud with God on a throne and saints all around, and music.
 
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Dante and Beatrice beholding the Beatific Vision (image by Gustave Doré)
 
I picture it a couple different ways.

My first and unconscious image is the stereotype “fluffy cloud heaven” a la every cartoon ever 🙂

But when I’m thinking about it in a less superficial manner, get a sense of a happy and joyful crowd, and lots of love and lots of light. More of a feeling than a visual image.
 
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