What do we do in Heaven for eternity?

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We’ll find out what’s really in Area 51!
Okay, back to reality, we aren’t able to comprehend what heaven will be like. But we’ll be in paradise with Jesus and see the Face of God. I’m not worried about the rest.
 
Since time is immaterial in heaven, we just bask in the presence of Christ.
 
Prodigal1984 said:
what do we do for eternity in Heaven?
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Your question assumes that the laws of time and space as we know them will persist in heaven. They will not. We will enjoy the Beatific Vision, and time will not pass, and will not seem to pass.
 
In addition to all the above, perhaps walking with God as Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden. Enjoying God and all of His creation.
 
You seem to underestimate the Beatific Vision. To me, that alone is overwhelming enough. Anything else is a bonus.
 
stpurl said:
Since time is a temporal construct, and eternity is not, it will be most likely like an endless ‘now’.
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This is a very popular response amongst Catholics, that Heaven is akin to a frozen image.

I disagree with this for two reasons, one is that in so far we will be reunited to our physical bodies, there will be a progression of physical time again. At least in as much as this body will undergo successive motion. Secondly, in so far as we’d be without bodies in Heaven (until the Ressurection), we would not enjoy the same kind of timelessness that God does.

To God all temperal moments have the same relation to Him, but that is impossible for us, or for the angels, because if we had that property, we would be identical with God.

Rather, with St. Thomas Aquinas and the scholastic school, I believe in Heaven our spiritual state is brought to completion and doesn’t undergo any further change, even though we do move through successions of events.

Fr Garrigou Lagrange called this state aeviternity, to distinguish it from the perfect eternity of God.
 
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Prodigal1984 said:
We strive to go there. But besides seeing Christ face to face, the Beatific Vision, what do we do for eternity in Heaven? Do we have the pleasures we have on earth? Do we eat? (We must right? The supper of the Lamb?) Do we read? What do we do for eternity? I don’t want to say it could ever get boring but there must be activities we take part in. Is it sort of a utopia on earth where there is no death or pain etc?
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I think you’re selling God a little short here, and I think your idea of the Beatific Vision however childlike and sweet, could do with an update.

The Beatific Vision is not merely you getting to look at a special icon of Christ, or just His human face for all eternity.

The Beatific Vision is you beholding God’s Essence. What He Is. Experiencing that directly, in so far as the human mind can be made able to experience it. The experience would not be complete, because you could never contain it, and you would never be able to exhaust the experience either. It would be as sweet at the first moment of eternity, as ever, unchanging in quality or how much joy it brings you. The amount of joy it brings you, would only depend on your ability to recieve it, yet in so far as you have desire to experience it, you’d be experiencing it in full.

Its the reward given to all Christians, and its the same reward; God Himself.

Consider all the other things you mention in your post: Activities, reading, earthly utopia. I believe you’re thinking about these things because they bring you joy. They make you happy. There’s something good in them that you recognise.

But have you considered that anything that is good, whether its a the beauty of rain falling, the taste of a cookie, the love of a parent, or anything good, true and excellent that you’re probably thinking of… any of that, is good because God is good, and their goodness derives from His?

If you can recognise all these things as good. Imagine what it would be like to meet God who is the source of their goodness.

Whenever you recognise anything good in this world, no matter how slight, or hard to tell, you’re recognising God. And ultimately its God you’re seeking, even when you’re seeking after these other goods.

So what will we do for eternity? Be with the one we’ve been searching for all our lives.

I hope this helps.
 
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Self denial is good to discipline ourself to avoid sin. No need for that in heaven. There is nothing wrong with pleasure. Rightly ordered of course!
 
PatK63 said:
There is nothing wrong with pleasure.
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I thought it was wrong to spend your life seeking pleasure. I thought you were supposed to spend time doing charitable work and helping your neighbor who was less fortunate than you. So you say that heaven is one trip of unadulterated pleasure for yourself. It sounds like the glorification of selfishness. Isn’t it a mortal sin to be selfish and forget about everything else?
 
Prodigal1984 said:
But besides seeing Christ face to face, the Beatific Vision, what do we do for eternity in Heaven?
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God is Infinite, thus the angels and the saved are eternally discovering the Truth and Beauty of God. In the Book of Revelation, heavenly city shimmers like a precious light-filled gem, pulsing light.

At the resurrection at the end of the world, the saved soul will have a spiritualized body, like the glorified body of Jesus after His resurrection from the dead. Thus the Church through Sacred Scripture teaches that the glorified resurrected body will have the same four qualities of the resurrected body of Christ:
  1. Impassibility – no longer suffer physical sickness or death.
  2. Subtlety — the ability to transcend matter. Just as Christ’s glorified body was able to pass through closed doors.
  3. Agility – the glorified body will be agile; the ability to bilocate and travel great distances with the speed of thought.
  4. Clarity – the glorified body will be filled with beauty and radiance.
The Blessed Mother lived to be around 70 years old while on earth. After her assumption into heaven she inherited a glorified body. When the Virgin Mary appears on earth thousands of years later she is beautiful and shines like the sun.

In heaven there is no time like on earth. Thus nothing gets old and everything is always new.

Look up into the heavens at night. Think about the Kingdom of God. That will be the playground of those who make it out of this world and inherit the Kingdom of God. Thus with the speed of thought you will be able to be anywhere in God’s cosmos. The beautiful gardens and worlds of beauty in galaxies existing eons away from earth? No space suit or spaceship required.
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ProdglArchitect said:
I feel that there is a real reason we were created as we are, physical and able to interact with God’s creation. That capacity seems intrinsic to our natures, and if so it would continue to be true after the new creation.
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I believe it does, and it enhanced to the fullest degree. So, for example, when I walk and see the trees and feel the breeze, that the fullest of my experience now. But in heaven I’ll see the life force pulsing into the trees giving them color, shape and all their existence, and feel each wind current and what created it, and be “in touch” with everything on the walk, without having to make an effort.
 
Gab123 said:
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Prodigal1984:
But besides seeing Christ face to face, the Beatific Vision, what do we do for eternity in Heaven?
Click to expand...
God is Infinite, thus the angels and the saved are eternally discovering the Truth and Beauty of God. In the Book of Revelation, heavenly city shimmers like a precious light-filled gem, pulsing light.

At the resurrection at the end of the world, the saved soul will have a spiritualized body, like the glorified body of Jesus after His resurrection from the dead. Thus the Church through Sacred Scripture teaches that the glorified resurrected body will have the same four qualities of the resurrected body of Christ:
  1. Impassibility – no longer suffer physical sickness or death.
  2. Subtlety — the ability to transcend matter. Just as Christ’s glorified body was able to pass through closed doors.
  3. Agility – the glorified body will be agile; the ability to bilocate and travel great distances with the speed of thought.
  4. Clarity – the glorified body will be filled with beauty and radiance.
The Blessed Mother lived to be around 70 years old while on earth. After her assumption into heaven she inherited a glorified body. When the Virgin Mary appears on earth thousands of years later she is beautiful and shines like the sun.

In heaven there is no time like on earth. Thus nothing gets old and everything is always new.

Look up into the heavens at night. Think about the Kingdom of God. That will be the playground of those who make it out of this world and inherit the Kingdom of God. Thus with the speed of thought you will be able to be anywhere in God’s cosmos. The beautiful gardens and worlds of beauty in galaxies existing eons away from earth? No space suit or spaceship required.
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
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This is my idea of Heaven as well. Just being able to experience God’s creation, while also experiencing the fullness of God’s presence.

I personally hope we’re able to build as well. Not because we need to, but because we enjoy it. (I’m thinking in the Minecraft sense here, not a creation sense.)
 
AlNg said:
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PatK63:
There is nothing wrong with pleasure.
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I thought it was wrong to spend your life seeking pleasure. I thought you were supposed to spend time doing charitable work and helping your neighbor who was less fortunate than you. So you say that heaven is one trip of unadulterated pleasure for yourself. It sounds like the glorification of selfishness. Isn’t it a mortal sin to be selfish and forget about everything else?
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You’re conflating positive and negative pleasures.

It is a positive pleasure for me to enjoy a well crafted meal. It is a negative pleasure for me to eat until I’m sick simply for the sake of eating, or to …forcibly remove… what I’ve eaten so I can continue to eat.

It is a positive pleasure for me to engage physically and emotionally with my wife. It is a negative pleasure for a person to fornicate for the sake of physical gratification. (or for me to engage with my wife only for physical gratification, for that matter)

It is a positive pleasure for me to sit on a beach or mountaintop and soak in the majesty and scope of creation. It is a negative pleasure for me to ignore my duties in life in order to live as a beach bum.

Pleasure is a good thing, given by God for our enjoyment. We fallen people just have a tendency to take the pleasure too far and engage in it for its own sake, rather than for the glory of God. Heaven will be full of all the positive pleasures, as they are gifts form God. Granted, they will probably be a different order of pleasures than what we experience here on Earth, but they will be pleasures none-the-less.
 
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I would like the angels of Heaven to be among us.
I would like an abundance of peace.
I would like full vessels of charity.
I would like rich treasures of mercy.
I would like cheerfulness to preside over all.
I would like Jesus to be present.
I would like the three Marys of illustrious renown to be with us.
I would like the friends of Heaven to be gathered around us from all parts.
I would like myself to be a rent payer to the Lord; that I should suffer distress, that he would bestow a good blessing upon me.
I would like a great lake of beer for the King of Kings.
I would like to be watching Heaven’s family drinking it through all Eternity.
  • Prayer traditionally attributed to St. Brigit, as quoted in Prayers of the Saints: An Inspired Collection of Holy Wisdom (1996), by Woodeene Koenig-Bricker, p. 77
 
As far as I can tell the most succinct answer is, Divine Union with God.
Over centuries mystics have offered their experiences which are very personal in nature. Some are very intimate.
 
Virtue and self-discipline will engage in properly-ordered pleasures, because doing so is itself virtuous.

Yes, there is something to be said for sacrificing pleasures, even righteous ones, and doing so is definitely meritorious. However, God created those pleasures because it is good for us to indulge in them when that indulgence is rightly ordered. If all you do in your life is seek out pleasure, then that pleasure is not rightly ordered.

In Heaven, we will not be seeking out pleasures in the same sense, but rather our existence will be pleasurable in and of itself. We will be experiencing the true reason for our existence, unfettered by sin and separation. That will exceed any and all pleasures of this life.
 
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