What happens immediately after death?

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BarbaraTherese

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This question has long fascinated me. I know that immediately after death is the particular judgement and we go either to Heaven, Hell or Purgatory.
What I would like to know is what The Church says about consciousness. Since we are separted from our body at death and are spirit, do we retain our consciousness of self and would we recognize other people in the same state as we are i.e. Heaven, Hell or Purgatory? I know that Christ will return, at which time we will be united with our bodies as glorified and General Judgement takes place - my question is what happens between times - between death and the re uniting with our bodies? I have done a search on the internet without any luck…links would be appreciated too providing they are authentic Catholic sites.

I dont have good imaginary powers at the best of times and I find it impossible actually to imagine myself without a body. This does not mean I question our belief, because I do not…simply that I cannot imagine my selfhood without a body. Hence it is my imagination that is impoverished, not my Faith.

I hope I am in the right forum and all responses will be very gratefully received and probably with heaps of questions from me.
This is the one subject (I think) that if it ever came up in conversation, I would not know what to respond.
If perchance I am a bit slow in responding to any posts, I am back at school which takes a large chunk of my time but not always.

Thank you in advance…Blessings - Barb:)
 
Very good question Barbara. I sure hope you get some response’s.
Thats a question I’ve had also.
 
davidcoit said:
Very good question Barbara. I sure hope you get some response’s.
Thats a question I’ve had also.
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Thank you for the response, David. I had a feeling that I would be the only one who had no understanding so as to inform my Faith and trust in life after death prior to Christ’s Return and General Judgement…the disembodied state:o :o :o …I hope I get some responses too. If I dont have any luck, I will try Apologetics…I’ll send you a PM if I decide to try Apologetics with a link to the thread if you would like to follow what does come up. I hope lots! I’ll give this thread a few days or so first. I feel so much better knowing I am not alone:thumbsup: It is the one question I dread should anyone ever ask me. Plus the fact that it does puzzle me personally.

Blessings - Barb:)
 
Peace Be With You Barbara…This afternoon after Church I’ll do a web search and see what comes up. I will,of course keep you informed of my results.
David
 
Hi, I do not know if you have ever heard of Maria Simma from Austria. She was a devout catholic seer who was(allegedly) allowed to see and hear the pleas of the poor souls in purgatory. she died in 2004. A compilation of interviews was done and was put into the book “Get us out of Here” which I assume you can get on amazon. I highly suggest this reading, It is very insightful and Maria had approval by her local bishop. The poor souls for 50 years would come to her and ask her to have their relatives or her have masses said for them. Here is an excerpt that I am sure could be helpful for your question.

What is the role of contrition or repentance at the moment of death?

Contrition is very important. The sins are forgiven, in any case, but there remains the consequences of sins. If one wishes to receive a full indulgence at the moment of death — that means going straight to Heaven — the soul has to be free from all attachment.

Maria, I would like to ask you: at the moment of death, is there a time in which the soul still has the chance to turn towards God, even after a sinful life, before entering into eternity — a time, if you like, between apparent death and real death?

Yes, yes! The Lord gives several minutes to each one in order to regret his sins and to decide: I accept, or I do not accept to go and see God. Then we see a film of our lives.

I knew a man who believed in the Church’s teachings, but not in eternal life. One day, he fell gravely ill and slid into a coma. He saw himself in a room with a board on which all his deeds were written, the good and the bad. Then the board disappeared as well as the walls of the room, and it was infinitely beautiful. Then he woke up from his coma, and decided to change his life.

Maria, does the devil have permission to attack us at the moment of death?

Yes, but man also has the grace to resist him, to push him away. So, if man does not want anything to do with him, the devil can do nothing.

Maria, what advice would you give to anyone who wants to become a saint here on earth?

Be very humble. We must not be occupied with ourselves. Pride is evil’s greatest trap.
 
BarbaraTherese said:
Thank you for the response, David. I had a feeling that I would be the only one who had no understanding so as to inform my Faith and trust in life after death prior to Christ’s Return and General Judgement…the disembodied state:o :o :o …I hope I get some responses too. If I dont have any luck, I will try Apologetics…I’ll send you a PM if I decide to try Apologetics with a link to the thread if you would like to follow what does come up. I hope lots! I’ll give this thread a few days or so first. I feel so much better knowing I am not alone:thumbsup: It is the one question I dread should anyone ever ask me. Plus the fact that it does puzzle me personally.

Blessings - Barb:)
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You are certainly not the only one who wants & needs questions like yours answered so I hope that David keeps us all informed. Will we recognize our loved ones who have gone before us? Will these loved ones know me? Will we even care about each other, or will our Joy in seeing our Creator be so great that all earthly relationships will be unimportant? I don’t have trouble dealing with the fact that “I” can exist when it’s only the essence of me…my soul…that lives. But, I have MANY questions about those I loved during my life & my relationship with them. I don’t like to think that they will be meaningless to me & I too them.

I, too, am intereseted in only responses which reflect the teachings of the one, holy, apostolic Church.
 
nmercier1 said:
Hi, I do not know if you have ever heard of Maria Simma from Austria. She was a devout catholic seer who was(allegedly) allowed to see and hear the pleas of the poor souls in purgatory. she died in 2004. A compilation of interviews was done and was put into the book “Get us out of Here” which I assume you can get on amazon. I highly suggest this reading, It is very insightful and Maria had approval by her local bishop. The poor souls for 50 years would come to her and ask her to have their relatives or her have masses said for them. Here is an excerpt that I am sure could be helpful for your question.

What is the role of contrition or repentance at the moment of death?

Contrition is very important. The sins are forgiven, in any case, but there remains the consequences of sins. If one wishes to receive a full indulgence at the moment of death — that means going straight to Heaven — the soul has to be free from all attachment.

Maria, I would like to ask you: at the moment of death, is there a time in which the soul still has the chance to turn towards God, even after a sinful life, before entering into eternity — a time, if you like, between apparent death and real death?

Yes, yes! The Lord gives several minutes to each one in order to regret his sins and to decide: I accept, or I do not accept to go and see God. Then we see a film of our lives.

I knew a man who believed in the Church’s teachings, but not in eternal life. One day, he fell gravely ill and slid into a coma. He saw himself in a room with a board on which all his deeds were written, the good and the bad. Then the board disappeared as well as the walls of the room, and it was infinitely beautiful. Then he woke up from his coma, and decided to change his life.

Maria, does the devil have permission to attack us at the moment of death?

Yes, but man also has the grace to resist him, to push him away. So, if man does not want anything to do with him, the devil can do nothing.

Maria, what advice would you give to anyone who wants to become a saint here on earth?

Be very humble. We must not be occupied with ourselves. Pride is evil’s greatest trap.
Click to expand...
Just google Maria Simma & you’ll get a lot of info on her.👍
 
hmmmm, I don’t know if that’s the answere to the question Barbara is asking.

“What I would like to know is what The Church says about consciousness. Since we are separted from our body at death and are spirit, do we retain our consciousness of self and would we recognize other people in the same state as we are i.e. Heaven, Hell or Purgatory? I know that Christ will return, at which time we will be united with our bodies as glorified and General Judgement takes place - my question is what happens between times - between death and the re uniting with our bodies?”
 
Sorry, David, I wasn’t promoting Maria Simma or her book, only that if someone was interested in seeing what she wrote.

I too, would like to know the answer to the OP’s and your question, but I am thinking no one will be able to answer it. 🤷
 
School today, so I will eagerly come back to this thread tonight. Thank you to all who have contributed. Blessings - barb:)
 
Like said:
Sorry, David, I wasn’t promoting Maria Simma or her book, only that if someone was interested in seeing what she wrote.

I too, would like to know the answer to the OP’s and your question, but I am thinking no one will be able to answer it. 🤷
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Hi Like…quite personally I am not drawn to personal revelations at all which of course does not mean others are not. Ireally am interested in what The Church has to say.🙂

It strikes me as very very strange if The Church cannot state what we can expect after death since she has stated that we are spirit…my question is, what can we expect of our spirits. Will we still have consciousness of ourselves and will we recognize others that are in the same state as us as spirits. In other words, having stated that we will be spirit - what can we expect of spirit? What exactly is the human spirit? Will we remain as individuals as now recognizing others…or what? We know an aweful lot about what to expect with the Return of Jesus and after…but what about the interim…will we be conscious of time passing or will the interim seem as a blink to us since we will be in eternity outside of time? And what does this say about the Souls in Purgatory - are they while being in eternity conscious of time passing etc. etc.? If we are told we will be spirit…then we need some understanding of what this means.:o …else why state “spirit” in the first place and simply say we do not know about the interim and we must take it on trust. I am just very curious of the definition of this ‘spirit’ state. I am not asking about salvation etc. and particular judgement.

I was hoping perhaps for more answers and perhaps some links. I’ll let things go for a few more days and then post my questions into the Apologetics Forum and hope for results there…I will return to this thread and give the link to my Opening Post in the Apologetics Forum.

Thanks heaps to those who have contributed…Blessings all…Barb:)
 
You know, the best answer I have ever seen to this is the “epic” poem by John Henry, Cardinal Newman. It is called “The Dream of Gerontius.”

It is about 11 pages of reading, but it is quite beautiful. While, it is not Catholic dogma per say, Cardinal John Newman is up for canonization.

It describes a dying man named Gerontius. He dies and his guardian angel comes to announce to his soul that he is saved. The rest of the poem centers around his angel leading him to his judgment. He encounters many of the different choirs of angels as well as demons. Although, he remarks, now that he is free from sin, he sees the demons temptations for what they really are - silly.

He is judged by God, and afterwards realizes how his sins effected the world and his own soul. He also realizes the gravity of which he has offended God. So, it almost ends in a sorrowful but joyful note as his angel places his soul in purgatory to be made pure as he awaits the day he may live with God.

Here is the full text. It takes about 30 minutes depending on your reading speed.

ccel.org/ccel/newman/gerontius/files/gerontius.html
 
Resurrexi said:
You know, the best answer I have ever seen to this is the “epic” poem by John Henry, Cardinal Newman. It is called “The Dream of Gerontius.”

It is about 11 pages of reading, but it is quite beautiful. While, it is not Catholic dogma per say, Cardinal John Newman is up for canonization.

It describes a dying man named Gerontius. He dies and his guardian angel comes to announce to his soul that he is saved. The rest of the poem centers around his angel leading him to his judgment. He encounters many of the different choirs of angels as well as demons. Although, he remarks, now that he is free from sin, he sees the demons temptations for what they really are - silly.

He is judged by God, and afterwards realizes how his sins effected the world and his own soul. He also realizes the gravity of which he has offended God. So, it almost ends in a sorrowful but joyful note as his angel places his soul in purgatory to be made pure as he awaits the day he may live with God.

Here is the full text. It takes about 30 minutes depending on your reading speed.

ccel.org/ccel/newman/gerontius/files/gerontius.html
Click to expand...
Thank you for this contribution…poem marked for reading.

Blessings - Barb:)
 
Thanks Barabar…Its going to be interesting to read the reply. I thought the “Dream of Gerontius” was a pretty good as dreams go. This is a question that should have generated a lot of interest since we all are going to be in that state sooner or later. I can’t believe that we are the only two people who have wondered about this.
 
davidcoit said:
Thanks Barabar…Its going to be interesting to read the reply. I thought the “Dream of Gerontius” was a pretty good as dreams go. This is a question that should have generated a lot of interest since we all are going to be in that state sooner or later. I can’t believe that we are the only two people who have wondered about this.
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In all probability, I am quite confident we are not the only two, David. Since death is the only reality we can be sure of, the rest as to future is hope, I am hoping that someone may know answers - the probability is there of course that it is unknown as to the details of what happens and we need take it on trust. But until one asks the questions and searches for answers one cannot know what is to be known or simply to rest in dark trust.
It has struck me too that if we are going to evangelize, then we need to have answers if possible in case the question is posed. To evangelize in one sense, we need to be as well informed on what we actually do believe as possible. And death and life after death is central almost to religion.

Blessings and regards…Barb:)
I haven’t got round to reading the poem as yet. School today…then four days off during which I probably will read it.
 
I was surfing the web today, looking for some
more CD’s and I came upon Steve Ray’s short story. The second part is in a WORD format so I hope it opens ok. This is his idea of what happens immediately after death.

blog.catholic-convert.com/?p=670

Definitely thought provoking.
 
Thank you for the link, Indyann. I have a couple of links to read up on too from the thread on this subject I started in the Apologetics Forum - go to:
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=3310348#post3310348

So I have heaps (for me:D ) of reading to do to discern if my questions are answered. It is important that any answers are underscored by Church Teaching as the understanding I am seeking is a Catholic theological understanding of the time between death and the Second Coming and what we can expect of it and as I said before in a previous post, it just may be that my questions cannot be answered as in theology details are not known and that this interim space after death needs to be a subject of dark trust…unknowing. Of waiting until we get there to find out.

Blessings and thank you for the (name removed by moderator)ut…regards…Barb:)
 
I will try to answer your question, acknowledging that I have had no near death experiences. I will try to answer from philosophy-theology only. The principal of life is the immortal rational soul. The soul never loosed consciousness because it is not subject to attributes of the body which is material. As such, being a rational, immortal principle of life, it is always aware of its circumstances. As such, it would know fully what is taking place once it is separated from the body. It is the soul that was created in the image of God, i.e., rational (God is omniscient) and immortal. I hope this helps.
Deacon Ed B
 
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