How do you feel? What do you do?
I know that several people very close to me will go to Hell and I’m not sure how I should feel or react.
Anybody else faced this situation?
What will be, will be. But there is much that we can do in the meantime. We must become holy. The holier we are, the better God will look with favor on all.
My suggestion to you is to research the prayers and devotions which have the promises or especial favor of God. The green scapular, the rosary, the brown scapular, the Fifteen Prayers of St. Bridget, for the holy souls, the Precious Blood, and further. I believe that many in my family will be saved because of these, and I should not neglect to spread them further afar.
Pray for the people, and pray for the people you love least as well as most.
Speak to them about God from the place they are in and take the small steps, step by step to show them the way. The more love and sacrifice you have to offer, the more you will be heard in Heaven.
‘But oh, I see that by speaking in this manner of all in general, I am missing my point. So let us apply this truth to various states, and you will understand that you must either throw away reason, experience and the common sense of the faithful, or confess that the greater number of Catholics is damned. Is there any state in the world more favorable to innocence in which salvation seems easier and of which people have a higher idea than that of priests, the lieutenants of God? At first glance, who would not think that most of them are not only good but even perfect; yet I am horror-struck when I hear Saint Jerome declaring that although the world is full of priests, barely one in a hundred is living in a manner in conformity with state; when I hear a servant of God attesting that he has learned by revelation that the number of priests who fall into hell each day is so great that it seemed impossible to him that there be any left on earth; when I hear Saint Chrysostom exclaiming with tears in his eyes, “I do not believe that many priests are saved; I believe the contrary, that the number of those who are damned is greater.”’
‘So then, I am speaking to you who live in the habit of mortal sin, in hatred, in the mire of the vice of impurity, and who are getting closer to hell each day. Stop, and turn around; it is Jesus who calls you and who, with His wounds, as with so many eloquent voices, cries to you, “My son, if you are damned, you have only yourself to blame: ‘Thy damnation comes from thee.’ Lift up your eyes and see all the graces with which I have enriched you to insure your eternal salvation.”’
St. Leonard of Port Maurice
‘The worthy priest is an angel of purity in mind and body, a cherub of light and knowledge, a seraph of love and Charity, an apostle of zeal in work and sanctity, a little god on earth in power and authority, in patience and benignity. He is the living image of Christ in this world, of Christ watching, praying, preaching, catechizing, working, weeping, going from town to town, from village to village, suffering, agonizing, sacrificing Himself and dying for the souls created to His image and likeness. . . He is the light of those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. He is the destroyer of error, schisms and heresies, the converter of sinners, the sanctifier of the just, the strength of the weak, the consolation of the afflicted, the treasure of the poor. He is the confusion of hell, the glory of heaven, the terror of demons, the joy of angels, the ruin of Satan’s kingdom, the establishment of Christ’s empire, the ornament of the Church. . .’
St. Jean Eudes
‘Get out of the filth of the horrible torrent of this world, the torrent of thorns that is whirling you into the abyss of eternal perdition. . . This torrent is the world, which resembles an impetuous torrent, full of garbage and evil odours, making a lot of noise but flowing swiftly passed, dragging the majority of men into the pit of perdition.’
St. Jean Eudes
‘If the devil tempts me by the thought of divine justice, I think of God’s mercy; if he tries to fill me with presumption by the thought of His mercy, I think of His justice.’
St. Ignatius of Loyola
What joy is it to the guardian angel to conduct a pure soul! My children, when a soul is pure, all Heaven looks upon it with love! Pure souls will form the circle round Our Lord. The more pure we have been on earth, the nearer we shall be to Him in Heaven. When the heart is pure, it cannot help loving, because it has found the source of love, which is God. “Happy,” says Our Lord, "are the pure in heart, because they shall see God!
My children, we cannot comprehend the power that a pure soul has over the good God. It is not he who does the will of God, it is God who does his will.’
St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars
Absolutely.
