Hell, Hells

From Wiki Maria Valtorta

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Depiction of Hell - Vladimer Shioshvili

Hell is the place where humans condemned are imprisoned for eternity. Inside are also the Souls of the rebellious Angels who refused to serve God, chose Satan as their master, and became demons. The term "hells" sometimes also refers more broadly to the abode of the dead, including The Limbo.

In "The Gospel as It Was Revealed to Me"

Eternal Fire

  • "Hell is too horrible!" - The demons of the possessed of Gerasa.[1]
  • Parable of the rich man and the poor Lazarus - Heaven and Hell.[2] and [3]
  • There, in this eternal kingdom, without centuries, without end, without limit of cunning and wickedness, where one seeks to harm God and men.[4]
  • Those who have not had love but saltiness, not sacrifice but softness, will be driven away far off, relegated where weeping is eternal and where there is only terror. And those who will be resurrected glorious, coming from the east and the west, the north and the south, will gather at the bridal table of the Lamb, the King of the Kingdom of God.[5]
  • Oh! How much I could still suffer! I don’t know what to say... Hell is terrible! It is only horror... and one cannot say what it is..." The man trembles at the rudimentary memory of his sufferings as a possessed.[6]
  • At the end of the world, out of the four abodes of the departed (ed. note: Paradise, purgatory, limbo, hell) only two will remain: namely Paradise and Hell.[7]
  • Do you not fear the Darkness of hell, eternal, horrible? The continual deprivation of God? The continual remorse? The pain of having killed yourself forever, in your spirit?[8]

Abode of the Dead

  • "He descended into hell" (here The Limbo).[9]
  • Heaven is closed, and it will only be opened by the Redeemer. But His hour has come.[10]

In other works of Maria Valtorta

The Notebooks of 1944

  • Catechesis of January 15, 1944 [11]: Men of today no longer believe in the existence of hell. They have constructed an afterlife to their liking and such as to be less terrifying for their Conscience, who deserves God's punishments. More or less faithful disciples of the Spirit of Evil, they know well that their Conscience would recoil before some evils if they really believed in hell as faith teaches. They know that their Conscience, once their misdeed committed, would turn back on itself and find repentance in remorse or in fear and, thanks to repentance, the way back to me...

In fundamental Christian texts

In the Bible

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church

  • "Jesus Christ descended into hell, rose again on the third day" (§ 631 et seq.)
  • The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. The Souls of those who die in the state of mortal sin descend immediately after death into hell, where they suffer the pains of hell, "the Eternal Fire" – God does not predestine anyone to go to hell; it requires a voluntary hatred of God (a mortal sin), and persistence until the end. (§ 1033 to 1037)

In other sources

Saint Sister Faustina (Helena Kowalska)

§ 740 "Today, an Angel led me into the abyss of Hell. It is a place of great torments. And its extent is terribly large. Types of sufferings that I saw:
  • The first suffering that makes hell, is the loss of God.
  • The second: the perpetual remorse of Conscience.
  • The third: the fate of the damned will never change.
  • The fourth: it is the Fire that penetrates the Soul without destroying it. It is a terrible suffering because it is a purely spiritual Fire, lit by the wrath of God.
  • The fifth suffering is continual Darkness, a terrible, suffocating odor. And despite the Darkness, the demons and the damned Souls mutually see each other and see all the evil of others and their own.
  • The sixth suffering is the continual company of Satan.
  • The seventh suffering: a terrible despair, the hatred of God, the curses, the blasphemies.

These are sufferings that all the damned suffer together, but it is not the end of the sufferings. There are sufferings destined for Souls in particular: these are the sufferings of the senses. Every Soul is tormented in a terrible way according to its sins. There are terrible pits, abysses of tortures where each torment differs from the other. I would have died at the sight of these terrible sufferings if the Almighty God had not sustained me!

Let every sinner know that he will be tortured throughout eternity by the senses he used to sin!

I write this by order of God so that no Soul can excuse itself by saying that there is no hell, or that no one has been there and knows what it is. I, Sister Faustina, by order of God, entered the abyss of hell to speak of it to the Souls and testify that hell exists. I cannot speak of it now. I have the order of God to leave it in writing. The demons felt great hatred towards me. But the order of God obliged them to obey me. What I wrote is a faint reflection of what I saw. One thing I noticed is that there were many Souls who doubted that hell existed. When I came back to myself, I could not calm my terror at what the Souls suffer there so terribly. Thus, I pray even more fervently for the salvation of sinners. Constantly I call down the divine mercy on them. Oh my Jesus, I prefer to agonize until the end of the world in the greatest suffering than to offend You by the slightest sin!"

Saint Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church

All that can be heard about hell, what I had read or learned in my own meditations, although I have quite rarely delved deep into this subject, the path of fear not fitting my Soul, all that books tell us of the tortures and various sufferings that the demons inflict on the damned, all that is nothing compared to the pain, of a completely different kind, that I spoke about; there is between one and the other the same difference as between a lifeless portrait and a living person; and to burn in this world is very little compared to the Fire in which one burns in the other...

Saint Frances of Rome (1384-1440)

On the place of hell, its prince, the entrance of Souls into this place of horror, and the pains common to them: One day, when the servant of God was very ill, she locked herself in her cell to devote herself freely to the practice of contemplation, where she found her Consolation and all her delights. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon: she was immediately taken up in Ecstasy, and the archangel Raphael, whom she did not see then, came to take her and led her to the vision of hell. Upon arrival at the door of this frightful kingdom, she read these words written in letters of Fire: "This place is hell, where there is neither rest, nor Consolation, nor hope." This door being opened, she looked and saw an abyss so deep and terrifying that since then she could not speak of it without her blood freezing with fright.

Marian Apparitions of Fatima

  • Friday, July 13, 1917 – Vision of Hell
The Virgin opened her hands. The reflection of the light that came out seemed to penetrate the earth. The children then saw like an ocean of Fire, where demons and the Souls of the damned were immersed. They looked like transparent embers, black or nearly so, having human shapes. They floated in this ocean of smoke. The cries and moans of pain and despair horrified and were frightening!

The demons were distinguished from the Souls of the damned by horrible and repugnant forms of frightening and unknown animals, but transparent like black burning coals.

Our Lady added: "When you say the rosary, say after each Mystery: 'Oh my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell, draw all souls to Heaven, especially those who most need it.'"

Marian Apparitions of Medjugorje

  • November 6, 1981 Some seers (including Marija) had a terrible vision of hell. "Do not be afraid. I have shown you hell so that you know the state of those who are there."
  • Message of July 25, 1982' :"Today, many people go to hell. God allows His children to suffer in hell because they have committed grave, unforgivable sins."
  • The Holy Virgin explains that men who have committed particularly ignoble and cruel acts already live on earth a hell they have created themselves. After their death, these beings only continue to live in hell. They go to hell because they choose it at the moment of death and refuse another way. Mirjana was shocked by these words and said to Mary that God was "too [[Intransigence, hardness|harsh]", the Virgin replied: "First look at how far evil can go among men. Then you will no longer say that God is harsh!"
  • On the same subject at a later date (uncertain date): "Those who are in hell want to stay there and have no desire to come out. Those who do evil already live in hell on earth; they only continue their hell in the hereafter."
  • Message of Monday, January 10, 1983 : "Men who go to hell no longer want to receive any Good from God, they do not repent, they constantly swear and blaspheme; they choose to live in hell and absolutely do not want to leave […] Most men go to purgatory, many go to hell; a few go directly to Heaven"

Notes and references

  1. ↑ EMV 186
  2. ↑ Luke 16:19-31
  3. ↑ EMV 191
  4. ↑ EMV 269
  5. ↑ EMV 363
  6. ↑ EMV 421
  7. ↑ EMV 444
  8. ↑ EMV 458
  9. ↑ EMV 194
  10. ↑ EMV 534
  11. ↑ Catechesis of January 15, 1944
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