THE FOUR PRINCIPAL TORMENTS OF THE DAMNED

Ever increasing is the number of people in today's society who do not believe in the existence of hell. A reality commonly defined by secular society as a place where only the worst of the worse end up; the Adolph Hitlers and Osama Bin Laden's. After all, they may argue, since God is all good how can He throw most of us in hell? The majority of us are decent people, right? Beside this, modern relativism will have you convinced that "if" hell exists (or better yet if you believe hell exists) one would need to be a cold blooded killer or an absolutely horrific person to end up there. Nevertheless, this is all only if hell exists!? Time and again even certain theologians attempt to redefine or explain away the existence of hell calling it symbolic of a deeper truth or a metaphor explaining another truth of Christs teachings. The fact is, I believe, the idea of the existence of hell and the knowledge that some of us will end up there for eternity is too much for some minds to except. It is too great a torment, not possible for an all loving God. It is, however, a mandatory tenant of our Catholic Christian faith which all Catholic need to believe in order to be rightfully called a Catholic.

Oh' how masterfully our adversary has deceived us! We can go on-and-on about the lies that society believes about the existence of hell, what hell will be like and who goes there. Just like relativism we can make hell to be whatever we want. And although Satan gets an A+ for effort and effectiveness he still breathes lies and we're the ones deemed too stupid to know the difference! I will, therefore, set down at length the Church approved revealed explanation of the reality of hell as given to St. Catherine of Siena by God the Father in her writings entitled, "The Dialogue." Teachings which are in no way contrary to Divine Revelation and only serve to shed more light onto it's reality.

First we must define hell itself. The Original Catholic Encyclopedia defines hell as, "a place where all those who die in personal or mortal sin, as enemies of God, and unworthy of eternal life, will be punished by God after death." (Original Catholic Encyclopedia: Page 207) You can take the time to read the entire encyclopedia entry to find out more specifics as to the origin of its name, it's existence based on Divine Revelation and the more theological aspects of hell. I will only be treating here of the specific teachings God the Father gave to St. Catherine of Siena as to the realities of hell.

THE FOUR PRINCIPAL TORMENTS OF THE DAMNED, FROM WHICH FOLLOWS ALL OTHERS

There are three principal vices (sins which humans can be enslaved to) which destroys a soul and if left un- repented leads them in hell. These determines the extremity of their torments in hell. They are as follows...

1) SELF LOVE, from which proceeds the second vice,
2) LOVE OF REPUTATION, from which proceeds the third vice,
3) PRIDE, and from pride all other sins come; especially injustice and cruelty.

These vices determine the torments one will experience in hell which God told St., Catherine "the tongue is not [even] sufficient to narrate."

1. The damned see themselves depraved of the vision of God. 
     - God explains that this is such a pain to the damned that, if it were possible, they would rather choose fire, the other tortures and torments and to be able to see Him than be able to go without the fire, the tortures and torments and not see Him.

2. The Worm of Conscience.
     - It is from not being able to see God that the damned are tormented by the worm of their own consciences. It gnaws at them unceasingly. This is what Jesus meant when He referred to the "weeping and gnashing of teeth." To make the torments worse is that in this state the reality that the damned can see the conversation of the fallen angels through the eyes of their sins and understand that there is absolutely no redemptive hope for them.

3. The vision of the devil.
     - The mere sight of the devil to the souls in hell redoubles their every toil. As the Saints rejoice at the sight of God in heaven, refreshing themselves in joyousness in the fruit of their toil borne for God with such abundance of love, and all displeasure of themselves, so does the sight of the devil revive these wretched ones to torments. This is because in seeing the devil they know themselves more. In other words, they know their own sin and have made themselves worthy of it.

This torment increases the worm of conscience more and more and the fire of conscience never ceases to burn. The sight of the devil, moreover, is more painful to them because they see him in his own form, which is so horrible that the heart of man could not imagine it. Of this, St. Catherine herself was abler to catch a sheer glimpse of Satan once and exclaimed that she would rather walk along a road of hot coals until the day of Judgement that to see him again!

Even with all of this described, God told St. Catherine, we don't even know at all how horrible the devil is. It is because of Gods Divine justice that the devil appears more horrible to the soul that is depraved of Him, more or less according to the gravity of their sins.

4. The fire.
     - This fire burns but does not consume because the soul cannot be consumed.  God, once again in His Divine justice, allows this fire to burn them without consuming them in many diverse ways according to the gravity of their faults.

Out of these four torments issue all others, such as cold and heat and the outer darkness.

Now because they did not amend themselves after the first reproof that they had of injustice and false judgement, neither in the second, which was that, in death, they did not hope in God, nor greive for the offense done to Him, but only for their own pain, have they thus miserably received eternal punishment.

These torments mark only the beginning of what is in store for the damned. I have just listed the basics here. This doesn't even include the General Judgement at the end of time and the other reproofs which God has made coinciding with this.This does not include the emotions experiences by the damned and how they are literally frozen in themselves through utter hatred.

My dear brothers and sisters and all who read this. Understand that hell is absolutely real. It will not be a place to party with your friends or a place finally rid of God in order to pursue whatever you want. If not taken seriously now it will be too late once you die. This in itself is a torment of hell! God is so merciful and desires none of His creatures goes to hell. Hell was created specifically for the fallen angels and not us!

Perhaps of the severity of this blog my next blog will describe the unspeakable glory of the blessed in heaven!!!

- Paul A. Ray

Copyright 2011 Armor of God

Taken from, "The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena. Dictated by her, while in the state of ecstacy, to her secretaries, and completed in the year of Our Lord 1370" Published by TAN CLASSIC BOOKS 1997

Get the Devil Out of the Confessional! A Brief Guide to Noticing the Demonic in Conscience and Confession

     Of all the ammunition we have at our disposal as Catholics against the wiles of the enemy, it is the Sacrament of Confession which Satan loathes the most. Far too often we see this Sacrament for one thing only; the cleansing of our souls from the ugly stain of sin. This it does, but the Sacrament of Reconciliation goes beyond just the forgiveness of our sins. In this blog we will discuss why this is the greatest weapon in spiritual warfare and what to look out for when it comes to recognizing the devils influence in regards this Most Holy Sacrament instituted by Jesus Christ.

It is of the utmost importance that we first know ourselves before entering into the dynamics of the devil and it's full impact when it comes to confession. It is far easier to see the tactics he uses to prevent us from receiving absolution when we understand, first, how we personally relate to divine truth and how we execute it's reality in our lives. The devil knows the power we receive through this Sacrament and he stops at nothing to prevent us from receiving it. This is mostly achieved by mental withdraw and spiritual laxity. Satan will try to dull our understanding of the grace we actually receive in the Sacrament of Penance by convincing us that confession really isn't necessary. He does this in many unique ways.

1) Whatever sin we've committed, venial or mortal, he enters in dialog with us and he tries to convince us that what we've done really isn't displeasing to God. After all, he may argue, God knows we're trying. Yet, to know the full ramifications of what sin actually is flies in the face of this argument. Any sin, even venial sin, is abhorrent to God. Venial sin doesn't kill us as mortal sin does but if left unchecked we walk on thin ice for the future state of our soul. It must not be taken lightly.

2) Satan will attempt to instill us with fear to prevent us from going to confession. This is the most common tactic he uses and, to be honest, it is the most successful. Perhaps the fear of having to tell another person your faults and being ashamed to think of what that person might think of you. It is very important to always keep in mind that the confessor is sitting in the person of Jesus Christ. In reality it is Christ Himself who hears your confession through the priest. It could be the fear of merely having to disclose something that no one else in the world knows about except you and God; and hopefully your confessor. Satan will tell you, "The priest is never going to look at you the same again." or "You can keep that sin just between you and God; He'll understand." Sound familiar?

3) The devil will oftentimes make excuses as to why you ought to postpone going to confession. He might say, "You're not ready yet. You still need time to think things overor "Maybe what you did really isn't sinful after all. It wasn't that bad." His trick in playing this game is to keep you postponing and postponing confession in and hopes that you eventually lose interest. Worse yet, he convinces you that confession itself, as a Sacrament is unnecessary.

4) What's more is Satan will try to convince us to to keep secret certain sins from the confessional for various reasons. Whatever the case may be it is a mortal sin in itself to withhold any sin willfully during confession. St. Padre Pio had the gift of reading the sins of people and who is to say that your confessor doesn't have this same gift? Nevertheless,if this thought comes to mind you'll know where it came from.

Satan is not limited to these examples alone in keeping us from the confessional. To exhaust every effort he takes would take volumes because he is very personal with us as individuals. These examples do give us a picture of the foundation of his assaults; so when he is made known we are able to take the proper precautions in order to expose and destroy any hope he has at separating us from our Father in heaven.

Wherever we receive sacramental absolution we are basically rendered untouchable. There is nothing the devil can do to harm us except by means of our own willingness to cooperate with him and commit sin. This is why he does all within his power to prevent us from going. Take one look at Jesus crucified and you'll see the ugliness of sin. I firmly believe that if anyone of us were allowed just one minute in hell to witness and suffer with the damned we would strive to live our lives here on earth with the most fervent effort to avoid sin.

It's important to note that the forgiveness of our sins isn't usually accompanied by a grand feeling of weightlessness and joy. Sometimes it is, and that is a grace, but most often it is not. Satan will sometimes take this lack of enthusiasm and deceive you into believing that you weren't actually forgiven. We have all been through this before despite knowing (at least intellectually) full well that we have received sacramental absolution. Rest assured that almighty God, in His unfathomable mercy, has forgiven us. We like to think of this as God's way of keeping us free of becoming attached to a feeling rather than on Him, our sovereign Lord, who alone deserves our love.

We ought to run to confession without fear. Being pleasing to God is all that matters in life. We know He is merciful and if we come to Him with a heart contrite we know that He will not deny us forgiveness and His grace. Sometimes it takes real humility to go to confession; and rightfully so. But to be pleasing to God ought to be the first thing we desire to do. Do not think thing of what the priest might think of you. Think, rather, of what God thinks of you. He alone can throw you into hell. Not only this but having a good confessor or someone to help you during tough times and in temptations helps to keep you from sinning and thus offending God. We are certainly blessed to have this sacrament at our disposal. We need to learn to take advantage of it and use it to our own sanctification.

+ARMOR OF GOD+

Copyright 2012 Armor of God

Subtle Aggresion: The Burning Process

     We continue in our study on the activity of the demonic in our lives by bringing our attention to one of the most distributing facets of spiritual warfare. A method by which our enemy of the faith brings to bear that touches upon our vulnerabilities as being weakened finite individuals. We are referring to what we term, "The Burning Process." This is where we are slowly being tempered in division and restlessness; where what starts out seemingly harmless becomes a playground for the devil and his demons to dwell and to create torments unnecessary.

     A common mistake often made by faithful Christians is when they do not heed what St. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:5 and, "take every thought captive to obey Christ." To take a thought captive is significant. A thought has four different ways of entering our mind.

1. Through the influence of the world.This represents such things as the favor of others, friends, reputation, importance, wealth, delights, and comforts.

2. Through the impulses (or passions/concupiscence) of the flesh.The flesh is the most tenacious in this group and represents the sensory appetites (delight as brought forth by our senses) and natural affections that war against the spirit. 

3. Through the influence of the devil. Since the devil is a spiritual being his affects are more cunning and deceitful. He works hand-in-hand with the world and the flesh in order to bring about sin.

4. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This involves anything in union with divine truth as revealed to us by God through His Church. Inspiration of the Holy Spirit can take many different forms. Through natural or supernatural means, sensory or spiritual.

Since, therefore, as St. Paul tells us our everyday battles are fought against, "the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness and with the evil spirits in the heavens," (Ephesians 6:12) we must understand that all of our thoughts, large and small, stem from one of these areas; the world, the flesh and the devil. The world to use us to loose focus on hope, the flesh to lose focus on love and the devil to lose focus on faith. All three of these virtues are mandatory in our own spiritual development. If we lose one of them we essentially lose them all.

      What the devil does here is very tricky. Not only is he knowledgeable when it comes to our weaknesses but his intellect far surpasses ours that when he decides to engage us in seemingly reasonable dialog (usually without our even knowing it is him) we are easily led astray because we cannot differentiate between the will of God and our own inclinations; in which we may even be deceived into thinking is the very will of God. Allow us to give you an example. We know that it is the will of God that we receive the Holy Eucharist in a state of grace or else we will commit sacrilege. If Sunday comes along and we consciously know we've committed a mortal sin and a thought comes to mind such as, "Well, God understands my situation" or "God is merciful; He won't mind" we can rest assured that, even though these thoughts may appear reasonable and actual do represent a true characteristic of God (for He does understand our situation and He is merciful), we know that it really is not the particular will of God. Revealed truth shows us that this tenant of our faith is how Christ established it from the very beginning.

     If we do not take every thought captive, as St. Paul says, we are liable to be led away from Christ without our even knowing it. What Satan does is distract our attention away from the things of God in order to create situations where we end up having to rely on our own knowledge (our own will). These things Satan uses, at first, seem harmless or innocent. To the untrained mind they appear reasonable and perhaps just. However, little-by-little like a bucket with a small leak in it, the water (the grace we need from God) slowly trickles out. More times then not by the time we realize it the damage has been done and the means to repair it will cost us a great deal.Take, for example, the episode in the Holy Gospel where Pilates wife had a dream about not condemning Christ. (Matthew 27:19) This, at face value, seems right and reasonable. It seems like a just thing to do. And rightfully so, Christ actually was innocent. The problem, however, was that Satan was using something seemingly good to create an evil. What was the evil? To try to get Pilates wife to convince Pilate not to condemn Christ. It was God the Fathers will that His Son be condemned and put to death.  That's the way in which He saw fit to bring about the redemption of humanity. Satan knew this but Pilates wife did not. Satan is very creative and deceitful, make no mistake. Unless we are in tune with the will of the Father, as Christ was, we would be more apt to fall into his deceitful suggestions.

     The Burning Process begins with a suggestion or thought. We must always learn to bring these thoughts and suggestions captive to the will of God as St. Paul tells us to. He tells us not "some" thoughts or "bad" thoughts alone but every thought. Sometimes the "right" thing to do isn't really the right thing to do. As odd as that sounds it is true that God is specific when it comes to His holy will. Yes, sometimes we have to suffer because of it but at the same time God rewards us with an even greater gift if we patiently endure. This is where authentic freedom is found. It's liberating knowing that not only are you being pleasing to God but He paves the way for you and therefore we not worry. All we have to do is simply love Him in simplicity and keep our hearts in tune with His. The victory over Satan has already been won but the battle is still raging.

"Brethren, be sober, be watchful. For our adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, goers about seeking someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith!" (1 Peter 5:8-9)

Copyright 2012 A New Voice for Broken Souls