Posted on 04/07/2014 4:43:01 AM PDT by markomalley
Have you ever wondered what Heaven is like? I have. I mean, we talk about it all the time, but when we get down to it, we don’t know that much about it. We do know that we will behold God face to face there, and we also know that we will find the fulfillment of all our deepest longings there. But we don’t know nearly as much as we would like.
Part of the reason for this may be that it is simply too wonderful for us to understand. St. Paul, who was actually taken up into heaven, had to confess that what he saw was beyond description. “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man what things God has prepared for those who love him,” he said in awe of what he witnessed.
Other saints and mystics who have seen our eternal home have confirmed the apostle’s words, assuring us that heaven is joyful beyond words, and that we should desire it more than any earthly treasure.
Despite our ignorance of the true nature of heaven, however, we have the ability to experience a small foretaste of its joys here on earth. One of my favorite saints, St. Maximilian Kolbe, explains how we can have this experience. Here is the saint in his own words (I have added numbering for ease of reading).
In any case, those who on this hearth have had a chance to taste in advance a little bit of heaven can get some idea of what it will be like. Now everyone can have this experience. All he needs to do is:
1) Go to confession with sincerity, diligence, a deep sorrow for his sins and a firm resolve to amend his life. He will suddenly feel a peace and happiness compared with which all the fleeting, unworthy pleasures of this world are really an odious torment.
2) Let everyone seek to come and receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist with proper preparation.
3) Let him never permit his soul to remain in sin, but let him purify it immediately.
4) Let him do his duty manfully.
5) Let him address humble and frequent prayers to God’s throne, especially through the hands of the Immaculate Virgin.
6) Let him welcome his brethren with a charitable heart, bearing for God’s sake the sufferings and difficulties of life.
7) Let him do good to all, even his enemies, solely for the love of God and not in order to be praised or even thanked by men.
Then he will come to understand what it means to have a foretaste of paradise; and perhaps more than once he will find peace and joy even in poverty, suffering, disgrace, or illness.
In a very real sense, eternal life starts now. Both heaven and hell are simply confirmations of how we have chosen to live in this life. If we choose the way of selfishness, pride, greed, lust, and everything that is not God, we will quickly have a very real idea of the misery of hell. But if we instead choose the way of holiness, self-denial, forgiveness, and love of God and neighbor, we will find such peace and joy that it will be a real foretaste of heaven.
Perhaps you think you have lived too sinfully to have this experience of heaven—but that is simply not true. It is never too late to turn back to God. Repent with a sincere heart, confess your sins, and return to your heavenly Father who loves you and who is waiting to embrace you. Then you, too, can know the peace that passes all understanding.
Let everyone seek to come and receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist with proper preparation.
How to have Heaven LATER...
Micah 6:8He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
John 6:28-29
Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."
1 John 3:21-23
Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.
And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
James 1:27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Indeed we do!
We MORE than remember; we KNOW that the 'this' spoken of was the YEARLY Passover meal.
And we KNOW that the 'church' has turned it into something that neither the disciples or Jesus would recognize today.
Luke 22:8
Jesus sent Peter and John ahead and said, "Go and prepare the Passover meal, so we can eat it together."
Oh??
It’s in the initial post...
It’s in the initial post...
seventh sentence...
The 'commandment' was already in place for a few centuries; was it not??
7 “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. 17 And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. 18 In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”
21 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. 23 For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. 24 You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. 25 And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. 26 And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 27 you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.
28 Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
The discussion here is about Holy Eucharist.
Agreed.
"Poverty, suffering, disgrace, and illness" are allowed in Heaven?
Maximillian Kolbe, Apostle of Mary [Catholic Caucus]
Saint Maximilian Kolbe's 'Secret' Weapon (Catholic Caucus)
[Father Maximillian Mary] Kolbe, Saint of Auschwitz
The Crusade of Mary Immaculate - St. Maximilian Kolbe (Catholic Caucus)
Poland: Auschwitz martyr Kolbe remembered
The Man Who Stepped Out of Line (St. Maximilian Kolbe and Christian Masculinity)
St. Maximilian Kolbe VOLUNTEERED To Be Starved To Death; Terri Schiavo Did NOT
St Maximilian Kolbe-Priest, Martyr, Saint
August 14 - Memorial, St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe
Blessed[Saint]Maximilian Kolbe-Priest Hero Of A Death
No, and neither for the subject of the sentence "he will find peace and joy even in poverty, suffering, disgrace, or illness." I think that's sort of the point. :)
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