Last Things

Our lives are lived in the present. Of the past we can do nothing but repent, reflect, and learn, all of which take place in the present. Of the future we can do nothing but prepare, hope, and submit, all of which take place in the present. Our lives are lived in the present. But each of those moments of once-present time will one day be fixed, and their significance understood only in relation to the Last Things which, unlike the moments of our lives, do not merely reflect reality, but constitute reality itself.

You will surely die, and all will surely die.

Upon your certain death your soul will be particularly and perfectly judged, a judgment from which there is neither escape nor appeal.

Heaven is the realm of those made perfectly pure and holy, who enjoy the unspeakable happiness of the immediate presence of God, face-to-face.

Purgatory is the realm of the imperfect, judged to be without unrepented mortal sin, where by God's mercy the soul is made fit to see the Face of God.

Hell is the state or place of men and angels damned for Eternity, excluded forever from the immediate knowledge of God.