If one were to die tonight, what then?
Death, Judgement, Heaven, and Hell says the Church.
Death
Judgement
Heaven
Hell
What do those Four Last Things mean to the modern mind?
Does the modern mind prefer not to look that far ahead?
What is the safest way through the cataract?
All Hallows Eve is coming, as is the end of the Church year. Times have changed since Hieronymus Bosch painted the above pictures. Eternity hasn’t.
Nobody likes deadlines, and this blog doesn’t have any, so all the post’s here are written without time pressure. However, we all have one unavoidable deadline.
I leave you with the words of an alumnus of Pembroke College, Oxford:
“Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”
Catholicism Pure & Simple 
Hell looks a lot more fun than Heaven. They’ve got a Platypus!
Did Dr. Johnson go to Pembroke?
Cole Porter once asked Noel Coward, (yes, Noel, not Neill, Burro, and I can’t do the two little dots, sorry)
“If you discovered I’d died during the night, what would you do?”
“Probably not feel much like breakfast,” said Coward,
“Be a bit peckish by lunchtime, though.”
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A genuinely scary Hallowe’en post, Burro! 😉
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It is good to be reminded of the Novissima. When I was young we were taught a prayer for a happy death. It was:
O God, who has doomed all men to die, but has concealed from all the hour of their death, grant that I may pass my days in the practice of holiness and justice, and that I might deserve to quit this world in the peace of a good conscience, and in the embraces of Thy love. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen,
Bit scary eh? It certainly was to me, but ensured I rarely missed Confession on a Saturday morning! (In those days we were encouraged to attend Confession weekly, in preparation for Holy Mass on Sundays!).
Many of these old prayers have all but disappeared in these post-conciliar times, and I can’t imagine todays children (who don’t learn their catechism) being taught what were, in those days, called ‘necessary prayers’.
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We’re all taking a processional walk up the hill to the cemetery tomorrow, so Toad ought to start being serious now(!).
But, I must confess it was the idea, put to us when I was about 12 – that finite beings could well expect, and indeed merit, infinite punishment – that first go me thinking.
Didn’t seem to fit the crime. Still doesn’t.
Apropos of Hell, Toad also recalls reading that some venerable old cleric, when asked what he knew about Hell, replied that he knew scarcely a thing, except that he was sure that it was a great deal more pleasant than being on earth.
After you with the Platypus!
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I’ve just had a chuckle over this post on Halloween (from Inside Catholic):
He goes on to say:
http://www.insidecatholic.com/feature/my-high-holy-day.html
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Good to be reminded of this vital doctrine, all to often neglected nowadays.
What about Purgatory though, which is where I believe most souls end up after Death and Judgement?
Still, I suppose Purgatory is only a transitional stage, a cleansing process, before going onto Heaven 🙂 . Some spend a long “time” there we are told….. although there is no “time” in the next world.
(Am I being influenced by Toad’s riddled way of expressing views ??)
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(Am I being influenced by Toad’s riddled way of expressing views ??)
Hope so, Kath. That’s the idea.
Alternative views. Stimulating. Even when erroneous.
(If I were to be in the States tonight, I would expect to see several innocents besmirched with Sara Palin and Rush Limbaugh masks. To be merely caparisoned as the Prince of Evil would constitute a positive plus, posits Toad. Well, he would, wouldn’t he?)
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