To the soul in Heaven, the earth seems like a mere speck next to the vast unending horizons of eternity.

“There are ever new feasts which succeed each other without interruption,” said Sister O, our pseudonym for a nun who gave Church-approved revelations in the 19th century. “There is happiness, always new and such, it would seem, as has never been enjoyed. It is a torrent of joy which flows unceasingly over the elect. Heaven is above and beyond all — God: God loved, God relished, God delighted in.”

Beautiful are the many descriptions by mystics of the way Mary conducts souls to Heaven. It is said that they look like sparks of ascending radiance.

Mary is the Queen on Heaven and so we must implore her help in getting to that incredible place where sorrows are all forgotten, all anxiety disappears, all sadness is erased. Mystics have described incredible waterfalls and the sparkling gemlike buildings of an eternal city.

As one man who experienced death put it, “all of us are mysteriously connected to each other forever in a universe of such vast beauty that words cannot possibly describe it.”

There are those who recount the spectacular valleys, the gardens with flowers that seem to sway with celestial music, the living fountains and the symphony of sounds in a place where the sweetest conceivable music praises God.

In Heaven objects are real and yet unreal, ephemeral and yet more authentic than anything of the earth, filled with people whose love spills upon every new entrant and who seek in every way to help.

Life comes from the water and trees and gardens. Heaven is ornamented with the colors of jewels mined from the empyrean. If you can imagine a place filled with only the best friends you have ever had in your life, filled with those who had loved you sincerely and the most, those who wished you only the best, then multiply that many times and you have the essence of Heaven, which is the essence of love.

Love radiates. Love sings. Love permeates the atmosphere. Love is the atmosphere. Love is God and God is Heaven and those who are in Heaven are there because they have learned to shed their egos and to direct everything from the bottom of their souls to the cause of eternal love.

There’s no jealousy in Heaven. There is no wanting attention. There is no envy. Or ego. Or disobedience. There is no wishing ill upon others but instead a perfect congruence — a perfect harmony –and such an immaculate surrounding that anyone with so much as a speck would not want to enter the incredible Kingdom.

“I want each one of you to be happy here on earth and to be with me in Heaven,” said the Virgin of Medjugorje. "That is, dear children, the purpose of my coming here and it's my desire. Peace, peace, peace. Only peace. Make your peace with God an among yourselves. For that, it is necessary to believe, to pray, to fast, and to go to Confession. Whoever has done very much evil during his life can go to Heaven if he confesses, is sorry for what he has done, and receives Communion at the end of his life."

Let us also remember that love effaces a multitude of sins.

Above all, love.

It’s a small number who go directly to Heaven but they do so if they have been able to turn into perfect love, faith, and humility. They do so if they have been absolved of all sin. And that again raises the crucial topic of Confession: Invoking the Holy Spirit, we ask God in the name of Jesus to enlighten us as to how and what we should confess, so there is not a speck of unsightliness.

When we ask the Holy Spirit to come, He arrives to indicate the hidden corners of our souls and to show us what we in our spiritual blindness can’t or don’t want to see.

Come Holy Spirit! Come and enlighten our souls! Come and lead us to Heaven!

There is no more relevant prayer.

Every moment of on earth is a precious opportunity for attaining Heaven. Every moment is an opportunity for prayer and love.

It’s only when our very lives become a prayer that we have unity with Christ and only then do we have the sure route to paradise and its golden gates, its shining cities, its seraphic choirs.

Then and only then can we approach the fantastic light, the incredible and infinitely powerful light, the never-ending and never-fully-described Light that is the Vision of God.

[adapted from the book After Life]

[See also (back in stock): Secrets Of Purgatory]