Heaven Archives

IP#478 Sr. Mary Ann Fatula, O.P. – Drawing Close to the Holy Spirit on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor Podcast

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What a delight to talk once again to Sr. Mary Ann Fatula O.P. this time about Drawing Close to the Holy Spirit: Keys to a Transformed Life and Joy Heart! She provides us with a road map for the spiritual journey that takes us to the heart of the Holy Trinity led by the person of Love, the Holy Spirit. Highly recommended!

You can find this book here

From the book description:

Regardless of our past, or the trials afflicting us now or those we may face in the future, when we draw near to the Holy Spirit, our lives change for the better. Closeness with the Holy Spirit is the “secret” of holiness and happiness.

In this short yet penetrating work, Sr. Mary Ann Fatula reflects on how tenderly and powerfully the Holy Spirit offers us the precious gift of intimacy with Himself. Through the graces of our Baptism and Confirmation, the Holy Spirit― the Third Divine Person who is the Father’s and Son’s sublime Love for Each other ― gives Himself to us to be our “Beloved,” our mighty Healer, our intimate Friend and Consoler, our constant Companion and Strength, our gentle Teacher and Guide.

Every page of this exquisite book will speak to your heart. Using the Church’s hymns and prayers, you will learn to pray to the Holy Spirit with love and tenderness, entrusting Him with your every concern, and inviting Him to possess you and anoint your every breath and moment of your life.

The saints show us how the Holy Spirit truly is our fierce “Protector” who loves us and “fights” powerfully for us. When we are weighed down with problems and worries, when we long for more joy and serenity, the Holy Spirit invites us to draw close to Him and let Him do for us what we cannot do ourselves.

It is the Holy Spirit who lifts us up when we are discouraged and fills us with His comfort and peace when we are sad and lonely. The Holy Spirit is the One who deepens our intimacy with the Father and the Son, and who gives us a heart full of empathy for others.

Drawing Close to the Holy Spirit invites you to taste the sweetness of the Holy Spirit and savor in your own life the wonders He accomplishes in those who draw close to Him.

Also listen to Sr. Mary Ann Fatula discuss Heaven Splendor on this Inside the Pages Podcast with Kris McGregor

SBN #4 – Heaven – Salvation Begins Now: Last Things First with Deacon James Keating

Episode 4 Salvation Begins Now: Last Things First – Deacon Keating discusses Heaven.

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From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

1024 This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity—this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed—is called “heaven.” Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness.

Deacon James Keating, PhD, the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha.

For more information on the “Institute of Priestly Formation” and for oth er material available by Deacon Keating, just click here

Don’t forget to pickup a copy of “Communion with Christ”, it is on e of the best audio sets on prayer…ever!

Check out Deacon Keating’s “Discerning Hearts” page

IP#356 “What Really Happens After We Die” pt. 2 – James Papandrea on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor

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What a delight to be joined once again by Dr. James Papndrea, especially to discuss his book “What Really Happens After We Die: There Will Be Hugs in Heaven.” In part 2 of this podcast, we discuss Heaven and the reality of Hell.

You can find the book here

From the book description:

Here professor of Church history Dr. James Papandrea gathers in one place all that is known about the afterlife — drawn from the teachings of Jesus, the Apostles, the Church Fathers, and the Church’s Magisterium — affording, for the first time ever, a complete, authoritative, detailed portrait of the state of souls after death and the realms we enter. The following are among the many questions he answers:

-If, as St. Paul says, “flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God,” how can our bodies enter Heaven?

-After death but before the final resurrection, are we simply unconscious?

-What is our resurrection like? (And does it differ from Jesus’ Resurrection?)

-Are ghosts real? (You’ll be surprised at what the Church Fathers have to say.)

-What is the difference between Heaven and Paradise?

-Which of our parts will accompany us to Heaven (and which must be left behind)?

-In Heaven, do we still eat and drink?

-If, as Jesus says, there’s no marrying in heaven, are we still male and female there?

-After our resurrection, will we, like Jesus, be able to pass through matter?

-And many more fascinating questions answered!

Other conversations with James Papandrea on Inside the Pages:

IP#355 What Really Happens After We Die” pt. 1 – James Papandrea on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor

IP#327 Dr. James Papandrea – From Star Wars to Superman on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor Podcast

IP#355 “What Really Happens After We Die” pt. 1 – James Papandrea on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:44 — 19.8MB) | Embed

What a delight to be joined once again by Dr. James Papndrea, especially to discuss his book “What Really Happens After We Die: There Will Be Hugs in Heaven.” In part 1 of this podcast, we discuss the relationship between body and soul, the nature of Purgatory, and the teachings of the Fathers (and Mothers) of the Church.

You can find the book here

From the book description:

Here professor of Church history Dr. James Papandrea gathers in one place all that is known about the afterlife — drawn from the teachings of Jesus, the Apostles, the Church Fathers, and the Church’s Magisterium — affording, for the first time ever, a complete, authoritative, detailed portrait of the state of souls after death and the realms we enter. The following are among the many questions he answers:

-If, as St. Paul says, “flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God,” how can our bodies enter Heaven?

-After death but before the final resurrection, are we simply unconscious?

-What is our resurrection like? (And does it differ from Jesus’ Resurrection?)

-Are ghosts real? (You’ll be surprised at what the Church Fathers have to say.)

-What is the difference between Heaven and Paradise?

-Which of our parts will accompany us to Heaven (and which must be left behind)?

-In Heaven, do we still eat and drink?

-If, as Jesus says, there’s no marrying in heaven, are we still male and female there?

-After our resurrection, will we, like Jesus, be able to pass through matter?

-And many more fascinating questions answered!

Other conversations with James Papandrea on Inside the Pages:

IP#327 Dr. James Papandrea – From Star Wars to Superman on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor Podcast

IP#349 Sr. Mary Ann Fatula, O.P. – Heaven’s Splendor on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor Podcast

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Reading “Heaven’s Splendor: And the Riches That Await You There” was a shear joy! But so also was my conversation with its author, Sr. Mary Ann Fatula. What a “splendid” delight. Steeped in the teachings of the Doctors of the Church, such as St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Siena, and St. Therese of Lisieux, this book is simply a delight. A copy of this book should be in every home! Highly recommended!

You can find this book here

From the book description:

Heaven: it’s everything we’re made for, the answer to our inmost longings, a place of joy whose depths we can only imagine. And who can tell us more about this blessed realm than the saints? “¬‚¬” the souls closest to God while here on earth who now dwell beside His royal throne.

What they say about Heaven has the fragrant anointing of the Holy Spirit who authored the Scriptures and from whom they draw their wisdom.

Open these pages, then, and enter the Celestial Kingdom. Ponder all the rapturous beauty that the saints describe. Bask in the consoling warmth of their tender love for us, and grow ever stronger in the desire to share in their heavenly delight.

Here you’ll come to know the very heart of Heaven: our sharing in the ecstatic love and life of the Trinity. You’ll taste the joy of the saints triumphant, ponder the mysteries of our glorious resurrection, and come to understand death as the beautiful gateway to Heaven that it is.

The wisdom of the saints in these sublimely beautiful pages will quench your fear of death and awaken in you a blessed hunger to join your departed loved ones and to delight, with the three Divine Persons, in Heaven’s splendor.

BTP- L6 – Letter 169 pt. 1 – The Letters of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity – Beginning to Pray w/Dr. Anthony Lilles podcast

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Dr. Lilles continues the spiritual explorations of the Letters of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity. In this episode, we discuss letter 169, with a special focus on Heaven as a spiritual reality.:

L 169
To Canon Angles
[ July 15, 1903]
Dijon Carmel,

J. M. + J. T.

Monsieur le Chanoine,

My dear Mama, whom I saw last week, brought me your good letter, and I assure you that I can indeed sympathize with the suffering your eyes are causing you, and I am praying fervently for you. I was wondering a little what had become of you, but you find your little Carmelite close to God, don’t you? And that is where she finds you too; then no more distance, no more separation, but already, as in Heaven, the fusion of hearts and souls! . . . How many things have happened since my last letter! I heard the Church say “Veni sponsa Christi” [Come, bride of Christ]; she consecrated me, and now all is “consummated.” Rather, everything is beginning, for profession is only a dawn; and each day my “life as a bride”3 seems to me more beautiful, more luminous, more enveloped in peace and love. During the night that preceded the great day, while I was in choir awaiting the Bridegroom, I understood that my Heaven was beginning on earth; Heaven in faith, with suffering and immolation for Him whom I love! . . . I so wish to love Him, to love Him as my seraphic Mother did, even to dying of it. We sing “O charitatis Victima” on her feast day, and that is my whole ambition: to be the prey of love! I think that in Carmel it is so simple to live by love; from morning to evening the Rule is there to express the will of God, moment by moment. If you knew how I love this Rule, which is the way He wants me to become holy. I do not know if I will have the happiness of giving my Bridegroom the witness of my blood [by martyrdom], but at least, if I fully live my Carmelite life, I have the consolation of wearing myself out for Him, for Him alone. Then what difference does the work He wills for me make? Since He is always with me, prayer, the heart-to-heart, must never end! I feel Him so alive in my soul. I have only to recollect myself to find Him within me, and that is my whole happiness. He has placed in my heart a thirst for the infinite and such a great need for love that He alone can satisfy it. I go to Him like a little child to its mother so He may fill, invade, everything, and then take me and carry me away in His arms. I think we must be so simple with God!

I am longing to send you my good Mama; you will see how God is working in this beloved soul. Sometimes I cry for happiness and gratitude; it is so good to be devoted to your mother, to feel that she, too, is completely His, to be able to tell her about your soul and to be completely understood! . . . You really are the great attraction of the trip, I assure you; I love to remember those vacations at Saint-Hilaire, then at Carcassonne and Labastide, they were the best ones I had. With what fatherly goodness you received the confidences I so loved to make to you; I would be happy if one day they could be made once again through my dear grilles. Won’t you come to bless your little Carmelite and, quite close to her, thank Him who “has loved her exceedingly,” for, you see, my happiness can no longer be expressed. Listen to what is being sung in my soul and all that is rising from the heart of the bride to the Heart of the Bridegroom for you whose little child she will always be. Send her your best blessing; at Holy Mass, bathe her in the Blood of the Bridegroom; it is the purity of the bride, and she is so thirsting for it! A Dieu, monsieur le Chanoine, affectionately and respectfully yours,

Sr. Elizabeth of the Trinity r.c.i.

Catez, Elizabeth of the Trinity. The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity volume 2: Letters from Carmel (pp. 110-111). ICS Publications. Kindle Edition.

Special thanks to Miriam Gutierrez for her readings of St. Elizabeth’s letters

For other episodes in the series visit
The Discerning Hearts “The Letters of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity” with Dr. Anthony Lilles’

Anthony Lilles, S.T.D. is an associate professor and the academic dean of Saint John’s Seminary in Camarillo as well as the academic advisor for Juan Diego House of Priestly Formation for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. For over twenty years he served the Church in Northern Colorado where he joined and eventually served as dean of the founding faculty of Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver. Through the years, clergy, seminarians, religious and lay faithful have benefited from his lectures and retreat conferences on the Carmelite Doctors of the Church and the writings of St. Elisabeth of the Trinity.

IP#320 Fr. Wade Menezes C.F.M. – The Four Last Things on Inside the Pages

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With the incredible Fr. Wade Menezes we discuss “The Four Last Things: A Catechetical Guide to Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell.”

You can find the book here
From the Inside Flap

Few things in this earthly life are absolutely certain, but the most undebatable of these is death. Every person, even the atheist, will admit that death is certain. Death, however, is not the last event in this life of ours. Immediately after death, we shall be judged and then again on the Day of Judgment when all humanity will know us for what we are.

Too often the reality of Heaven and salvation are highlighted at the expense of the Church’s teachings on Death, Judgment, Purgatory, and Hell. Yet, these important doctrines of the Church hold the truths of salvation — truths that can lead us to Heaven or can pull us away from it.

In these pages, Fr. Wade Menezes, EWTN television host and Assistant General of the Fathers of Mercy, shows us that God has not called us to His wrath, but to salvation. He shows us that Heaven and Hell, salvation and damnation, eternal life and eternal punishment are all complementary doctrines. They need each other to be complete and we must understand the Church’s teachings on all of these doctrines in order to have a balanced view of the world.

Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell these are the Four Last Things toward which we are moving each hour of the day and night. Read this book, and you’ll have a firm grasp of one of the most important doctrines of Holy Mother Church that holds the truths of Heaven and our own salvation.

A Travel Guide to Heaven – In conversation with Anthony DeStefano

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One of our all-time favorite conversations, one of our all-time favorite books…Anthony DeStefano’s “A Travel Guide to Heaven”! (Has it really been 10 years since this was published?) Filled with “Of course, that makes sense…” moments, this is a gem for the ages. A timeless read that I revisited recently that brought such encouragement and joy to my heart, that I wanted to share it, along with this classic discussion with Anthony, with all those who come to Discerning Hearts. Anthony is as much fun to talk to as he is to read! Enjoy!

You can find it here

From the description of the book:

Using the Bible as his guide, the author notes that heaven is not only a spiritual place, but also a physical place, a fabulous “luxury resort” more sumptuous than any on Earth. The residents are real, their bodies transformed into their most perfect selves—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. By making a spiritual subject immensely physical, the book provides a picture of amazing places to visit, things to do, luxuries for pampering—not to mention deep, abiding joy.

Combining the clarity and logic of C. S. Lewis with a terrific sense of fun and adventure, DeStefano creates a brilliant, reassuring portrait of heaven, a place that has intrigued and puzzled humankind throughout history.