Did you know?
- Heaven and hell are not physical places, but are states of union. Heaven is the state of being perfectly and eternally in union with God, and hell is the state of being eternally separated from God. God doesn’t send people to hell as a punishment for being “bad” people. Rather, people become "bad" when they choose to live a life separated from God. Hell is simply these people continuing to make this choice for eternity.
- Sometimes people die wanting to chose to be with God, but still have attachments to sins that don’t allow them to fully be with God. Sin restricts our free will. We call the purification of their souls, that gets rid of all the “junk” purgatory.
- After death, we are no longer able to pray for ourselves, or to merit grace. It is important to pray for those who have died in order to help them through the purification process and be fully united with God.
- Saints (whether named by the Church or not) are people who are fully united with God in Heaven. On November 1 we celebrate ALL these Saints, particularly those who don’t have a named feast day on the liturgical calendar.
- We believe that Saints are fully alive in Heaven. When we “pray to Saints” we are actually asking for these people who are incredibly close to Jesus to pray for us. Just as we ask particularly holy people here on Earth to pray for us in times of need, the Saints are happy to bring our intentions to Jesus.