Very occasionally I pray for a soul that has died but am gently shown it has gone to hell and so I stop praying for them because they are in a place where prayer can no longer reach them. Why not becuse they are damned, as the Church teaches for all Eternity to not enter the sight of God. Or to look at it another way the Holy Spirit is removed from them and so they have no more place in the family of God. I think we can look at prayer as an entering ito the Trinity through the Holy Spirit and since the Holy Spirit is no longer present there prayer cannot reach them. This because they have entered the Judgement of God and gone to the place appointed to them. There was a good vision from Medugorje a few years back that sums this up ; souls that died and were being placed into hell and they saw the souls being turned into the forms of animals. Well this is the souls being damned the Holy SPirit being withdrawn. I think this is one of the great defining lines btween true Catholic Mysticism and the false Mysticism of the New Agers a belief in hell and Eternal Damnation. New Agers Fall over themselves to contradict the Church's teachings on Hell and to deny its existence. But hell really does it exist we have God's Word and the Teachings of the Church to prove it. The existence of Hell and Eternaian fretted about souls being Eternally Damned and the existence of hell which she l Damnation is a very, very great mystery. In my opinion I would not medidate on it too much. Some things are such great mysteries its better just to leave them in trust and not to go trying to untie the knots which are better left bound. I have to confess when I try to understand too much I get a headache. :wink: However here is the Church's Teachings: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07207a.htm I think the loveliest thing I ever read on the subject of Hell was by the English Hermitess mystic Blessed Julian of Norwich. She wrote a little book of Conversations with Jesus, a kind of question and answer session like St Catherine of Siena's , 'Dialogues' . Anyway Blessed Julian fretted about the existence of hell and Eteranl Damnation which she viewede , rightly as really terrible. To which Jesus replied, wonderfully, 'That al lwill be well and all manner of things will be well'. Which I think is just about the most reassuring and beautiful statement in all of Catholic Mystical literature. So anyhow I trust God knows what He is doing ;even when I cannot fathom it..and in the case of Hell, I cannot. But if He says all things wil lwork out, I trust Him in that. He is love and I trust Him and leave this thorny knot in His loving hands. Speaking of her visions of heaven and hell, she said, "To me was shown no harder hell than sin." Of our response to the sins of others, she said (ch. 76): "The soul that would preserve its peace, when another's sin is brought to mind, must fly from it as from the pains of hell, looking to God for help against it. To consider the sins of other people will produce a thick film over the eyes of our soul, and prevent us for the time being from seeing the 'fair beauty of the Lord'-- unless, that is, we look at them contrite along with the sinner, being sorry with and for him, and yearning over him for God. Without this it can only harm, disturb, and hinder the soul who considers them. I gathered all this from the revelation about compassion...This blessed friend is Jesus; it is his will and plan that we hang on to him, and hold tight always, in whatever circumstances; for whether we are filthy or clean is all the same to his love."
I think, Jane you would enjoy reading Blessed Julian's conversations with Jesus, in her book, 'Showing of Love' and which can be read here: http://www.umilta.net/showinglove.html
