Translate

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Heaven

Ever wonder what heaven will be like? I had a friend whose mother was dying, and as she was already a widow, the mother was really wanting to die, not just to join her husband, but because hope and the promises of Christ were REAL to her, and she longed to enter into everlasting communion with her God.
This friend, I'll call her Kate, which is close to her real name, was really sad and torn. She gets heaven and why her mom wanted to leave here, but was very sad and unready to lose the Mom she loves so much. Her mom was refusing further attempts at resuscitation and she was really saddened by this.
Her mom did pass shortly after this. I had stumbled upon the following excerpt from St. Francis de Sales (great, great writer, although at times verbose). I hope you find this as beautiful as I do. I shared this with her, and Kate wiped her tears and smiled.
On the instant that the soul enters heaven, and sees by the light of glory the infinite beauty of God face to face, she is at once seized and all consumed with love. The happy soul is then as it were lost and immersed in that boundless ocean of the goodness of God. Then it is that she quite forgets herself, and inebriated with divine love, thinks only of loving her God. ... As an intoxicated person no longer thinks of himself, so a soul in bliss can only think of loving and affording delight to her beloved Lord; she desires to possess Him entirely, and she does indeed possess Him, for every moment she offers herself to God without reserve, and God receives her in his loving embrace, and so holds her, and shall hold her in the same fond embraces for all eternity. 
~ St. Francis de Sales

3 comments: