A symbolic stone threshold opens into darkness in a desolate landscape.

Hell

Hell is eternal.
Do not die in mortal sin.

The damned suffer the loss of God and the punishments of Hell for ever. To die in mortal sin without repentance is to lose Heaven. Christ warns us and offers the grace of conversion: do not put it off.

Begin the meditation Pray an act of contrition

“And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting.”

Matthew 25:46Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision; DRBO transcription

The everlasting loss of God

Our Lord teaches that the wicked will go into everlasting punishment. Hell is real, its punishment does not end, and death closes the time for repentance. To die in mortal sin without repentance and forgiveness is to lose God for ever. Christ’s warning concerns your salvation: hear it while there is time to return. (Matthew 25:46; Benedict XII, Benedictus Deus.)

The chief punishment of Hell is the loss of God: the soul is deprived for ever of the beatific vision for which it was called. Aquinas explains its gravity by the infinite goodness rejected. Alphonsus presses the same truth upon the conscience: consider whom mortal sin places in danger of losing. (Summa I–II, q. 87, a. 4, answer; Preparation for Death, XXVI.)

The tradition also teaches the pain of sense: the real punishments of Hell, including fire. The primacy of the loss of God does not make these punishments unreal. Aquinas distinguishes both pains through his account of sin as turning away from God and turning inordinately toward creatures. This suffering is the just punishment of evil. (Summa I–II, q. 87, a. 4; Preparation for Death, XXVI.)

Mortal sin requires grave matter, full knowledge, and deliberate consent together. It destroys charity and deprives the soul of sanctifying grace. A temptation or unwanted thought is not itself a deliberate consent. God predestines no one to evil; our duty is to reject known sin and seek His mercy, leaving judgment of persons to Him. (Catechism 1855–1861; Trent, Session VI, canon XVII.)

Follow the sources

The loss of God

St. Alphonsus de Liguori
Preparation for Death

Open quiet reading

Alphonsus asks us to consider what mortal sin places in danger: the everlasting possession of God. To die in mortal sin without repentance is to lose Him for ever. Do not presume that you can sin now and repent later. God offers mercy now so that you may leave sin and return to Him.

In committing sin, the sinner does two evils. He abandons God, the sovereign good, and turns to creatures. “For my people have done two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves cisterns—broken cisterns—that can hold no water”—Jer., ii. 13. Since, then, by turning to creatures the sinner offends God, he shall be justly tortured in Hell by the same creatures, by fire, and by devils: in this punishment consists the pain of sense. But, because his greatest guilt and the malice of his sin consist in turning his back on God, his principal torment, his Hell, shall be the pain of loss, or the pain arising from having lost God.

…

But all these torments are nothing, compared with the pain of loss. Hell does not consist in the darkness, stench, shrieks and fire; the pain which constitutes Hell, is the pain of having lost God. “Let torments,” says St. Bruno, “be added to torments, and let them not be deprived of God”—Serm. de Jud. Fin. And St. John Chrysostom says that a thousand hells are not equal to this pain. “Si mille dixeris gehennas, nihil par dices illius doloris”—Hom. xlix. ad Pop. According to St. Augustine, if the damned enjoyed the vision of God, “they should feel no pain, and Hell should be converted into a Paradise”—Tom. ix. de Trip. Hab. To conceive some notion of this pain, consider that, should a person lose a jewel worth a hundred crowns, the loss would occasion great pain; but, were the jewel worth two hundred crowns, his pain is doubled; and if it were worth four hundred crowns, the pain is still greater. In a word, the pain which he suffers increases in proportion to the value of what he has lost. What has a damned soul lost? She has lost God, who is an infinite good. Hence St. Thomas says that her pain is, in a certain manner, infinite. “Poena damnati est infinita, quia est amissio boni infiniti”—1, 2, qu. 87, art. 4.

Read the source & edition details

Consideration XXVI, First and Third Points, pp. 314, 323 · selected passages. Dublin: James Duffy, 1843. Translated by A Catholic Clergyman (as credited on the title page). Selected historical passages, not a complete chapter. Wording and spelling follow the 1843 printing; line breaks, quotation marks, spacing, and typographic ligatures are normalized. Ellipses mark omitted material. Scripture references and secondary attributions are retained as printed; the latter are Alphonsus’s attributions. The short reading title and introduction are editorial. Alphonsus’s comparison emphasizes the chief punishment of Hell; it does not deny the other punishments he describes.

Open the historical source

Return to God, the supreme good

Ah my God! you then are my supreme and infinite good; and I have so often voluntarily lost you! I knew that in committing sin I gave you great displeasure, and that I lost your grace; and with this knowledge, I have consented to sin! Ah! if I did not see you, O Son of God, nailed to the cross in order to die for me, I should not have courage to ask or hope for pardon from you. Eternal Father, look not on me, but behold your beloved Son, who asks mercy for me; hear him, and pardon me. I ought at this moment to be in Hell, without any hope of being ever more able to love you, or to recover your lost grace. My God, I am sorry above all things for the injury I have done you in renouncing your friendship and despising your love for the miserable pleasures of this world. Oh! that I had died a thousand times, rather than have offered you so great an insult! How could I have been so blind and foolish! I thank you, O my Lord, for giving me time to repair the evil I have done. Since, through your mercy, I am not in Hell, and can love you, O my God, I wish to love you. I will wait no longer to convert myself entirely to you. I love you, O infinite goodness. I love you, my life, my treasure, my love, my all. Remind me always, O Lord, of the love which you have borne to me, and of the Hell which I have deserved, that this thought may continually excite me to make acts of love, and to say always, I love you, I love you, I love you. O Mary, my queen, my hope, and my mother, if I were in Hell, I could never more love you. I love you, O my mother, and in you, after Jesus, I trust that I shall never again cease to love my God and you. Assist me; pray to Jesus for me.

St. Alphonsus de Liguori, Preparation for Death, Consideration XXVI, Third Point, complete Affections and Prayers, printed pp. 326–327
Dublin: James Duffy, 1843 · A Catholic Clergyman (as credited on the title page)

Act of Contrition

O my God! I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life.

Baltimore Catechism No. 4, Prayers, “An Act of Contrition” · historical English form

Repent and return to God

Do not presume that you can sin now and repent later. Make an act of contrition, abandon the sin and its avoidable near occasions, and seek sacramental Confession as soon as possible. Ask Christ for the grace to persevere; ask Our Lady to intercede for you.

Prepare for Confession

Make an act of contrition and seek Confession as soon as possible.
Renounce the sin and remove its avoidable near occasions.
Ask for perseverance in grace every day; seek help from a priest with a persistent habit.
Practice the opposite virtue and pray for the conversion of sinners.

Continue the journeyHeaven

Further counsel on hell

Do not presume on tomorrow.

Do not despair of forgiveness, and do not presume on pardon without conversion. Alphonsus warns against sinning now because one plans to confess later. Leave the sin and its avoidable near occasions now; ask for the strength to do what a sincere purpose of amendment requires. (Preparation for Death, XVII, First Point; XXIII, First Point.)

Turn toward God in contrition. Sorrow arising from love of Him above all things obtains forgiveness of mortal sin when it includes the firm intention to receive sacramental Confession as soon as possible. Sorrow arising from fear of punishment can also dispose you, with hope and rejection of sin, to receive forgiveness in the sacrament. Pray the Act of Contrition with this sincere resolve. (Trent, Session XIV, chapter IV.)

Let fear lead you toward the love of God. Aquinas distinguishes fear of punishment from filial fear, which recoils from offending the Father we love. Let the warning awaken your conscience and move you toward charity. Ask for pardon, resist temptation, and pray for perseverance and the conversion of sinners. (Summa II–II, q. 19, articles 2, 5.)

Seek His mercy in Confession