Ash Wednesday Reflection: “I Am in Hell!” – A Terrifying True Story

🔥 Ash Wednesday Reflection: “I Am in Hell!” – A Terrifying True Story 🔥
Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, and we are starting this Lenten reflection series with a sobering truth: the reality of Hell. In this gripping episode, we explore shocking, well-documented accounts of those who have experienced Hell—both through mystical visions and terrifying real-life encounters.

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Transcript

Welcome today is Ash Wednesday and we're so happy to have you on day one of Lent daily yeah this is going to be an incredible journey as we go through these 40 days we're going to be journeying through hell heaven purgatory and what the Saints experienced their mystical Visions their apparitions and what can we learn from the these experiences and what does the church teach and what does the doctors of the church teach so so thank you for joining us today is day one we're starting with hell because I'm a melancholic and we're going to give 10 episodes to hell today we have two incredible stories for you regarding people's experience of hell and what can we learn from them but first what does the church teach regarding hell what is Hell the catechism says it's a state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the Blessed so what the church teaches is that it's a definitive state of self exclusion meaning that it's by our own free will we have chosen to remain outside of the Friendship of God and this is the worst abuse of one of the greatest gifts God has given us and that is free will that is the greatest abuse that one could think of is to use one's Free Will and say to God I do not want you and when we die the state in which we die is solidified for all eternity so in other words when we die in the State of Grace this is solidified for all eternity and if we die in the state of mortal sin without God's grace it is solidified for all eternity now the dogma of hell is that it's a Dogma so in other words as Catholics we can say well I want to believe in heaven but I don't want to believe in hell to be a faithful Catholic no that that's not how it works to believe to be Catholic means that we accept the dogma of hell now we're going to transition here into private Revelation which as Catholics we are permitted to believe not bound to believe meaning that we have to believe in the dogma of hell and what the church officially teaches but then we have all the Saints and the doctors and they have these mystical experiences and these are private Revelation that means we don't have to believe them but when it comes to the Saints experiences and they have been suff effciently authenticated and we don't believe them this seems to me offense an offense against reason meaning if the church has gone through this and they find no objection and there's other eyewitnesses and all these things that kind of line up not just a private person's word but a whole bunch of things line up then we have sufficient evidence to believe in it then it seems to me not to believe in it is an offense against reason so with with that we have for you the first of two amazing experiences regarding hell now this first story comes to us from a book called The dogma of Hell in it the author makes the point that this story of St Francis of Jerome has been given sufficient evidence a lot of evidence to the validity of of it it was he says juridically approved through the process of canonization it was seen by a large number of eyewitnesses um who were Al under oath so this for me falls under the C category of sufficiently authenticated and so with that here's the story in 1707 St Francis of Jerome was preaching out in the streets now St Francis of Jerome was a Jesuit and he's out by Naples and he's preaching in the streets in this town and in this area there's a woman named Catherine and the villagers nicknamed her Saint Catherine because she was anything but a saint and this particular day he's preaching about hell and being constantly interrupted by this woman then he turns to her and says beware my daughter of resisting grace before eight days God will punish you while this woman continues to mock St Francis as he preaches in the streets 8 days later he returns and asks where the woman is because he's in the area and the door is shut the shutters are closed and there is no mockery coming to him as he preaches and they tell St Francis that she has died just hours earlier that day died he repeated well let her tell us now what she has gained by laughing at Hell let us ask her St Francis then took a large number of people and went to her death chamber he unveiled her face and commanded the corpse Catherine tell us where are you now to everyone's horror the the corpse lifted up her head and with a look of Despair she cried in hell I am in hell then her body lay lifeless once more I was present at that event says one of the witnesses who deposed before the apostolic tribunal but I never could convey the impression It produced on me and the bystanders nor that which I still feel every time I pass that house and look at that window at the sight of that ill faded Abode I still hear the pitiful cry resounding in hell I am in hell so our second story comes to us from Bishop de seur from France and he wrote a book called L which means the hell so to put it in context he died in 1881 and this is a story that was told to him from his grandfather um what I find interesting about this story is I did some digging and found the original source of this book a PDF and it's in French and so I needed Janelle's help here in translating but the opening part of the book in fact the first page has something very interesting before we get to the story that I think will pique your attention so this is a letter from uh Pope Pas I 9th and he writes this at the beginning of the book bened AP my beloved Son greetings and Apostolic blessings

we congratulate you wholeheartedly of what you have

accomplished on such a scale and with so much

success from your office that Heralds the

gospel all that you have is expanding quickly to the ranks of the People by thousands of copies so can you imagine first of all publishing a book but then getting the pulpe to write a letter of endorsement at the beginning of your book it's quite the accomplishment but I think this what this does it leads to a level of trustworthiness regarding what's in the book which this story that we're going to share with you is contained in so the story Bishop de writes it was was in Russia at Moscow a short while before the horrible campaign of 1812 my maternal grandfather count ropin the military governor of Moscow was very intimate with General count Oraf celebrated for his bravery but as Godless as he was Brave One Day at the close of a supper count orof and one of his friends General V also a disciple of voler has set to horribly ridicule religion especially hell yet said orof yet if by chance there should be anything the other side of the curtain well took up General V whichever of us shall depart first will come to inform the other of it it is agreed an excellent idea replied count orof and both interchanged very seriously their word of Honor not to miss the engagement a few weeks later war broke out the Russian army began to campaign and the general received order to take an important command he had left Moscow about 2 or 3 weeks when one morning at a very early hour while my grandfather was dressing his chamber door is rudely pushed open it was count orof in dressing gown and slippers his hair on end his eye wild and pale like a dead man what orof you at this hour and in such a costume what ails you what has happened my dear replies count orof I believe I am beside myself I have just seen General V has General V then come back well no rejoins oloff throwing himself on a sofa and holding his head between his hands no he has not come back and that is what frightens me my grandfather did not understand him he tried to soothe him relate to me he says to orof what has happened to you and what all this means then striving to stifle his emotion the count related the following my dear restop shine some time ago General V and and I mutually swore that the first of us who died should come and tell the other if there is anything on the other side of the curtain now this morning scarcely half an hour since I was calmly lying awake in my bed not thinking at all of my friend when all of a sudden the curtains of my bed were rudely parted and at Two Steps from me I see General V standing up pale with his right hand on his breast and saying to me there is a hell and I am there and he disappeared I came at once to you my head is splitting what a strange thing I do not know what to think about it my grandfather calmed him as well as he could it was no easy matter he spoke of hallucinations nightmares perhaps he was asleep there are many extraordinary unaccountable things and other common places which constitute the comfort of free thinkers then he ordered his carriage and took count orof back back to his hotel now 10 or 12 days after this strange incident an army messenger brought my grandfather among other news that of the death of General V the very morning of the day count orof had seen and heard him the same hour he appeared at Moscow the unfortunate General trying to learn the enemy's position had been shot through the breast by a bullet and had fallen Stark dead there is a hell and I am there these are the words of one who came back and again this is a story of Bishop desia who heard it from his grandfather and it was written in his book L the hell endorsed by Pope Pas I 9th those are two stories for today on Hell tomorrow we're going to look at St Teresa of Avala in very telling tomorrow from the doctor of the church we find it fitting also though to end each episode with a prayer this prayer comes from St alonsus Oh my Jesus and my redeemer who will one day be my judge have pity on me before the day of Justice behold at thy feet a deserter who has often promised to be faithful to you and has as often again turned his back upon you forgive me oh lord for I desire truly to change and amend my life I am sorry my sovereign good for having despised thee take pity on me