St. Teresa’s TERRIFYING Vision of Hell (Ken & Janelle)

What if a Doctor of the Church—a saint—saw a place in hell reserved for her?  In this Lenten Reflection, we dive into St. Teresa of Avila’s chilling vision of hell, where she describes in graphic detail the eternal horrors awaiting souls who reject God’s mercy.

This vision was a wake-up call for St. Teresa—and it should be for us, too. She saw firsthand the unbearable torments of the damned, the unending suffering, and the soul-tearing despair of being separated from God forever. But more importantly, she saw this vision as a gift from God’s mercy—a call to conversion.

Transcript

Welcome back we are day two of Lent daily so we continue to journey through Heaven hell and Purgatory through the mystical experience of the Saints and doctors of the church today we're looking at St Teresa of Avila she's a Carmelite she lived from 1515 to 1582 uh and by God's grace she was given an experience of hell and I say by God's grace because stay tuned to the end of this video because some might be thinking well what's the point of these meditations on hell is there any benefit well St Teresa thought there was great benefit to her experiencing hell and she shares those benefits with us now if she experienced a great benefit of experiencing hell I think there's exceedingly for us great benefit of meditating upon hell so stay tuned for St Teresa's Wisdom St Teresa of Avila said I was one day in prayer when I found myself in a moment without knowing how plunged apparently into hell I understood that it was our Lord's will I should see the place which the Devils kept in Readiness for me and which I had deserved by my sins it was but a moment but it seems to me impossible that I should ever forget it even if I were to live many years two things stand out to me St Teresa sees a place in hell that's reserved for her by the Devils now if that's true for her is that true for you and me or do we somehow think well that just applies to the doctor of the church so that's one thing to ponder the second thing is she says that she's deserved this place due to her sin and that hits incredible important truth about our faith is that the default position of you and me is damnation that is why we need a savior if sin doesn't lead to Eternal ruin then why do we need to be saved so here's just a reminder of the seriousness of sin the entrance seemed to be by a long narrow path like a furnace very low dark and Clos the ground seemed to be saturated with water mere mud exceedingly foul sending forth pestilential odors and covered with loathsome Vermin at the end was a hollow place in the wall like a closet and in that I saw myself confined all this was even Pleasant to behold in comparison with what I felt there there is no exaggeration in what I am saying so help me out here but it seems like she's experiencing the place where that was reserved for her yes that's right yeah but it wasn't nearly as bad as how it made her F feel now could all this be an exaggeration while St Teresa says I'm not exaggerating so it's that's a point here that we should take seriously what she's saying there is no no exaggeration in her words at least her understanding of communicating this to us I felt a fire in my soul I cannot see how it is possible to describe it my bodily sufferings were unendurable I have undergone most painful sufferings in this life yet all these were as nothing in comparison with what I felt then especially when I saw that there would be no intermission nor any end to them Janelle and I have eight children and our youngest is how old now is Louie two months two months our oldest 14 okay everyone in between what I've noticed and you tell me when a child is experiencing something especially when they're younger a trial they can't see the end to it they think the world is done there is no way they they just cannot possibly see this trial coming to an end and it could be something something as simple as not getting desert and they throw their emotions go crazy but a lot of times even as adults what causes this great suffering is thinking the suffering has no end MH which in itself can be more unbearable than the suffering that we're currently experiencing in the present moment but this is the horror of what she's experiencing in Hell the suffering in hell has no end that's the Eternal horror of this also suffering in this life will come to an end no matter how bad it is we always know it's going to end but the horror of Hell one of them is that it's Eternal if I said that the soul is continually being torn from the body it would be nothing for that implies the destruction of Life by the hands of another but here it is the soul itself that is tearing itself in pieces there's a truth here that we experience in this Earthly life for example when we are tempted to sin logically maybe we're tempted we know it's bad but our passions are saying reach out and grab it's pleasing and delightful to the eye and so we want to take it eat that fruit and so we have this tension between what I believe and know is right and then our passions sometimes override us and this is a great abuse of Free Will and what we do is we harm our self it is us that harms ourself through sin we punish ourselves by choosing the sin and rejecting God so in this very real Way St Katherine is pointing to it's the soul that tears itself to Pieces as we have four tastes of this on this in this Earthly Life by rejecting God this comes to completion in a soul in hell where they tear themselves to Pieces because they have chosen something outside of God does that make sense yeah that makes sense and then and that there's also no end to it you know mhm left in that pestilential place and utterly without the power to hope for Comfort I could neither sit nor lie down there was no room I was placed as it were in a hole in the wall and those walls terrible to look on of themselves hemmed me in on every side I could not breathe there was no light but all was thick Darkness I do not know how it was but I understood distinctly that it was a great Mercy that our Lord would have me see with my own eyes the very place from which his compassion had saved me so here we get to the first benefit of this experience that St Teresa recognizes it's God's mercy that has saved her so when when you realize this is what I have been saved from what should that cause within our heart gratitude praise Thanksgiving all the more reason to love God when we know what we've been saved from afterwards I had another most fearful Vision in which I saw the punishment of certain sins they were most horrible to look at I have read of the diverse tortures and how the Devils tear the flesh with redh hot pincers but all is as nothing before this it is a wholly different matter in short the one is a reality the other a picture and all burning here in this life is as nothing in comparison with the fire that is there one thing to note there is a difference between a picture and reality and so in her experience she experienced the reality but she's conveying it with words which is a picture a picture for us so that we don't experience the reality now another worthy thing to note here is this is the first indication that we have in our Series where different sins in hell are punished differently but we'll get a lot more into that in the future this Vision was one of the grandest mercies of Our Lord it has been to me the greatest service because it has destroyed my fear of trouble and of the contradiction of the world and because it has made me strong enough to Bear up against them and to give thanks to our Lord who has been my deliverer as it now seems to me from such fearful and everlasting pains here we come to understand how St Teresa understands this experience as a great Mercy she sees that there's this trouble this contradiction between following Jesus and the world and sometimes fear kind of Rises up in our hearts and she says this experiences helped her to conquer that and I think that could be a great benefit for us have you ever experienced that fear of that contradiction of trying to follow Jesus maybe you're starting this Lenton Journey where day two went to lent and people around you have no clue about what lent is have no clue about ashn they have no clue about arms giving and fasting and disciplining uh they CH following up Jesus as kind of a a fairy tale and this is who you're surrounded by so there's just tension this contradiction while St Teresa is saying experiencing what I just experienced is a great Mercy because it helped me overcome all of this secondly is that there's pain sometimes in following Jesus like the pain of just growing in virtue the pain of daily prayer have you noticed that pain it means giving up a little bit of your mour to pray selfishness just this discipline in following Jesus sometimes requires pain and I think that you know realizing what hell is like gives us a lot more motivation say I'm willing to endure this pain for the sake of God's glory we also see here that she says it's given her uh a reason to give thanks to God um and this is what these meditations to do when we're looking at the horror of sin it causes us again this this response to God saying I praise you I thank you for what you are doing in my life life one thing is we shouldn't just remain neutral and just chalk this series up or these experiences of hell up all like that's just the wives tell that's dangerous dangerous to do that so do these Visions move you while they ought to I am filled with fear when I see that after frequently reading books which describe in some manner the Pains of hell I was not afraid of them nor made any account of them where was I you know sometimes again we read about hell Saints accounts of Hell mystical visions and we're like we're not moved St Teresa was saying that was her until she had this experience so the point for us is this we can learn from her experience so that we don't have to experience these things this is a great gift to us from the church through the doctor of the church and so um it should move us move us not so much in fear but out of love all the more reason to love Jesus how else should we respond St Katherine gives us an example for us she says be blessed forever oh my God how manifest it is that you loved me much more than I loved you how often O Lord did you save me from that fearful prison and how I used to get back to it contrary to your will St Teresa saw a great benefit in this experience that caused her to break out in praise and in love for Jesus and this is what should be caused in our hearts as well but in closing here let's give you a number of reasons why examining the visions of hell can be beneficial to the spiritual life examining the visions of hell are beneficial for the spiritual life because they can Inspire strength to overcome troubles in following Jesus Inspire Thanksgiving for his Mercy Inspire Praise of God inspire a response of humility inspire a desire to save others inspire a desire to avoid all occasions of sin inspire a greater love for him we want to thank you for journeying with us please comment below share with us what's the do to and why tomorrow father Christina will be with us and we'll have a long form discussion I know you're going to enjoy that and let's end this episode with a prayer 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 having despised thee take pity on me