DEATHTHINK ABOUT AND START TO

CONTENTS

• How to Think about Death

• What is Your Attitude Towards Death?

• What Happens after Death?

• How to Think about Heaven

• What the Last Anointing Does for the

Dangerously Sick

• What the Catholic Church Does for

People at Death

No. 53



Spec

Why the Knights of Columhas

Advertise Catholic Faith

The reason is simple. We Catho-

lics want our non-Catholic friends

and neighbors to know us as we

really are and not as we are some

times mistakenly represented.

We are confident that when

our religious Faith is better un-

derstood by those who do not

share it, mutual understanding

will promote the good-will which

is so necessary in a predominant-

ly Christian country whose gov-

ernment is designed to serve all

the people—no matter how much

their religious convictions may

differ.

American Catholics are con-

vinced that as the teachings of

Christ widely and firmly take

hold of the hearts and conduct

of our people, we shall remain

free in the sense that Christ

promised (John VIII, 31-38),

and in the manner planned by

the Founding Fathers of this

republic.

Despite the plainly stated will

of the Good Shepherd that there

be "one fold and one shepherd,”

the differences in the understand-

ing of Christ’s teaching are

plainly evident. It has rightfully

been called "the scandal of a

divided Christianity.”

If there is anything which will

gather together the scattered

flock of Christ, it is the nation-

wide understanding of the

Savior, what Fie did and how He

intended mankind to benefit by

the Redemption.

To this end, we wish our

fellow-Americans to become ac-

quainted with the teachings of

Christ as the Catholic Church

has faithfully presented them,

since the day the apostles in-

vaded the nations of the world

in willing and courageous obedi-

ence to Christ’s command: "Go,

therefore, and make disciples of

all nations . . .” (Matt. XXVIII,

19).

SUPREME COUNCIL

KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
Religious Information Bureau

4422 LINDELL BLVD. ST. LOUIS 8, MO.

© Knights of Columbus, 1958



HOW TO THINK
ABOUT DEATH

If you are a normal human

being, the most impressive

fact concerning your life is

the certainty of your death.

This fact is brought home

to you every time someone

close to you, by reason of

love or association, is re-

moved from the land of the

living by death. It grows

more j&xedly into your con-

sciousness as the years of your life

are checked off one by one, each

seeming to have passed more rapid-

ly than the one before, each making

you aware of some new weakness

of your body such as might be,

or one day will be, the cause of

your death.

There are two ways of looking

upon this fact of your death. One

way is to try to forget it; to con-

centrate on living as fully and en-

joyably as you can each day, almost

as if there were no such thing as

death, or as if you were convinced

that you will be an exception to

the general rule and will not die.

The other way is to look at death

frequently, humbly, intelligently,

trying to learn from it whatever it

may teach that is of value for your

daily living.

The Catholic Church, inspired

j

with

grass.

by the wisdom of Christ,

urges you to choose the sec-

ond way of looking upon

death. Besides incorporating

many reminders of it and

lessons to be drawn from

it in its year-round activi-

ties, it sets aside a month

for special considerations of

death. It is the month of

November, when nature,

its barren trees, withered

lifeless soil and freezing

winds, presents a dramatic picture

of death to all who can see.

The Church urges you to draw

from the thought of death lessons

of life, of lasting life, for yourself,

to think about your beloved dead

and to do something for them. Un-

der its wise guidance, then, death

becomes a teacher, a motive and an

opportunity. Under each of these

heads it loses much of its fearful-

ness; indeed, it becomes a means of

life, it leads to life, the kind of life

in which there will be no mourn-

ing or grieving, no death or sorrow

or parting any more.

Anything is a teacher that starts

a train of thought and raises ques-

tions in your mind that lead you to

seek and find important truths by

which you must live. In this sense

1



death is a powerful teacher; the

thought of it leaves you no rest

until you have grasped all the truths

that throw light on its meaning

and make it no longer a prod to

despair.

You cannot think of death with-

out asking why it must be, when

everything within you is made to

yearn for life and to resist death.

And you cannot cast about for an

answer to your "Why?” without

learning that there is only one an-

swer, and that no other will ever

satisfy your mind. The answer that

presents itself out of the very harsh-

ness and seeming cruelty of death

is that it is a penalty, equally shared

by all members of the human race,

for some evil into which the human

race has fallen.

Man's Destiny

Here your reason, which tells you

unmistakably that there is the ele-

ment of penalty in death, gropes

outward to find confirmation of its

conviction in some sign from God,

and to seek further explanation that

makes it not a penalty synonymous

with despair. And you find God has

given you not only a sign; He has

spoken clearly. He has revealed the

truth to you.

On the one hand He has con-

firmed your conviction that death is

a penalty by pointing to the first

or original sin of your human fam-

ily as its historical cause, and to all

the other sins, down to the last one

committed by yourself, that have

been occasioned by the weakness

inherited from that original fall.

On the other hand. He has sent
His Son into the world as your

Redeemer, the one who made it

possible for you, despite your cer-

tain bodily death, to possess a new

life, even a divine life, forever.

Your Redeemer made that possible

by accepting the major part of the

penalty of your family’s sins and

your own actual sins in His ter-

rible death. He offered you the
divine fruits of His death through

His Church, His Mass and His

sacraments. He taught you in many
sermons, instructions, precepts and

commands, how to live in con-

formity with the new life He won
for you by His death.

If the thought of your death does

not inspire you to look for and find

this explanation of its meaning,

you are the most miserable creature

in the world. In that case you have

to keep saying to yourself every

time you come face to face with

the death of a friend or with the

thought of your own death, that life

is a mockery, a jest, a cruel burden,

a worthless gift. In that case you

must creep into the ranks of the

cynics and the embittered, who say

there is no God, there is no justice,

there is no sense or reason in human

life. In that case you will find your

mind tortured and tormented by

the cruel facts that children die of

strange diseases, thousands of the

young, middle-aged and old die

every year from cancer, millions

die in useless wars, and you your-

self are hastening toward death

even now by every breath you draw.

If you won’t accept your instinc-

tive recognition of the truth that

death is a penalty, and God’s ex-

planation of what the penalty is

for, nobody, not the greatest scien-

2



tist or philosopher in the world,

will ever be able to take the mys-

tery out of death for you. And if

you won’t accept your redemption

from the worst penalties of sin

through the death of Jesus Christ,

you may just as well make ready

now for black despair. Nothing can

save you from it—not all the fre-

netic grasping for a few hours or

years of pleasure that you may be

tempted to settle for if you will not

accept eternal life from Jesus Christ.

You may put it off for a while by

activity, but you will catch up with

despair certainly some day.

Moreover, it is only this true

explanation of death that furnishes

you with any solid reason for lov-

ing other human beings, for doing

good to them, for respecting their

rights. They have a claim on you

only because they share both the

penalty of death with you and the

redemption from everlasting death

merited for all by the death of

Christ.

If you won’t believe that, despite

death, men are immortal, that they

are destined for heaven or hell, that

they are given life only to prepare

for death as a beginning of heaven

or hell, don’t talk about the sweet-

ness of brotherly love or the glory

of democracy or the necessity of

respecting the rights of others. If

you decide that death is the mys-

terious end and annihilation of

man, be logical: take everything

you can out of your few years of

life even at the expense of others:

kill, lie, cheat, steal—there is nothing

to stop you if death is the end of

everything. Be a Hitler if you get

the chance, or a Stalin, or a gang-

ster. The life and freedom and

property of others are the cheapest

things you can expend for your

own momentary happiness if you

believe that death is the end of all.

But if you accept God’s explana-

tion of death, then only will you

know why you must respect and

love and help your neighbor. You

will know that you dare not tamper

with the bodies or souls of other

human beings—because they belong

to God. You will know that at your

death justice and mercy will be

meted out to you by God according

as you have meted them out to

others. All this you will be taught

by death if you permit your reason

to reach out for and accept the

explanation of it from God.

Death is a Motive

What you are taught does not

always become a motive for what

you do. It can be held in a kind

of academic way, as a truth that

has little bearing on your actions,

as many a man knows the truth

that Christ is God, but in no way

acts upon what he knows. Or the

truth may be forgotten in moments

of stress and temptation when it is

needed most.

Death is a motive in the sense

that it can and must bring the

truths it teaches to influence your

conduct every day. If it does not,

you will be no better off than the

man who has refused to look for

or learn any part of the truth about

death.

The thought of death and its

meaning is especially a motive that

must be brought to bear on deci-

sions and choices that involve an

3



opportunity for sin. You know the

truth that your soul is not going

to die when your body does. It will

go right on living, with a more

acute consciousness, and greater ca-

pacity for happiness or pain, than

it ever possessed before the death

of your body.

Sin and Death

But there is a more terrific form

of death that can befall your soul

than that which can assail your

body. It is the death of serious sin,

of disobedience to the commands

of the Redeemer Who won for you
a second chance of life and ever-

lasting happiness. This is some-

times called the death of your soul,

but only by a figure of speech. It

is not a death of unconsciousness,

like the death of your body. It is a

death of perfectly conscious unhap-

piness that can last forever. If this

death of your soul called sin comes

together with the death of your

body, it will be the beginning of

everlasting pain.

There are two things that make

the thought of death a powerful

motive for resisting sin. The first

is its uncertainty as to time and

place and manner. You never know

but that it may be just after you

have committed a deliberate serious

sin when you may be thrust into

death. It is estimated that three out

of five deaths are sudden deaths. If

you train yourself to remember that

you are more apt to die suddenly

than with time for repentance and

preparation, you will never permit

yourself to fall into serious sin.

The other thing to be considered

is an even more powerful motivat-

ing force in your life. It is the fact

that you are always dependent on

God’s grace to repent sincerely of

your deliberate sins before death.

The possibility of a quick and sud-

den death right after a serious sin

is not the only danger to be feared.

Much more to be feared is the pos-

sibility that one sin can so easily

lead to another and another or a

hundred or a thousand, and the

combination of all these sins can

make the grace of repentance im-

possible, except by miracle, before

death. That is why the unprovided

death after a long life of unre-

pented sins, is as much to be

feared as a sudden death after one

sin.

It is the thought of death, there-

fore, that makes it unthinkable for

a Catholic to enter into a bad mar-

riage. This means entering freely

into a state of continuous and fre-

quently repeated serious sins, so

that death has to be feared every

day and night and every hour of

each day as the beginning of ever-

lasting punishment.

It is the thought of death that

gives courage to the wills of young

people in love, who, though they

may be tempted to sin, will find

their resistance to sin stiffened by

the fact that they must fear not

only their own death in sin, but

that of the one whom they profess

to love.

It is the thought of death that

makes it easy for husbands and

wives to avoid the all too common

sins of infidelity and contraception,

because it keeps them mindful that

life, with all the burdens created

by loyalty to Christ, is short and

4



swift, and at death eternity begins.

It is the thought of death that

can motivate anyone who has

sinned to seek forgiveness at once,

to let no day pass without going to

confession and being forgiven by

God, lest His call to an accounting

come before the sin has been taken

away, or lest, before the grace of

repentance is seized upon, the repe-

tition of the same sins may place

it beyond reach.

Death is an Opportunity

If you have learned and accepted

the truth about death, and if you

use the thought of it as a motive

for living in loyalty to Christ and

in loving God, then you will in-

evitably find it a marvelous oppor-

tunity for charity to others. Since

death is the most important event

that ever happens to anybody, you

will find in its frequent occurrence

around you a wide variety of oc-

casions for practicing such charity.

Some of them are the following:

1. Death calls forth the charity

of the living toward the dying. If

you understand death, you don’t

want to die unprepared. By the

same token, you do not want any-

body else to die unprepared. And

you will be on the alert to use

every possible means to assist the

dying.

One of your favorite prayers will

be that God’s grace will be extend-

ed, even at the last moment, to

those who are about to die without

it. An indulgenced form of this
prayer is: "Heart of Jesus once in

agony, have pity on the dying.’’

You will not be deterred by hu-

man respect or any other unworthy

motive from helping even dying

strangers, whom you may chance
upon in accidents, to make acts of

perfect sorrow for their sins, trust

in the merits of Christ, love of God

and desire for baptism, as the need

may be.

Above all, you must be ready to

do everything possible for members

of your family and close friends

when they are sick and dying. You

will call the priest to minister to

them in good time; you will en-

courage and help them with their

prayers; you will pray at their bed-

side even when consciousness has

gone, that God will remain with

them to the end.

2. Death inspires sweet and ef-

fective charity toward the bereaved.

Those who love someone greatly

and lose that person by death are

inclined in the first moments of

their bereavement to forget the

truth about death and the lessons

it is meant to teach.

It is then that your charity as a

friend keeps reminding them of

the truth, and, if they have not

been living so as to be prepared for

a good death, gently suggests that

they take the lesson of another’s

death to their own hearts.

Indeed, you alone, if you are a

true Christian, will have anything

of value to say to the bereaved

who mourn the passing of one

whom they loved. You alone can

speak with conviction of the glori-

ous exchange the dead person has

made of this life for a better one.

You alone can speak the comfort-

ing words that promise a reunion

of the grieving living with the

departed dead. You alone can en-

5



courage, as your love will inspire,

the bereaved to act on the reminder

given by death that the only thing

that truly matters for anybody is

that he die well prepared.

3. Death presents occasions for

true acts of charity toward the dead.

Within the explanation of death

that God has given through His

Son and that He keeps before your

mind through the Church He

founded and .guides, two truths are

contained that inspire your active

charity toward the dead.

Day of Decision

The first is the truth that at death

the power of meriting stops for a

soul. This means that it is no longer

possible for one who has died to

pay any debt that he owes to God

except through suffering. If he died

in mortal sin his debt will be paid

forever in hell. If he died in venial

sin, or without having made full

atonement for sins that were for-

given, he must pay the debt in a

place called purgatory. Only those

who completely turned from God

by mortal sin are condemned to

hell. But those who die with slight

defects or a small debt still owed

cannot enter heaven till "the last

farthing of the debt is paid.”

The second is the truth that the

living can help to pay the small

debts still owed by the souls of the

dead. The living still have the pow-

er of meriting; they can still draw

on the infinite merits of Christ;

they can, through the perseverance

of their love, apply their merits to

the relief of those who cannot

merit for themselves any more.

You can practice the charity in-

spired by these two truths in two

ways. First, by taking part in the

wake and the funeral of one who

has died and making these occa-

sions for prayer and sacrifice in

their behalf. At the wake you kneel

beside the body and join in reciting

the rosary and other prayers for the

one who has been taken away. At

the funeral you unite with others

in offering the holy sacrifice of the

Mass for his soul, saying over and

over again in the consoling words

of the liturgy, "Eternal rest grant

unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual
light shine upon him.”

Secondly, you practice charity to

the dead by remembering them

long after the funeral. You do so

by offering up the loneliness of

separation and the pangs of grief

to atone for their sins. You do so

by repeated prayers in their behalf,

and by offering up the sacrifice of

the Mass and the reception of Holy

Communion again and again for

their souls. And this charity is not

confined to your own beloved dead,

but embraces all who are in purga-

tory waiting for the vision of God.

Thus does death lead to life. It

leads to the life that can be found

only in the teachings of Christ, who

took the mystery out of death and

made it an occasion for thinking

of the eternal life He merited for

all. It leads to life because it con-

stitutes a most powerful motive for

avoiding the everlasting death that

is caused by sin. And it leads to life

because it inspires the charity that

releases others from bondage and

suffering, and speeds their entry

into the glorious vision and life

everlasting with God.

6



WHAT IS YOUR ATTITUDE

TOWARD DEATH?

Under the heading “Must

You Die?" an advertise-

ment appeared recently in

many daily newspapers. Its

message was of the "come-

on” sort of which dealers in

occult and superstitious for-

mulas of happiness make

frequent use. It did not say

outright that it offered you

freedom from death though

the question in its heading quite

broadly hinted that it could; but it

did speak about strange powers that

would be handed over to you if you

would just write to such and such

an address.

Of course the sane man and

woman will have nothing to do

with any formula of happiness that

is predicated on even the hint that

it can preserve human beings from

bodily death.

But leaving the insane to their

dreams of escaping inevitable death,

we may say that among those who

are sane enough to know that they

will some day surely die, there is an

interesting variety of attitudes

about death. Inde^, a man’s atti-

tude toward death is a key to his

whole character. Among the six
such attitudes specifically named

below every human being can

be pigeon-holed and a con-

siderable body of facts about

his life and character can be

set down from the classi-

fication to which he belongs.

Since this is a listing of

all possible attitudes toward

death, it will be of great

value for every reader to find

himself under the proper

heading, and to see whether

or not a true picture of his general

character is given there. By contrast-

ing in his mind the logic of these

various attitudes toward death, a

reader may be inspired to see which

is the only one that conforms to

reality and makes sense out of life

itself.

1. You have convinced yourself

that there is no such thing as life

after death.

There are two ways in which

this conviction comes to take hold

of the mind of a human being. The

first is through association, espe-

cially in his formative years, with

highly reputed but materialistic

scientists, philosophers, literateurs

and educators. In choice language

and with a background of seeming-

ly vast erudition, these latter speak

scornfully of such realities as the

soul, an intelligent personal God,

7



life after death, heaven and hell,

etc. Heard often enough, these ir-

responsible snipings at the truths

of the invisible world can paralyze

the thinking processes of the im-

mature. They have no way of

knowing how warped is the judg-

ment and how shallow the thinking

of the "masters” and "doctors” who

teach them.

Jungle Law

The other source of the convic-

tion that there is no life after death

is the overwhelming desire to be

unrestricted in the pursuit of the

sweets of life on earth. There is

always some of this combined with

supine subjection to the opinions

of erudite atheists, as there is much

of it in the latter themselves. In

every human being there is, at

times, a feeling that it would be

wonderful not to have to worry

about laws, punishments, life after

death, heaven and hell. If, despite

the objections of the mind, this

feeling is given in to, and if one

acts for a time as if there were no

laws, punishments, life after death,

etc., one can come to believe that

his feelings represent the truth.

Even the intellea, such is the ten-

dency toward pride in human be-

ings, does not mind being told that

there is no intellect above it, and

no authority that it need respect.

But those who have convinced

themselves that there is no life

after death are the dangerous mem-

bers of society. Against the strong

uprisings of their animal passions

they see no reason for objection or

combat. They want free love, pro-

miscuity, birth-control, abortion.

mercy-killings, etc., established as

law. They usually hate churches and

clergymen, because these stand in

the way of the unlimited license

they want, and at the same time

continually remind them of an im-

mortality they have denied. If the

world were left to be run by such

men, its name would be chaos.

2. You have convinced yourself

that after death you will live only

in the memory of your posterity.

The religion of humanitarianism,

divorced from the last shred of

theology, has created this convic-

tion in the minds of many. Man’s

purpose in life, according to this

"religion,” is to make a name for

himself by doing good to others,

by relieving human suffering, by

spreading laughter and happiness,

by promoting peace, in short, by

making this world a better place

for all to live in. A man’s sole
reward for dedicating his life to

these purposes will be, after his

death, the eulogies that will be

spoken of him, the statues erected

in his honor, the praises bestowed

on him by the history books. He
will not be conscious of any of

these things, because death will be

the end of him, body and soul.

Only his name will remain in hon-

or, if he has served mankind, in

dishonor if he has added to its

sufferings.

The funeral sermons of many

religious ministers seem to have

nothing more to offer the dead of

whom they speak than this sur-
vival among the memories of their

friends. In real life, however, it

just doesn’t work as a very effective

incentive for being good, even good

8



to others in a humanitarian sort of

way. There are thousands of men
who care nothing for what posterity
will think of them one way or the
other, when they will no longer be
consciously thinking themselves;

they want only to have as good a

time as possible in this world, and

all such ideals as social justice,

conjugal chastity, forgiveness of

enemies, etc., are not permitted to

stand in their way. There are oth-

ers who are temperamentally in-
clined to a sort of expansive, effu-

sive "do-goodism,” but it is all

pretty much on the surface, if they
look forward to no survival after
d^th. It doesn’t stop them from
divorcing their wives and ruining

the lives of their children if that

happens to recommend itself to
their passions; they make speeches
about brotherly love, but that

doesn’t prevent them from under-
paying their employees; they may
join in highly publicized hospital

drives, but will undermine a busi-
ness competitor at every oppor-

tunity. Desiring to have a good
reputation, even after death, has

some value as a motive for external
and public goodness; it has none
for overcoming selfishness, which
is of a secret and private nature.

If you have convinced yourself

that your only life after death will

be as a memory, you won’t let

humanitarianism stand in the way
of your having as much joy as you
can squeeze out of this world. And
you will wonder why you are so
miserable, even though you take

everything you want.

3. You have convinced yourself
that there is a life after death, hut

that there is no such place as an

eternal hell.

Perhaps you are among those
who use one of two arguments for
denying the existence of hell. The
first argument is usually expressed

as follows: "God is too good to

create an eternal hell.’’ This is some-

times elaborated by the words: "If

I were God, I would not create a

hell, therefore God could not create
one.’’ This foolish argumentation

blinds itself to the fact that it was

God’s goodness that created free

and immortal beings, and that the

test of their freedom must lie in

their choosing between heaven and

hell. The tremendous privilege of
being able to choose and enjoy an

eternal happiness had to be coun-

ter-balanced by each man’s freedom

to choose eternal hell. If you have

convinced yourself that there is a

heaven but no hell, you have made
a fool out of God and a dumb
brute out of man who couldn’t en-
joy heaven even when he got there.

The other reason often given for

the denial of hell is the principle

of the popular magazine writers

that every sinner suffers all the hell

he deserves right here in this world.

This simply does not conform eith-

er to fact or principle. The fact is
that a great many people get con-
siderable undeserved joy out of their

sins, and by them, inflict tremen-

dous pain on others. The principle

is that to turn against God by seri-
ous rebellion against His laws, and

to remain thus turned against Him
until death, deserves the eternal

punishment of never enjoying the

vision of God, which is the essence

of hell.

9



The truth is that few people

who have been instructed in the

elements of Christianity ever feel

inclined to deny hell until they

want to do or to have something

that makes them deserving of eter-

nal hell. Catholic divorcees often

approach their second (and invalid)

marriages bravely shouting to them-

selves that there cannot be a hell.

Catholics who adopt birth-control

as a regular feature of their mar-

ried lives keep whispering to each

other that there cannot be a hell.

The idea of doubting this clear

teaching of Jesus Christ never came

to them until they wanted some-

thing that Jesus Christ forbade.

God’s Merit System

4. You are convinced that there

is an eternal hell, but that prac-

tically nobody goes there after

death.

Much of the freedom from

worry about hell into which people

have lulled themselves has devel-

oped from the cardinal principle of

the Reformation. This principle

states that all one needs, to be

saved from hell and to enter heav-

en, is to believe in the merits of

Christ. While it is true that most

non-Catholic teachers maintain that

a true belief in the merits of Christ

will show itself in good works, even

though the good works are of no

value for salvation, it does not

work out that way in practice. The

psychological effect of telling peo-

ple that all they must do to be

saved is to believe in Christ as their

Redeemer, and that good deeds

have nothing whatsoever to do with

deciding one’s fate, is that they will

begin sooner or later to abandon

moral principles and even Christ’s

definite commands. Surely the non-

Catholic compromise on birth-con-

trol, divorce and remarriage, eutha-

nasia, etc., can be traced clearly

back to the naive acceptance of the

unscriptural dictum that all one

needs to be saved is a belief in the

merits of Christ. Out of that same

shrunken Christianity arises the be-

lief that it is almost impossible

to go to hell.

Another consideration that peo-

ple sometimes advance to lull them-

selves into a sense of security about

hell is phrased as follows: "What

I’m doing may be wrong, but if I

am sent to hell for it. I’ll find plenty

of company there.” The implication

is that "there are so many of us

so-called sinners that God could not

possibly send us all to hell,” or that

"with so much company hell won’t

be so very bad.” In this attitude it

is forgotten that each soul will be

judged after death as if it were the

only immortal soul ever created by

God. It will be judged according to

its deeds, not according to what

others did. It is also forgotten that

the companionships of hell will

constitute one of its greatest tor-

tures.

5. You are convinced that there

is a hell, and you know that if you

were to die suddenly now you

would have to be sent there, but

you are also convinced that you will

not die for a long time and that

just before you do, you will recon-

cile yourself with God.

In other words, you are living

much as you please, and wherever

10



sin holds out profit or pleasure, you

embrace it. But there is plenty of

time ahead. You are not going to
die for a long time. As death draws

nearer, you will wisely withdraw

from your sins, and just before the

end you will make a magnificent
act of contrition and a sincere con-

fession, and so escape eternal pun-

ishment.

But your reckoning contains

some egregious flaws. Despite your

cock-sureness, your death might be

very sudden and very soon. Also,

you are forgetting that you cannot,

either now or thirty or forty years
from now, make a good act of con-
trition without God’s grace, and the

way you are living is lessening by
the hour your chances of cooperat-

ing with such a grace from God.

You are making the mistake that
so many thousands have made: of
failing to see that most men are
permitted by God to die pretty
much after the fashion in which
they have lived. Your promised
deathbed conversion is a mirage, a

delusion, a terrible deception of the

devil.

It does, of course, make life very
sweet, to take whatever you can

get out of sin, with the expecta-

tion of giving it all up and making
a friend of God in the end. But
the fact is that God refuses to be
rnocked by people who plan their
lives in this way. Neither does

He mock the good people who
throughout life made many sacri-
fices and suffered many hardships
to avoid hell, by making it very
easy for persons like yourself to

retreat from the hell your whole
life was planned to deserve.

6. You are convinced that there
is a hell which will last forever,

that you will be sent there if you

die at enmity with God, and that

the only sure way to avoid that fate
is to live each day as if you might

die that day.

There is nothing doubtful, in the

words of Christ, the Son of God,

about the reality of hell. He said
plainly that it is the place to which

the unrepentant sinner will be con-

demned forever, that there "the

worm dieth not, and the fire is
never extinguished”, that "it is far

better to go into heaven blind and

maimed and lame, than with two
eyes and two hands and two feet

to be cast into the depths of hell.’*

He did more than that. He made
it clear that no man can live as he
pleases, with no regard for God’s
laws, and in the end cry out "Lord,

Lord” and be saved. He said: "Be
always ready, for you know not the
day nor the hour.” He said that
death will come as a thief in the
night and that blessed is the man
who is found watchful and ready.
And He gave no comforting assur-
ances that only a very few would

be condemned to hell; rather He
spoke of the throng to whom He
would have to say: "Depart from

me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.”

You are a wise man or woman,
if your attitude toward death is

based on these basic truths. And
you are beyond being frightened by
talk of atom bombs, and chemical

warfare, and future catastrophies,

so long as you are convinced that

death in any form will be but your

gateway to a life of happiness with

God forever.

11



What Happens AFTER DEATH?

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Events will take place very

rapidly in the moment after

you die. What those events

will be has been argued by

different men.

Only one person has lived

who knew the exact and

whole truth about what will

happen to you after you die.

He was Christ, the Son of

God, and He has told you

the truth. Here is a picture, drawn

from the central facts He has made

known to you, of how things will

go with you after you die.

No matter how you die, the

moment of death will be marked

by a sharp awakening of brilliant

consciousness. You will know who

you are, what you have been, what

you were intended for, what you

have done with your life. This sud-

den burst of fuller consciousness

than you ever knew before may

have been preceded by hours or

even days of unconsciousness. Per-

haps you will be very sick before

you die; you will recognize nobody

and have no awareness of yourself;

you will appear to be merely a

laboriously breathing human body.

People around you, possibly, will

not even be able to discern the

exact moment of your death, so

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quietly will you slip away.

But you will know the exact

moment yourself. Never in

your life was there so much

light around you. Never did

you see things so clearly and

so sharply as you do now.

Or, you may die sudden-

ly, in an accident or of a

heart attack or in a furious

struggle against drowning.

You will be conscious right up to

the minute or two before you die.

But even in that case, your previous

consciousness will seem like half-

sleep in comparison with the sud-

den awareness of yourself and of

other things that will come to you

in the moment of your dying.

If you are old and tired and

sleepy just before you die, you will

suddenly feel, in the moment of

death, like a young person with

the fullest vigor of your faculties

indeed, with a power of thinking

and willing that will be easier and

more acute than you ever experi-

enced in the full vigor of your

youth. One reason for this more

perfect consciousness and mental

activity after death is that your

mind and will no longer have to

act through the sluggish instru-

mentality of your body. In life on

12



earth, nothing can enter your mind

except it approach through your

bodily senses, your sense memory,

your imagination. It takes time to

think things out while living on

earth because body and soul have

to work together, and the body can

often interfere with, instead of as-

sisting, the process of thinking in

the soul. At death, the body will

no longer be required for thinking,

and it will no longer be able to

distract your mind or to cloud your

vision. You will see things as they
are— yourself, your companions,
your deeds, your whole life, God.

Instant Judgment

With this new and brilliant con-

sciousness of yourself and other

things, you will now be subjected
to an instantaneous judgment and

sentence on the part of Jesus Christ,

Who, according to Sacred Scrip-
ture and His own words, "has been
appointed to be the judge of the

living and the dead.”

With your new ability to see
things as they really are, and with

some help from God, you will in
a moment be shown your entire
life. This review of your life will

bear no comparison with that which

some people have reported as pass-
ing before their eyes when they
seemed to be drowning, though at
the last moment they were saved.
This review will be not merely fac-

tual, but interpretive; that is, you
will see the true value or the real

evil of all that you did in life. You
will not even think of making any
of the foolish excuses for evil that

passed so glibly from your lips in
life, because now a foolish excuse

will appear as that and nothing

more; there will not be anybody

but God and yourself concerned,
and you will be fully and over-

whelmingly aware of how His
knowledge penetrates everything

and brings into light every secret

and long hidden motive of your

soul.

But the important things that

your mind will fix itself on in that

instant of your judgment will be

the last conscious decision you

made about God before you died.
It is true, you will wonder, now
that you have a glimpse of God in
the clear-thinking moment of your
judgment, how you could have had
any but one disposition toward

God, that of love and longing to be

with Him. But at the same time

you will know how exceedingly
important it was to love Him be-
fore you saw Him, when you knew
Him only from His creation and
His words.

Fateful Decision

So with a fixed intensity you

behold your last conscious and de-

liberate decision about God. Per-

haps that decision was made many
years before you died. Made some-
what in this way: "I suppose there

is a God. I suppose He made the
world and me. I suppose I could

learn something about Him and
what He asks of me if I tried. But
there are many other interesting
things in life. And there are bur-
dens attached to thinking about

God. If there is a God, I surely do

not need Him, and I will not have

Him . . .” It is hard to set down
with what anguish this decision

13



will be recalled in the moment

when your soul will catch its first

glimpse of God!

Or perhaps your last conscious

decision about God was made in

the form of a choice of sin, of

something you knew was contrary

to everything God loved and every-

thing He ever said. By accepting

it you closed God out of your life

—you knew it—you knew it. You

thought at times of giving it up;

you still could choose God. But

you did not; the ties grew tighter;

the sins grew even sweeter; you

kept pushing God back—back—and

that turned out to be your last con-

scious decision about God. You see

it so clearly now; every new sin

and new decision; every chance

for repentance, reform, confession;

every push you gave to God, send-

ing Him out of your consciousness

and away from the love you knew

you owed to Him; then the last

push—the last decision. And the

irony of how little you got out of

it, how fragile and momentary were

the satisfactions of your sins, now

that you look into the face of God!

Then You Will See

Or perhaps your last decision

about God was simply one in which

you stated (to yourself and to oth-

ers) that God was asking too much

of you, and that what He offered

in return for what He asked was

not good enough for you. Your

clear vision in this moment of

judgment gives you a view of heav-

en and hell such as you could never

have had on earth. But God had

put those realities into words; you

knew what the words meant. Now

you not only know, but you see.

And your excruciating agony is to
know that the last will-act you

made about God was to decide that
heaven was not worth the routine

of Mass-going, Sacrament-receiving,

fasting and abstaining, and law-

keeping that His authority demand-

ed, and that hell was not to be

feared as a prospect. How you
would like to escape consciousness

now as your mind is fixed on that

last decision, or even to go mad,

insane, to escape the consequences

of that decision. But that decision

was your madness; now there is

only clear, logical, inescapable

thinking, in the light of the su-

preme vision and justice of God.

Your Last Decision

Perhaps, too, your last decision

in life about God will now come

before you as one of love. It was

when you thought of heaven and

hell and the cross on which Christ

died and of your desire for God’s

love. And you died shortly after

that turning of your face entirely

to God! That was your last deci-

sion, your latest choice about God:

you loved Him—you loved Him—
and you died loving Him thus.

Everything that contributed to that

last act of love comes before you,

and a great outburst of gratitude

wells up from your will for each

word of prayer, each deed of sacri-

fice, each victory of virtue, that

made possible your last act of love.

Thus, though it takes long to

write of it and to read it, your

judgment will be instantaneous,

and your sentence will be part of

it, and this will depend on the last

14



decision you made concerning God

before you died.

After the judgment, you will im-

mediately go to the place you have

chosen for yourself by that last

decision concerning God.

If the last decision was against

God, in favor of something you

could have only by ignoring or re-

jecting God, your place will be hell.

You will go there immediately. It

will be a terrible moment, but its

terror will not be momentary—it

will stretch into eternity. Its agony

will be intensified by the fact that

you will know how easy it would

have been to escape this fate.

Strangely, too, where in life you

had often said that if you went to

hell you would have plenty of com-

pany there, now the company you

find in hell only adds to your suf-

fering, But the worst thing you will

experience in hell will be the sep-

aration from God, now that you

know, with the new, sharp, after-

death clarity of vision, that you

never needed, and never will need,

anybody or anything but Him to
make you happy. At the same time,

that last decision you made in life

against God will have crystallized
into a permanent hatred of God,

which you will not be able to

escape even though you know how

much you need Him.

If your last decision about God

was one of love and perfect self-

surrender to God’s will, with no

element of inclination to oppose

Him remaining in your soul, your
place will be heaven. You will
be transported there immediately.

Now, as you enter heaven, you will

think of many of the scornful

things that agnostics and pretend-

ing atheists said about it on earth.

Your thought is swallowed up in

supreme pity for them... This is

like nothing that ever pleased you

before . . . This is everything . .

.

This is what you want . . .everything

you want . . . this will be forever.

And if your last decision about

God while you still lived on earth

was a mixed decision, one in which

you loved God and wanted God,

but not quite enough to give up a

little selfishness, a little peevish-

ness, a little vanity, a little envy,

then your place will be purgatory.

You will go there immediately.

You will know so clearly that the

little moral sores must be healed,

the little sins must be atoned for

in suffering. Perhaps you will catch

a glimpse of heaven on your way

to the prison of purgatory, and then

there will be a strange mixture

within you of tormenting sadness

that you cannot enter your "home”

at once, and of deeply rooted joy

that you have not lost it forever.

Final Judgment

Thus will it happen to you when

you die. And when, finally, God

decrees the end of the world in

which you had lived, your soul will

come forth from wherever your

life’s last decision about God placed

it, will be reunited with your body

refashioned from the dust or mold

or earth into which it decayed, and

you, body and soul, will be judged

and sentenced a second time. This

time before the eyes of all man-

kind. Remember, you and you alone

make the choice.

15



HOW TO THINK
ABOUT HEAVEN

It is safe to say that many

people find loyalty to God

and the persevering practice

of religion burdensome only

because they have not ac-

quired the important habit

of thinking about heaven.

Just as the thought of

hell is a powerful deter-

rent to surrender to evil, so

the thought of heaven is a

mighty inspiration to good. Chris-

tians cannot do without either. God

has so fashioned human nature that

it cannot attain to any worthwhile

goals without both the goals of

fear and the incentives of hope.

This is especially true of the final

and all embracing destiny that all

were made to attain.

A great many obstacles to the
thought of heaven must be over-

come by Christians of today. The

obstacles arise from the attitudes

of thousands around them, who

have given up or never possessed

faith in Christ, who have been be-

trayed into a renunciation of their

thinking powers, and who have, as

a result, built up a way of liv-

ing for themselves in which the

thought of heaven plays no part.

They are a sorry lot, for whom life

becomes more mysterious day by

day. They are part of a

great puzzle, the key to

whose solution they have

never been given or have

thrown away.

Some never think about

heaven because they profess

to disbelieve or doubt more

fundamental truths about

man, such as survival after

death, immortality, a per-

sonal relation to God. Some of

these in turn have just never given

a thought to such truths. Their

education never referred to them,

and their minds were never devel-

oped beyond an ability to count

money, to choose clothing and food,

and to keep score at a baseball

game.

Others, such as scientists, his-

torians and so-called philosophers

in universities, who have accepted

like children the anti-religious

cliches of scientists, historians and

so-called philosophers who went

before them, have thought about

immortality and heaven only to

scoff at them as fables. The sterility

of their minds is best revealed by

the fact that they cannot even dis-

tinguish the figures of speech that

religious poets have used to de-

scribe heaven from the essential

16



happiness it promises to give.

"Who wants to play a harp for-
ever.^” they ask scornfully. Or they
say: "The idea of singing songs

forever, which is the Christian’s

idea of heaven, is utterly boring

to us.” Such comments are the mark
of empty and vapid minds.

There are many more who never
think about heaven because they

have wrapped themselves up com-
pletely in the dream of making a
Paradise out of this world. This is
a strange phenomenon. If nothing

else, the universal fact of death, and

the unpredictability of its summons,

make it a pipe-dream. But they go
on dreaming. Humanitarians keep
telling them that they are about to
eliminate the possibility of war.

Divorce courts keep giving them
a chance to try out new husbands
and wives. They live, grow old or
sick, and die, and go down into
history as but the latest examples

of human beings who lived on a
futile and empty dream.

limths About Heaven

Because heaven is so important

for all human beings, indeed, be-
cause it is the only important goal
to be kept before them, there are
here presented the four major
truths about heaven that Christians

recognize in reason and accept on
divine faith. It is hoped that this
outline will not only fortify those

who believe in heaven and have
not been thinking enough about it,
but it will also fall into the hands

of some of those who have never
known anything about heaven.

1 .

Heaven is a state of perfect
and eternal happiness whose reality
is evident to reason, revealed by

Christ, and intended by God to be
won by all human beings as their
final goal.

What, someone will ask, can rea-
son tell a person about heaven.?

Reason, when not sidetracked by
the influence of passion or corrupt-

ed by a perverse free will, can give
a person a strong conviction of the

existence of heaven, though it can-
not of itself reach a knowledge of
what the actual heaven God has
created will be like.

Reason, that is, reaching conclu-

sions from the evidence around
one, can come to a certain knowl-
edge of the existence of a personal,

intelligent God. It can reach cer-
tainty on the fact that God is all-
wise, all-powerful, all-good. It can

know that God could never act
foolishly, unwisely, purposelessly.

Turning to human nature, reason
can perceive the spirituality of

man’s soul, and through that, the
immortality to which it is destined.
It can ascertain that the mind and
will of man were made for perfect
knowledge and perfect love, the
sum of which is perfect happiness.
It can see that this perfect knowl-
edge and perfect love are un-
attainable in this world.

Therefore, returning to the

thought of the wisdom, power and
goodness of God, reason can argue
the fact that He must have created
a place or a state wherein these

obvious goals of the nature of man
can be attained. There would be

17



no wisdom in God if He created

any objea for a definite purpose,

evident in the object itself, and

then made it impossible for that

purpose to be attained. Aristotle,

perhaps the greatest natural thinker

the world has ever known, which

means one who used his reason

without having access to any of

the revelations of God to man,

cried out when he was dying:

"Cause of all causes, save me.” Im-

plicit in that cry was a recognition

of God, of immortality, of some

kind of heaven, and at the same

time his reason s recognition of the

fact that there was a fate from

which a man had to be saved.

Revelations

But this matter is so important,

and man is so inclined to misuse

or mistrust his reason, that God

did not leave it to man’s reason

alone to reach the necessary con-

clusions. He revealed the fact and

something of the nature of heaven

directly through His divine Son,

Jesus Christ. The whole mission of

Christ on earth centered around the

fact of heaven. He came, in His

own words, to save that which was

lost, which meant those who had

lost the way to heaven. He came
that all might have life and have it

more abundantly, i.e., more abund-

antly than it can be had in this

world, as abundantly as it can be

had only in heaven. He came to

say, in a thousand ways: "Your re-

ward is in heaven.”

Both reason and the words of

Christ make it also clear that the

heaven for which all were made

must be earned by each individual.

It is not difficult to understand that,

for a free creature of God, heaven

would not be a state of happiness

in the real sense of the word if it

were forced on him, if he had

nothing to say or do about it. It is

the glory of his freedom and essen-

tial to his happiness than a man

earn his rewards. This earning

means paying a price, choosing be-

tween alternatives, avoiding an un-

happiness proportionately as great

as the happiness than can be won.

Of course, Christ revealed that

man’s power to earn heaven only

began with his redemption from

original sin and its eflPects through

His death on the cross. But the

earning still remained necessary.

The final answer to all who would

like to think that Christ paid the

whole price for men’s salvation was

given by Christ Himself in these

words: "Not every man that saith

to me: Lord, Lord! shall enter the

kingdom of heaven, but he that

doth the will of my Father, only he
shall enter the kingdom of heaven.”

2 .

Heaven means rescue and escape

from eternal unhappiness, and the

eternal absence of all sorrow and

pain.

It is necessary to approach the

thought of what heaven will be

like in a negative way. What does

one escape by reaching heaven?

What will one be spared from for-

ever if he succeeds in winning the

reward that God wants him to

attain?

Christ used a number of signifi-

cant synonyms to express, in a

negative way, "the one thing nec-

18



essary” that is to be sought by all.

He called it "redemption,” "salva-

tion,” "liberation,” "restoration,”

"resurrection,” "incorruption.”

Every one of these words repre-

sents, in one way or another, emer-

gence from a sorry state, from a

miserable and unhappy lot. The

man who finds the way to heaven

is redeemed from captivity to

Satan; he is saved from the eternal

fires of hell; he is liberated from

hopelessness and despair; he is re-

stored to a hope and happiness he

had lost; he is raised from death

to life; he exchanges the corruption

of the body for the incorruption of

the saints in glory. From each of

these phrases, therefore, one can

take much to think about concern-

ing heaven.

While the attainment of heaven

raises one from a state of misery

and unhappiness, it also places one

in a state in which there will not

be even any passing, momentary,

recurring reasons for sorrow. St.

John expresses this wonderful truth

in these poetic words of his Apoca-

lypse: "And God shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes; and death

shall be no more, nor mourning,

nor grieving, nor sorrow shall be

any more, for the former things

have passed away.”

Only, of course, when one has

attained heaven will this promise

be fulfilled. But it affords frequent

and compelling opportunities for

thoughts about heaven in this

world. It is this that gives to the

mind of man an explanation of the
problem of evil and suffering that

is adequate for the bearing of any

catastrophe. If there is a heaven,

a heaven that will last forever, a

heaven that must be earned, a heav-

en in which no one will ever have

cause for mourning or grieving,

then not even a long lifetime of

uninterrupted suffering on earth is

too great a price to pay for it. Such

a price is rarely demanded of any-

one by God. But who could say it

would be too much if it truly

earned a billion years of unclouded

joy? But a billion years do not rep-

resent even the beginning of heaven.

Thoughts of Heaven

It is therefore the thought of

heaven that comes to true Chris-

tians in the midst of the sorrows

they must endure and the hardships

that arise from loyal obedience to

God. Have you been stricken with

illness in what people call the best

years of life? Don’t fret. You shall

have billions of years of perfect

health, with a body in its prime, if

you do not turn against God. Has

your home been invaded by death,

which took away in most untimely

fashion your mother, your husband

or wife, your child? Don’t grieve

without hope. You shall have un-

counted years of perfect compan-

ionship if you don’t fail to reach

heaven. Are you tempted to offend

God in your married life, by in-

fidelity, by sinful birth-control, in

order to be sure of a few good

years of pleasure or prosperity?

What a fool you would be to suc-
cumb, when you thereby gain so

little and lose so much—an eternity
of love without shadow and secur-

ity without worry! St. Paul, who
suffered much for Christ, put all

19



this briefly when he said: "For I

reckon that the sufferings of this

time are not worthy to be com-

pared with the glory to come, that

shall be revealed in us.”

3 .

Heaven is the full and positive

enjoyment of all the powers and

parts luith which human nature is

endowed.

While it is impossible to experi-

ence on earth anything like the

joys of heaven, it is not difficult to

know in what they will consist.

St. Paul said: "Eye hath not seen,

nor ear heard, nor hath it entered

into the mind of man to conceive

what things God has prepared for

them that love Him.” While this

is a negative statement, there is a

positive element implict in it also.

It reveals that heaven is something

for the eyes, for the ears, for the

heart, for all the sublime faculties

with which man is endowed. To

catch glimpses of the joy of heaven,

a person has only to recognize the

nature of his own yearnings, and

the character of the things that

partially fulfill his yearnings. Then,

if he adds to this the thought of

what Christ has made him heir to

by elevating his nature to kinship

with God, by participation in the

divine nature, he will have con-

victions about heaven that no con-

ceivable future good of earth will

ever be able to compete with as

motives for action.

It does not require learned psy-

chological insight to perceive that

all the joys that human nature was

made to know center around two

things. One of these is the appre-

hension and appreciation of beauty;

the other is union of the heart with

others through love. Every joyous

experience that is ever known on

earth springs from either of these

two sources. But only heaven will

bring them to their fullest, all-

satisfying best.

Human nature has many facul-

ties that thrill to the vision of

beauty. The eyes, to the grandeur

of nature’s scenery; the ears to the

strains of music; the memory to

the recalled visions of the past; the

imagination to new combinations

of the elements of beauty that have

been seen in various objects; and,

at work through all these others,

and thrilling by itself to the splen-

dor of truth wherever seen, the

intellect that makes man the image

of God. It is a truism to say that no

man ever sees enough of beauty or

learns enough of truth to satisfy

him in this world. The vision of the

most gorgeous sunset, the memory

of the most perfect scene, the sud-

den rapturous grasp of the long

concealed and magnificent truth,

always leaves him thirsting for

something more. What that some-

thing more is Christ has taught

clearly. It is the Beatific Vision

which is the essence of heaven.

This is the final satisfaction of all

man’s restless quest of beauty that

will come when he gazes directly

into the infinite beauty of God, and

sees all the infinite varieties of

lesser beauty and all the intricate

intertwinings of truth as in its

source there. When he attains that,

he will never know again the rest-

lessness of looking for something

more.

20



The enjoyment of beauty is fol-

lowed or accompanied in human

nature by the delights of love. Men
and women have a variety of ap-

petites that seek the embrace and

possession of what is not only

beautiful but good. Some of these

appetites he has in common with

the brute creation. As brute animals

die and become extinct, so in

heaven the purely material appe-

tites will in a sense be extinct, or

rather submerged in the unspeak-

able satisfaction of the higher ap-

petites for love.

Man’s Search

The yearning of the human heart

for perfect love is evident from the

beginning to the end of life on

earth. The greatest joys of life on

earth are the joys of love. But they

never reach completeness on earth;

they are never without the shadows

of misunderstanding, the fears of

change, the unhappy moments of

separation and disagreement, the

barriers that still leave areas of

loneliness in the soul. The saddest

of all human beings are those who

know nothing about heaven, and

who keep rushing about seeking a

perfect love among created persons

and things. They never find what

they seek; they even lose what they

were made to find by seeking it in

the wrong objects.

Perfect, all-satisfying love re-

quires a perfect object, and there

is only one such perfect object.

That is God. Wisely does God con-
ceal His exquisite beauty from a

man on earth because, once seen,
it would leave him no longer free;

he would be blindly bound to love

God as the animal is bound to obey
the instincts fashioned into its

nature by God. The winning of

heaven therefore, means choosing,

loving, serving God without the
vision, with only faith in and in-

tellectual knowledge of His su-

preme goodness and worthiness of

love. But once the trial of freedom

is over, once one has earned his

reward, every vibrating desire for

the perfect love of a perfect lover

will find fulfillment. The vision of

God will manifest that there is

nothing outside of God worth lov-

ing, nothing to be loved by a hu-

man being except it be in God.

It is in this truth that one per-

ceives how perfect will be the love

of human friends, relatives, associ-

ates, in heaven. There they will

seem as gifts of the goodness of

God. There the love of human

friends and relatives who helped

each other reach heaven will be

purged of all inconstancy, imper-

fection, changeableness. There new

friends will be found and old will

become new, in the ever luminous,

ever varied, ever active circle that

is bathed by the perfect love of

God.

4.

The justified anticipation of
heaven makes possible the only

true peace and happiness one can

experience in this world.

There are three elements that

enter indispensably into the posses-

sion of peace of heart in this pass-

ing world. One by one they are

these:

1) The acceptance of life on

earth as a test, a trial, a proving

ground for something inconceiv-

21



ably better. No worse mistake can
be made by anyone than that of

attaching the note of finality to life

on earth. It is that mistake which

leads to the uprisings of passion

against reason, of one passion

against another, of man against

fellow-man, of nation against na-

tion, of every type of conflict that

is the contradiction of peace. Peo-

ple who know that they are but

making a journey, that they are on

their way to something better than

the present life can offer, will not

be inclined to quarrel with their

fellow-travelers, nor to risk getting

off the right road by succumbing

to the attraction of ephemeral

pleaures that offer themselves along

the way.

2) The thought of heaven, in

joy and in sorrow. It is the inevit-

able fate of those who do not think

about heaven to think too much

about the comforts, enjoyments,

thrills, that are possible on earth.

They cannot help themselves. They

were made for happiness. If they

exclude from their thinking the

true happiness for which they were

made, they will continually try to

find substitutes in the created

things around them. Theirs will be

no true peace because what they

want is not where they are looking

for it.

3) The realization that heaven

has to be earned, through the ac-

ceptance of Christ's merits and the

fulfillment of His will, and that it

is worth a far greater price than

anyone has ever been asked to pay

for it. It is only the justified an-

ticipation of heaven that brings

peace to the heart. People who con-

.

vince themselves that everybody

will one day reach heaven, that God

is too good to send anybody to hell,

that there is no sin great enough

to bar one from heaven, do not find

peace. How can they, when they
are contradicting their own nature,

which is so fashioned that it can

be satisfied only with a hope that is

anchored to action and effort on

the part of their free will? Those

who try to believe that all will

reach heaven some day, no matter

how they live, usually end by deny-

ing that there is a heaven, just as

they have all along denied that

there is a hell.

What Heaven Means

The justified anticipation of

heaven, which is the essence of

hope, means two things. It means

dependence on the merits and

promises of Christ the Redeemer,

and the use of the spiritual means

that He devised as channels through

which the saving merits of His

death flow into the soul. It also

means following Him in obedience,

carrying a cross with Him in res-

ignation trying to grow into a like-

ness of Him by the practice of all

the virtues. He modeled for the

world. Hope is for those who have

accepted a Savior who did for

them what they could not do for

themselves, and who do the things

that He demanded of all who ac-

cept Him as a Redeemer. Heaven

is for such as these, and peace on

earth that can spring from no other

anticipation.

22



WHAT THE LAST ANOINTING DOES

FOR THE DANGEROUSLY SICK

When I come to die, above

everything else, I want

somebody to tell me gently

yet firmly about the journey

I am about to make. I want

to be warned in good time.

I do not want anybody

around me who is going to

say, "Cheer up, old man.

There isn’t a thing wrong

with you that a little rest

won’t cure. You just lean back and

go to sleep, you lucky dog, and

you’ll be as fit as a fiddle in the

shake of a dog’s tail.’’ No, I don’t

want anybody like that at the foot

of my bed as the darkness begins

to descend upon me which, I hope,

will be the prelude to the dawning

of the light.

If a doctor is there, O.K. Doctors

have their important place in life

as well as at the end of life. If the

doctor is my friend—and I have

many friends in the medical profes-

sion—he can help me keep my wits

in shape for the thinking I will be

wanting to do before I lose my wits

entirely. And he can talk to me

while I await the coming of the

Lord.

But the thing that I want most

of all in the declining moments of

my human sojourn is the holy

anointing—the Sacrament of

Extreme Unction. I am not

so proud as to believe that

the legs of my soul are stout

enough merely through the

training that I have given

them to carry me over the

last peaks that stand be-

tween me and eternity and

over which I must climb

without stumbling or slip-

ping if I am to arrive home safely.

I need help—all the help I can get.

And I know that that help is afford-

ed me in the blessed anointing of

the priest. I would be a fool if I

did not take advantage of it. And

my relatives and friends would be

my greatest enemies if they refused

to let me have it when actually it

would be the only thing that could

really help me.

There is more to Extreme Unc-

tion than ordinarily meets the eye.

When a bad accident, like a

train wreck or an airplane crash,

takes place here in America, the

daily papers, in telling the story, in-

variably say that a Catholic priest

hurried to the scene to administer

the last rites of the Catholic Church

to the severely injured and the dy-

ing. The daily papers never explain

just what the priest does when he

23



administers the last rites, or what

these last rites are and what they

are meant to accomplish. The whole

thing is surrounded with mystery.

Whatever they are, they must be

very important, for all Catholics

want to receive them before they

die. Priests will crawl into burning

buildings and under over-turned

locomotives and through heavy bar-

rages of exploding shells (in time

of war) to make sure that they do

receive them. Priests are expected

to risk their lives to give the last

rites to dying Catholics. Thank God,

not only do they risk their lives,

but oftentimes they sacrifice them

in order to fulfill this sacred charge.

That is how important the priest

considers the last rites to be.

Last Rites

It is not because priests are par-

ticularly heroic that these heroic

deeds are done. Priests as a group

of men are no more heroic than any

other group of men. They too can

be afraid. They do not only give the

last rites in the midst of serious

danger, because there is no danger

great enough to scare or stop them.

They give the last rites in the midst

of grave danger because of the

effects that the last rites can have

upon a body that is dying and upon

a soul that is about to enter eternity.

Jesus Christ instituted Extreme

Unction (this is the principal part

of the "last rites”) as one of the

seven sacraments when He was here
on earth. There is no record in the

Gospel of His institution of this

sacrament. This does not mean that

Christ did not institute it Himself.

There are many things that Christ

did during His life that are not

recorded in the other inspired

books—in St. Paul or St. James. The

epistles of the Bible are just as in-

spired as the Gospels. If Extreme

Unction is explained in one of the

epistles, it is because the apostles

received it by word of mouth from

Our Lord, and were told to teach it

to the whole world. Extreme Unc-

tion is clearly mentioned by St.

James.

Ancient Rite

These are the words of St. James,

found in Chapter 5, verse 14: "Is

any man sick amongst you? Let him

send for the priests of the Church

and let them pray over him, anoint-

ing him with oil in the name of the

Lord. And the prayer of faith will

save the sick man, and the Lord

will raise him up; and if he be in

sins, they will be forgiven him.”

Could there be anything clearer

than that, as to what Christ wants

the Church to do when her children

are approaching the end of their

life on earth? The Catholic Church

has been anointing the dying from

the very beginning of her history,

which was the time of the apostles.

Men like Tertullian, Origen, St.

Ignatius, St. Augustine, and a host

of other teachers and writers, all

of whom lived during the first four

centuries of the Church’s existence,

attest to the sacrament of the last

anointing.

There was one Christian in the

4th century, Hypatius by name,

who accomplished wonders of heal-

ing by applying a certain oil to

the body of a sick man or woman

brought before him. But when it

24



came to the holy anointing of the
dying, "he called the Father Abbot,”

as one of his contemporaries wrote,
"for Hypatius was not a priest and
the Father Abbot was.”

Apparently there was a real dis-
tinction between what a layman
could do for a dangerously sick per-
son and what a priest could do. The
oil used by the layman Hypatius
and the oil used by the priest
Abbot were two entirely different
things. The former might have
been like our use of Lourdes water
today, while the latter was the
sacred ceremony that could be car-
ried out only by one empowered by
God through ordination to do so.

What Is Extreme Unction?

What does Extreme Unction ac-
tually do? It does two things, as
the text of St. James explains.

It can help the sick to get better.

There is no promise that it will
always help the sick to get better.

Sometimes it will, for St. James
says, "And the prayer of faith will
save the sick man and the Lord
will raise him up.” This is not
rnerely a vague word of comfort,
like that of the man who consoles
his friend who has just been given
the sad word that he is filled with
cancer, with the statement, "Don’t
worry; you’ll be O.K. In a couple
of rnonths you’ll be as good as
new.” There is more to the promise
of St. James than that.

Every doctor who has a suffi-
ciently large practice to enable him
to draw conclusions will assert that
on more than one occasion a pa-
tient of his who was desperately ill
and in an almost hopeless condition

rallied amazingly after the anoint-
ing of the priest, and eventually
recovered entirely. Such cases are
a matter of record for anyone who
wishes to investigate them.

Those who do not believe in Ex-
treme Unction will say that all re-
coveries of this kind can be traced
to suggestion or to mysterious nat-
ural causes that are as yet unknown.
Let them. The Catholic Church
knows that Extreme Unction can,
if God so wills, cure an incurably
sick man because it has the in-
fallible Christ on its side who

And the Lord will raise him
up.” It is not surprised when the
stories of cures come back to it.
And it is not distressed when men
rise up and deny the validity of
the cure as something supernatural
or due to supernatural means.

A Great Aid
Extreme Unction does more than

occasionally cure the sick. It helps

people to die in such a way as to
be ready to go to heaven when
God’s judgment is over. This is the
most wonderful thing that can hap-
pen to a man—to die without fear
of the new world that lies just
beyond the last breath and the final
blessing.

There is little doubt in the as-
sertion that the time of dying is
the most vitally important in a per-
son s life. It is a tremendously mys-
terious time. It means moving into
a country about which not too
much is known. It means putting
in an appearance before a court at
which an account will be given of
every thought, word and action of
life. It means the beginning of an

25



eternity of awful pain or an eter-

nity of ecstatic happiness.

The big thing, the essential

thing, is to die well, that is, when

it is all over, to be greeted with a

smile by the powerful Master who

is in charge of eternity. Extreme

Unction helps to bring this about.

How? Extreme Unction can take

away sin! This is not an invention

of the Catholic Church. It is the

teaching of Christ, as reported by

St. James. What does St. James

say? "If the sick man be in sins,

they shall be taken away from him.”

Does that mean that the sick man

does not have to go to confession,

that all he has to do is allow him-

self to be anointed? No. If the sick

man can go to confession, he must

go to confession. The anointing

will do him no good if maliciously

he refuses to go to confession. In

fact, if a man refuses to go to con-

fession when he can easily go, the

priest is forbidden to administer

the Sacrament of Extreme Unction.

Emergencies

But here is the case of a man who

cannot go to confession. He intend-

ed to go to confession, but before

he could do so he had a heart at-

tack. He is now lying in the place
where they carried him and he is

totally unconscious. Tragic to re-

late, he is in the state of mortal

sin. Is there any chance for him in

case he does not return to con-

sciousness before he dies? Yes,

there is.

Extreme Unction is for people

who find themselves in just such

dangerous predicaments. If this

man, before he slipped into uncon-

sciousness, realized the precarious-

ness of his position and called out

to God in an act of contrition (even
though it was an act of imperfect

contrition, that is, contrition based

on the fear of God’s punishments),

that would be enough, if it were

joined with the Sacrament of Ex-

treme Unction, to take away the

sin and permit the man to go to

heaven.

God’s Mercy

This is the power that the priest

has as he stands at the bedside of

the dying man. He can elicit no

act from him now because he is

no longer conscious. He cannot

hear his confession and give him

the unconditional absolution that

is given after an ordinary good con-

fession. But Christ designed a sac-

rament for this very situation. It is

this sacrament that the priest ad-

ministers. He applies the holy oil

to the senses, one after another.

And as he makes the sign of the

cross with each anointing, he cries

out to God for mercy on the soul

of the dying man.

But the cry for mercy is not

merely the prayer of an individual,

even though the individual be a

priest. It is the power of heaven

put into operation. It is the key

to the storehouse of God’s grace. It

is a divine sacrament working as

God intended it to work at the end

of a man’s life when there is no

other possibility of the man’s going

to heaven.

But it is more than a means

whereby unconfessed but repented

sins are taken away, even though

the dying person be unconscious

26



and unable to confess. It is a great

boon to those who are in the state

of grace, whether they be conscious

or unconscious. It provides abun-

dant strength for overcoming the

temptations through which the

devil may try to win the soul at

the very end. It takes away the ves-

tiges of venial sin that may yet

cling to the soul, and removes debts

of atonement that may still be owed

for past sins. It brings to the soul

a special grace designed exactly for

the moment of death (if it be God’s

will that death be the end of this

illness), that makes death a glori-

ous, supernaturally meritorious sur-

render of oneself into the hands of

God. These are the many reasons

that make every Catholic eager to

receive the Sacrament of Extreme

Unction before he dies.

The Anointing

The administration of Extreme

Unction is very simple.

The priest is called to the side

of the sick person in good time, not

after unconsciousness has set in,

but, if it be possible, while the

senses are still capable of opera-

tion. He has oil, consecrated by the
bishop during the services of Holy

Week, in a tiny golden container.

He dips the thumb of his right
hand into the oil and makes the

sign of the cross over the sense that

he is anointing while he says the

words, "Through this holy unction

and by the mercy of God may the
Lord forgive you the sins that you

have committed through the sense

of sight." And so he does with all
the other senses—hearing, smell,

taste, touch. The symbolism of the

ceremony is that just as sin is com-

mitted through the instrumentality

of the senses, so sin is taken away

through the anointing of the senses

with the cleansing oil of the holy

sacrament.

But, of course, we now know

that there is much more to it than

mere symbolism. There is the assur-

ance of absolute assistance at a time

in life when friends, money, posi-

tion, even family and dear ones are

helpless to give us what we may

need—the forgiveness of Almighty

God. To be anointed at a time like

that is worth more than all the

wealth and power of the world

combined.

What To Do

You can see, therefore, why I am

so anxious to be anointed when I

come to die and why I am so op-

posed to the practice current in

some circles of allowing death to

come to one who is loved without

so much as a hint that it is even

on the way. This is a brutal prac-

tice. I pray that it may not be exer-

cised on you or me.

If you are near when this fateful

day comes to me, go to the phone

and call up the priest. Tell him that

I have asked to be given everything

that he is capable of giving. That I

want the Lord in Holy Communion.

That I want the Extreme Unction,

That I want the last and final bless-

ing. When I go out of this life I
want to go out with all the Church

can give me. I want the path swept

clean between my bedside and the
pearly gates. I know that so it will

be if I receive what God has of-

fered the critically sick.

27



WHAT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH DOES

FOR PEOPLE AT DEATH

The remark has been made,

presumably by a man who

knew he was very close to

death: "Othet religions may

be pleasant enough to live

in, but the Catholic faith is

by far the best to die in.”

By which he doubtless

meant that the consolations

offered by the Church at

the hour of death to its

members make it particularly and

especially appreciated at that time.

One might indeed suppose that

any religion deserves to stand or

fall in virtue of its attitude toward

death. If I meet with a religion

which is vague in its understand-

ing of what death means, hesitant

in telling me how immediately to

prepare for death, and nebulous in

its pronouncements as to what will

happen after death, I can scarcely

feel that it merits much confidence.

If the trumpet bloweth an uncer-

tain sound, who shall hear it?

The Catholic Church has a very

clear and definite understanding of

what death means, and this is re-

flected in a special way in the pray-

ers and ceremonies with which it

surrounds one of its children im-

mediately before and after death.

These are the prayers contained in

the so-called "last rites:”

Viaticum, Extreme Unction,

the last blessing, and the

specific prayers to be said

during the last agony. There

is the Office of the Dead, a

collection of psalms and

other excerpts from Scrip-

ture found in the breviary,

and usually chanted by

priests over the remains of

one of their deceased fellow-priests.

Lastly, there is the beautiful Re-

quiem Mass, with its accompany-

ing benedictions and prayers.

In the first place, the Catholic

Church does not try to gloss over

the reality that death is a difficult

and may even be an ugly ordeal.

One of the great hypocrisies of our

age is the attempt to disguise and

camouflage death. The sick man

with only a few hours to live must

not be told of his desperate condi-

tion. His weeping relatives, stand-

ing around his bed, stare at him

with cruel helplessness as his soul

slips into eternity.

Now the true Catholic attitude

toward death is much more stern

and realistic. It is built on the basic

truth that one of the most import-

ant duties of every human creature

is to bow down before the will of

28



God, his Creator. Death is the dra-

matic and final expression of God’s

will for us here on earth. To accept

it, with all its pains and terrors, is

the supreme act of resignation be-

neath the hand of God. It is the

final holocaust of self-will, by

which a man courageously looks

death squarely in the face, having

prepared wisely for its coming.

How We Pray

This stern and sober acceptance

of death is reflected in all the pray-

ers used by the Church for its de-

ceased members. It appears perhaps

most clearly in the Office of the

Dead, of which we have already
made mention. The very keynote of

this Office is found in the two

psalms: De Profundis (129) and
Miserere (50). "Out of the depths

I have cried to Thee," the psalmist

exclaims, "O Lord, Lord, hear my
voice," and then: "Have mercy on

me, O God, according to Thy great
mercy.”

All nine of the Lessons, or read-

ings from Scripture, found in this

Office are taken from the book of

Job in the Old Testament, and one

can scarcely find anywhere a more

realistic summary of man’s mor-

tality.

"Spare me. Lord, for my days
^e nothing; . . . behold now I sleep
in the dust, and if you seek me in
the morning, I shall not be....

"Thy hands have made me and
fashioned me wholly round about,
and dost thou then cast me down
headlong on a sudden?

"Man, born of woman, living for
a short time, is filled with many
miseries. Who cometh forth like a

flower and is destroyed, and fleeth

like a shadow and never continueth

in the same state. The days of man
are short, and the number of his

months is with Thee! Thou has

appointed his bounds which cannot

be passed.

"I have said to rottenness, thou

art my father; to worms, my
mother and sister. Where is now

my expectation, and who consid-
ereth my patience?”

To meditate properly on pass-

ages such as these is to savor the

dank smell of mortality, to con-

template it with all the accompani-

ments of anguish and natural fear

and distress. And this is exactly
what the Church would have its

members do from time to time,

for the good of their souls. "Re-

member thy last end," it keeps
telling them, "and thou wilt never

sin.”

Christian Hope

Yet even while thus it requires

of them that they contemplate

death, it always tempers the

meditation with Christian hope.

The patriarch Job, many centuries

before Christ, even in the midst of

all the miseries which God, to test

him, permitted to befall him, could

cry triumphantly:

"I know that my Redeemer
liveth, and in the last day I shall

rise out of the earth. And I shall
be clothed again with my skin, and
in my flesh I shall see my God . .

.

This is the hope laid up in my
bosom.”

This beautiful expression of hope

has been adopted by the Church as

a kind of motto; the passage itself

29



appears in the Office of the Dead,

in the eighth lesson of Matins. Al-

most as if in direct answer to the

cry of Job are the words of Christ

spoken to Martha on the death of

her brother Lazarus:

"I am the Resurrection and the

Life. He that believeth in Me, al-

though he be dead, shall live, and

everyone that liveth and believeth

in Me shall not die forever.”

Requiem Mass

This striking passage is found in

one of the antiphons of the Of&ce

of the Dead; it is embodied in the

gospel read at one of the several

Requiem Masses; and it is just

about the last word spoken by the

Church over the body of one of its

members as it is lowered into the

grave.

Around the passing of the Chris-

tian soul into eternity the Church

has over the years built up some of

its most beautiful and tender pray-

ers and invocations. They are, we

may say, all too little known and

appreciated by those (even Cath-

olics) who, living by the shallow

philosophy of the world, refuse to

contemplate death.

Consider the Catholic who is

taken seriously ill. At once all the

resources of the Church are brought

into play to help him in this tre-

mendonsly important period of his

life.

To his bedside comes the priest,

and the sick man makes his confes-

sion, humbly acknowledging his

faults and sins, and expressing his

sorrow for them, whereupon the

priest, by the power given to him.

forgives the penitent in the name

of Christ.

The priest then (if the sick man

is able to receive it) administers

Holy Viaticum, which literally

translated means "with you on the

way.” "Receive, brother, (or sister)”

the priest says, as he places the

sacred Host upon the sick man’s

tongue, "the Viaticum of the Body

of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and may

He guard you from all your ene-

mies, and lead you to life ever-

lasting.”

After this comes the anointing

and the beautiful prayers of the

sacrament of Extreme Unction over

each of the senses: "Through this

holy anointing and His most sweet

mercy may the Lord forgive you

any sins you have committed

through this sense.”

Extreme Unction is followed by

the last blessing as it is called, by

which the Church, on condition

that the sick man is entirely re-

signed to God’s Will in regard to

his death, grants him a plenary in-

dulgence by which the remains of

sin on his soul may be removed.

God’s Peace

Let us suppose, now, that the

course of the illness remains un-

checked, and death appears immi-

nent. The priest again comes to the

home, and as he enters the sick

room, he sprinkles holy water over

the bed and all around, saying as

he does so: "Peace be to this house

and all who dwell therein.” On the

table beside the bed is a crucifix,

with two blessed candles burning,

and the priest presents the crucifix

to the dying man, that he may kiss

30



the wounds of Christ as an expres-

sion of faith and love.

Then follows the litany of the

dying, which the priest leads, and

the family of the dying man, kneel-

ing around the bed, answer with

the responses. Each of the three

divine persons is solemnly invoked,

then the intercession of the saints

is implored, each of them in turn,

that the passage into eternity may

be an easy one for this Christian

soul.

The Prayers

Now let us suppose that the
death agony of the sick man has

begun. In this solemn moment, as

those kneeling around the bed

watch the soul fluttering like a

moth against the bars of the cage

which enclose it, about to escape

into the pure air of eternity, the

priest reads the beautiful prayer:

"Depart, O Christian soul, out of
this sinful world, in the name of

God, the Father Almighty, who

created you; in the name of Jesus

Christ, the Son of the living God,

who suffered and died for you; in

the name of the Holy Ghost, who

sanctified you; in the name of the

glorious and blessed Virgin Mary,

Mother of God; in the name

of blessed Joseph, the illustrious

spouse of the same Virgin; in the

name of the angels and archangels:

in the name of the thrones and

dominations: in the name of the

principalities and powers: in the

name of the cherubim and sera-

phim: in the name of the patri-

archs and prophets: in the name of

the holy apostles and evangelists:

in the name of the holy martyrs and

confessors: in the name of the holy

monks and hermits: in the name

of the holy virgins and of all the

saints of God. May your dwelling

place this day be in heaven, the

home of peace. Through the same

Christ our Lord. Amen."

As the death agony continues,

the priest reads other ancient pray-

ers, begging God that the dying

man may have comfort and strength

and peace of conscience:

"Deliver, O Lord, the soul of Thy
servant from every danger of being

lost, and from all temptations, pains

and tribulations. Amen.

"Deliver, O Lord, the soul of
Thy servant as Thou didst deliver

Noah from the flood. Amen.

"Deliver, O Lord, the soul of Thy
servant as Thou didst deliver Peter

and Paul out of prison. Amen.

"Remember not, we beseech

Thee, O Lord, the sins and ignor-
ances of his youth, but according

to Thy mercy, be mindful of him

in Thy heavenly glory. Let the

heavens be opened to him, and the

angels rejoice with him.”

Then, at the very moment of

death, as the dying man with his

last glance, looks upon the crucifix,

held before his eyes, and murmurs

with his last breath the holy name

of Jesus, the priest repeats the last

cry of Christ upon the cross:

"Into Thy hands, O Lord, I com-
mend my spirit."

Having done everything possible

for the soul in its last struggles

before death, the Church is now

solicitous to free him from purga-

tory as quickly as charitable pray-

31



ers might be able to bring this

about. Around the untenanted

body, soon to return to dust, the

rosary will be said by his fellow-

parishioners, and then, at a suit-

able time, the remains will be con-

ducted into the church and placed

before the altar, in order that the

beautiful official prayers of the

Church may be offered up.

"Eternal rest grant unto him, O
Lord,”—thus does the Church be-

gin this last solemn service for

its deceased member, "and let

perpetual light shine upon him.”

In the poignant chant which has

come down through the centuries

for use on such sad occasions, it

lifts up its intercessory voice, now

appealing for the dead, now re-

minding those left behind to profit

by the lesson of death.

"Guilty, lo I groan with fear

Whilst with shame Thy

throne I near.

Thou, O God, my crying
hear.

Who didst bend to Mary s
grief.

Didst accept the contrite

thief.

Wilt not grudge me my

relief.”

The solemn hammer-strokes of

the immortal. Dies Irae give way

to the Gospel’s unmistakable prom-

ise of immortality by Christ;

"Amen, amen I say to you, the

hour cometh and now is when the

dead shall hear the voice of the Son

of God, and they that hear shall

live.”

And this most certainly means,

as the Preface of the Mass goes on

to explain it, that "they who are

saddened by the certain necessity

of dying should be comforted by

the promise of eternal life to come.

For the life of the faithful is

changed, not destroyed, and when

the home of this earthly life is dis-

solved, an everlasting dwelling in

heaven shall be gained.”

**The Resurrection”

And so on through the Mass,

with the plea often repeated: "Eter-

nal rest grant unto him, O Lord,”
and at the end of Mass, the last

prayers and blessing of the corpse

in church before priest and mourn-

ers accompany the remains to the

cemetery.

Thus—sadly, yet, in St. Paul’s

words, "not sorrowing as those who

have no hope,” relatives and friends

of the dead Christian watch as his

remains are brought to his last rest-

ing place on earth. Once more is

heard the stirring reminder of im-

mortality:

"I am the Resurrection and the

Life; he that believeth in Me,

though he be dead, shall live.”

Once more and for the last time

the mourners are reminded of their

own mortality: "Grant, O Lord, we
beseech Thee, that while we here

lament the departure of Thy ser-

vant from this life, we may always

remember that we are most certain-

ly to follow him. Give us grace to

prepare for that last hour by a

good and holy life...”

For a good and holy life alone

can merit a happy and peaceful

death.

32



3.3

KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS - RELIGIOUS INFORAAATION BUREAU
4422 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis 8, Missouri

List of pamphlets available at the above address. One title may be requested at a time free
of charge. Several titles, complete sets, and quantities of individual pamphlets may be ordered
at 7^ for each pamphlet, plus postage.

3. The Bible is a Catholic Book

5. Christ’s Seven Sacraments

6. The Holy Sacrifice — the Catholic
Mass

7. Why the Catholic Church says ’’Inves-
tigate” — Masons, Inquisition, Nuns

8. Speaking of Tolerance — Controver-
sial periods in history

9. These Men They Call ’’Knights”

10. Why Catholics Believe As They Do
— Existence of God, Immortality

11. A Short Story of the Popes
12. Let’s Stick to Moses — Ten Com-

mandments explained

13. But Can It Be Found in the Bible? —
Bible not sole rule of faith

14. What Happens After Death?

15. Yes ... I Condemned The Catholic
Church

16. What Do You Mean ’’Only One True
Church”?

17. But How Can Educated People Be
Catholics?

18. No . . . Belief in God is not Enough!
19. The Real Secret of Successful Mar-

riage

20. The Way to Everlasting Life . . . The
Catholic Church

21. Is the Catholic Church a Menace to
Democracy?

22. But Do You Really Understand the
Bible? — Rules for understanding

23. A Letter to Our Non-Catholic Neigh-
bors — Aspects of Catholic faith

24. Yes, the Mother of God Will Help
You!

^

25. What Makes a Woman Choose Such
a Life? — Life of a Catholic Nun

26. I’ll Tell You Why I Am a Catholic
27. Why So Many Decide to Become

Catholics — Convert stories
28. Let Us Judge Catholics by the Bible

— Prayer to Saints, unmarried priests
29. But Would Christ Call You A Chris-

tian?

30. But Do You Understand What God
Told Us? — Apostles’ Creed

31. Should Children Learn About God-
in School?

32. The Bible Is Not Our Sole Guide

33. This Was the Faith of Our Fathers
34. These Are Our Seven Deadly Enemies

— Seven capital sins explained
35. Let’s Test Catholic Loyalty — A Good

Catholic is a good citizen

36. Remember the Sabbath . . . Keep It
Holy — The ’’Sabbath Question”

37. I Am a Catholic Priest
38. But Why the Candles, Holy Water

and Beads ? — Sacramentals
39. The Reformation. Was It Reform or

Revolt?

40. Why I Had to Embrace the Catholic
Faith — Convert stories

41. Yes, Miracles Happened at Fatima

42. Does the Bible Contradict Itself? —
Peter the Rock, Faith and/or Works

43. I Was Warned About the Catholic
Church! — Religious Liberty

44. Why a Woman Needs the Catholic
Faith!

45. The Early Years of the Catholic
Church — First three centuries

46. Yes ... A Priest Can Forgive Your
Sins — Sacrament of Penance

47. But Why Don’t You Pray to the
Saints? — Communion of Saints

48. God’s Story of Creation — Genesis
49. Is the Catholic Church Out of Place

Here? — Catholicism and Loyalty
50. This Is the Catholic Church — Creed,

Sacraments, Mass, Commandments

51. Revelation ... A Divine Message of
Hope — Revelations or Apocalypse

52. Does It Pay to be a Catholic? — How
to be a Catholic

53. Think About Death and Start to Live
— Catholic attitude toward death

54. What Do You Find Wrong With
the Catholic Church?

55. His Name Shall Be Called God With
Us — Divinity of Christ

56. The Infallible Church, Truth or Trick-
ery? — Church of the Scriptures

57. Tell Us About God . . . Who Is He?
Existence and nature of God

58. The Word Was Made Flesh-
Humanity of Christ

59. Let Us Pray—Prayer



Learn All About

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

By Mail ... At No Cost!

You can easily investigate Catholic faith and worship

in the privacy of your home.

Just send us your name and address and advise that

you desire to learn about the Church by mail.
' We will send you an interesting course of instruc-

tion which is short, yet complete.

The book explaining Catholic faith and worship is

written in an easy-to-understand form, and there are

six tests sheets to be checked. There is no writing to

do, and nobody will call on you unless you request it.

You merely mail your marked test sheets to us. We
correct them and return them to you. This enables

you to determine how well you understand the book

and on what points further explanation by mail may

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Wri/e today to:

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Imprimatur:

-i-JOSEPH E. RITTER

Archbishop of St. Louis

St. Louis, July 15, 1958

Published in United States of America

3rd Reprinting, January, 1961