ENCYCLICAL LETTER : SPE SALVI
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF BENEDICT XVI TO THE BISHOPS PRIESTS AND DEACONS MEN AND WOMEN RELIGIOUS AND ALL THE LAY FAITHFUL ON CHRISTIAN HOPE
WE ARE IN EXILE ON OUR WAY TO OUR HOMELAND, THE HEAVENS TO LIVE WITH GOD
St. Faustina’s Way of the Cross
| Jesus Is Placed in the Sepulchre | |
| Celebrant: We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You. People: Because by Your holy Cross and Resurrection, You have redeemed the world. Celebrant: They took the body of Jesus and bound It with burial cloths along with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom. Now in the place where He had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried. So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day; for the tomb was close by (John 19:38-42). Jesus: (Celebrant) But child, you are not yet in your homeland; so go, fortified by My grace, and fight for My kingdom in human souls; fight as a king’s child would; and remember that the days of your exile will pass quickly, and with them the possibility of earning merit for heaven. I expect from you, My child, a great number of souls who will glorify My mercy for all eternity (1489). S. Faustina: (People) Every soul You have entrusted to me, Jesus, I will try to aid with prayer and sacrifice, so that Your grace can work in them. O great lover of souls, my Jesus, I thank You for this immense confidence with which You have deigned to place souls in our care (245). All: Grant, Merciful Lord, that not even one of those souls which You have entrusted to me be lost. Celebrant: You, who suffered wounds for us, People: Christ Jesus, have mercy on us. Sung Verse: Christ, when Thou shalt call me hence, Be Thy Mother my defense, Be Thy Cross my victory. | |
THE NEW EARTHLY HOPE: The original plan of God was us to live on Earth as in the Garden of Eden
Why will there be a “New Earth?”
https://www.catholic.com/video/why-will-there-be-a-new-earth
Why Not Heaven Instead of Earth?
https://www.catholic.com/qa/why-not-heaven-instead-of-earth
Fr. Charles Grondin
Question: If God wants us to be with him in heaven, why did he put us on Earth?
Answer: The answer to that is that we were not meant to be in heaven. We were meant to live in perfect communion with God and each other on Earth. That is why at the end of time we will be resurrected with glorified bodies and will inhabit a new earth.
What is the New Earth and the New Heaven in Revelations?
https://www.catholic.com/video/what-is-the-new-earth-and-the-new-heaven-in-revelations
Do the New Heaven and the New Earth Already Exist?
https://www.catholic.com/video/do-the-new-heaven-and-the-new-earth-already-exist
What are the New Heaven and Earth in the Book of Revelation?
https://www.catholic.com/video/what-are-the-new-heaven-and-earth-in-the-book-of-revelation
Why a ‘New Earth’ If We’re All Supposed to Be in Heaven?
https://www.catholic.com/qa/why-a-new-earth-if-were-all-supposed-to-be-in-heaven
OFFICIAL CATECHISM REFERENCE BOOK: CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX
CCC 1042–1050.
VI. THE HOPE OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW EARTH
1042 At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign for ever with Christ, glorified in body and soul. The universe itself will be renewed:
The Church . . . will receive her perfection only in the glory of heaven, when will come the time of the renewal of all things. At that time, together with the human race, the universe itself, which is so closely related to man and which attains its destiny through him, will be perfectly re-established in Christ.631
1043 Sacred Scripture calls this mysterious renewal, which will transform humanity and the world, “new heavens and a new earth.”632 It will be the definitive realization of God’s plan to bring under a single head “all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth.”633
1044 In this new universe, the heavenly Jerusalem, God will have his dwelling among men.634 “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.”635
1045 For man, this consummation will be the final realization of the unity of the human race, which God willed from creation and of which the pilgrim Church has been “in the nature of sacrament.”636 Those who are united with Christ will form the community of the redeemed, “the holy city” of God, “the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.”637 She will not be wounded any longer by sin, stains, self-love, that destroy or wound the earthly community.638 The beatific vision, in which God opens himself in an inexhaustible way to the elect, will be the ever-flowing well-spring of happiness, peace, and mutual communion.
1046 For the cosmos, Revelation affirms the profound common destiny of the material world and man:
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God . . . in hope because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay. . . . We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.639
1047 The visible universe, then, is itself destined to be transformed, “so that the world itself, restored to its original state, facing no further obstacles, should be at the service of the just,” sharing their glorification in the risen Jesus Christ.640
1048 “We know neither the moment of the consummation of the earth and of man, nor the way in which the universe will be transformed. The form of this world, distorted by sin, is passing away, and we are taught that God is preparing a new dwelling and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, in which happiness will fill and surpass all the desires of peace arising in the hearts of men.”641
1049 “Far from diminishing our concern to develop this earth, the expectancy of a new earth should spur us on, for it is here that the body of a new human family grows, foreshadowing in some way the age which is to come. That is why, although we must be careful to distinguish earthly progress clearly from the increase of the kingdom of Christ, such progress is of vital concern to the kingdom of God, insofar as it can contribute to the better ordering of human society.”642
1050 “When we have spread on earth the fruits of our nature and our enterprise . . . according to the command of the Lord and in his Spirit, we will find them once again, cleansed this time from the stain of sin, illuminated and transfigured, when Christ presents to his Father an eternal and universal kingdom.”643 God will then be “all in all” in eternal life:644
True and subsistent life consists in this: the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit, pouring out his heavenly gifts on all things without exception. Thanks to his mercy, we too, men that we are, have received the inalienable promise of eternal life.64
What is hope?
https://www.catholic.com/qa/what-is-hope
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Christian hope is “the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit” (CCC 1817)
ENCYCLICAL LETTER : SPE SALVI
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF BENEDICT XVI TO THE BISHOPS PRIESTS AND DEACONS MEN AND WOMEN RELIGIOUS AND ALL THE LAY FAITHFUL ON CHRISTIAN HOPE
Why a ‘New Earth’ If We’re All Supposed to Be in Heaven?
https://www.catholic.com/qa/why-a-new-earth-if-were-all-supposed-to-be-in-heaven
What is the New Earth and the New Heaven in Revelation?
ULTIMATELY WE WILL GO BACK TO THE GARDEN OF EDEN WHICH IS IN ANOTHER DIMENSION – IT IS STILL THERE!