Thought for the Day – 14 January – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971) – Tuesday of the First week in Ordinary Time, Year A
HELL 2
“In that place of never-ending suffering, there will be three punishments to torture us.
There will be the worm of conscience which does not die – “Their worm dies not” (Mk 9:43).
This is the awful realisation that we could have saved ourselves but are lost for all eternity, that God gave us so many graces and we damned ourselves, by abusing them.
Now there is no longer any remedy, because the mercy of God has been succeeded once and for all, by His justice.
In the second place, there is fire!
This is a real fire but altogether different from the material fire we know in this world, which was created by God for our benefit and service.
The fire of hell, on the other hand, was created by Divine Justice, purely to punish us.
It is a special kind of fire which tortures body and soul and the rebel angels, as well as damned human beings.
It could be called discerning, insofar, as it torments, more or less mercilessly, according to the gravity of the sin.
These flames embrace every evil and exclude every good.
They are flames which will never be extinguished, flames which burn but do not consume, flames without light – dark and accompanied by the shrieking of eternal despair.
The very thought of this horrible dungeon of torments should spur us onto begin immediately, a life of virtue and Christian perfection.”
AnaStpaul 
Just a word, Anna, … since I bought recently the book in question, I see that your partition of the daily meditations, while convenient for your readers, can raise questions for those who have the book.
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Hi Fr, I’m unsure what you mean. As you see Cardinal Bacci created points in his book – possibly not all written at the same time. Should I do this differently?
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Well let’s see: first, for those who have the book (probably only a few), it’s difficult to relate to the date in question. Second, as far as the content is concerned, personally, I would have chosen to give only the first point followed by suspension dots, in order to remain faithful to the date prescribed. BUT, that is only my personal reaction … and you should follow up on your inspiration! I have the same problem with dom Guillerand’s text, on my blog, and I do have to make a choice of what to print and of what to leave behind … not an easy task (but essential to my readers’ comprehension).
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(Following up on my previous suggestion) If you adopted this method, you would have material for three years (first year with first point, second year with second point, etc)
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Yep – that was my intention but then I got carried away with Hell!
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Ok – that’s true – so show a continuation. I do know of a page on a social media platform who posts from Cardinal Bacci – they use the same method as I do – though I am almost on the same date (not of course if I do 3 posts on the same subject from the same date) – they just post randomly i.e. any subject from any date to suit themselves.
I will follow your advice as far as possible.
Many, many thanks for you advice Fr Jacques – I am most grateful to you – for much!
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