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Whenever we pray in the name of Christ to our Heavenly Father, we are wise to keep in mind that Heaven should be our final destination. Christ has made possible our contact with Heaven, and the promise of Eternal joy for the faithful. If we could peer through a little window into Heaven, without being dazzled by Divine glory, we would see the wonders prepared for all of Christ's true friends.

The smoke of Satan has entered the Church, causing many Catholics to approve of various types of immorality, to practice forbidden acts, to protest about legitimate discipline and constant teachings on faith and morals, to demand Papal approval of heresy, to water down the truth when catechising others, and to show little reverence for Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.

Even when family members are plainly affectionate and helpful to one another, they are capable of doing terrible things if they live in ignorance of God's laws, without the life of grace, in disbelief of God's existence, and with their minds unable to understand God's wishes or to carry them out. They need the grace of God, and conversion. People are not saved by good humour or optimism, if they lead utterly Godless lives.

It is tragic that so many people have not been baptised. A family which is affectionate but which ignores or disbelieves in God, and has no respect for the Commandments, cannot be saved by qualities of optimism or human warmth - but only by the grace of Christ accepted. They need the prayers of the faithful, that they will open their eyes to the truth which they have never encountered, or have half-heard, and dismissed.

People who become proud that they have spent their lives perfecting human skills, but without attending to God, or virtue, or prayer, have little possibility of reaching Eternal Life, unless they turn to God in repentance and trust, and put Him first in their lives, and keep His Commandments.

Many people search for the way into Heaven. Catholics who offer to enquirers a watered-down version of the Catholic Faith, failing to speak truthfully about sin and repentance, make it harder for those people to achieve Eternal Life. They brick up the door to Heaven, so to speak, as surely as bricking up an entrance to a church, our threshold to Heaven, if they allow people to continue in those sins which are, objectively, mortal sins, yet receive them into full Communion, or baptise them.

The Catholic Faith should make Saints of us, people baptised, forgiven, transformed, enlightened, and worthy to worship on the threshold of Heaven, before the altar, until the time God calls us home to Heaven. The watered-down Faith sometimes offered today, which minimises the supernatural and even fails to request that candidates and catechumens give up their sins, is almost on a level with a Boy-Scout manual which requests good deeds but not faith or contrition.

Those members of the Clergy or Religious Life who mislead the faithful by direct dissent from Church teaching or by subtle suggestions that she is wrong on matters of faith or morals, are offending God, endangering souls, and indeed propelling themselves towards Hell by their behaviour. Unlike some heretics who have the virtue of honesty, even if mistaken, these dissenters corrupt the Church from within, whilst claiming to be orthodox.

It is easy to forget God's gifts, and to remember only our difficulties. Everyone on earth has suffering to bear, some much more than others. Yet we can freely choose whether to cope bravely with it, by God's grace, or to give in to self-pity. Some of those faithful people whose love for Christ was sincere but weak, and who were full of self-pity, or who even committed suicide, now languish in Purgatory, seeing at last how much they have sinned.

Mother Teresa, and Pope John Paul II, each suffered greatly in earthly life, but did so without grumbling; rather, they accepted and offered up their pains in union with Christ, to save souls and to help the Church; and, through their faith in Christ, and His grace, they are now being embraced by Him in Heaven. They are immensely joyful.

To be baptised is to have received a wonderful gift of Divine Life. But many people outside the visible Communion of the Catholic Church receive no clear instruction about faith, and holy living, as their own leaders argue about the need for sacraments, and about sexual morality. It is sometimes as tragic a state as if a person had received a wonderful computer, but without a user's manual. It could remain inactive or ever useless.

Just as a person with a computer but no instruction manual presses various buttons but has no help from the computer until the booklet arrives, so many persons baptised outside the visible Communion of the Catholic Church have received a valuable gift, and try to live according to the various theories of various Christian leaders, who argue about faith and morals; but only when they are received into full Communion do they receive clear instruction about holy living, and receive the power from God in the Sacraments.

When people have a man-centered faith, with a too-exalted view of human beings, in relation to God, and make excuses for their sins, convinced that all people will be saved, and that penance and sacrifice are old-fashioned concepts, they develop a faith so distorted that they never humble themselves sufficiently to be lifted up to Heaven.

We are right to help the poor; but Christianity is more than good deeds. In Christ's sight, modernism flourishes where people do not have sufficient awe of God. Many good hearted Catholics, through poor instruction, have a faith that revolves around what humans need, rather than what the Father requests and deserves. They have a too-exalted view of man, in relation to God, which distorts the whole picture; whereas Catholics really grateful to God for Jesus Christ accept the Church's teaching without constant grumbling, shoulder the Cross, and strive for holiness like the Saints, out of love for their Saviour.

Some people refuse to open their hearts to God about their fears, sins and weaknesses, even though they go through the motions of leading ordinary lives as faithful Catholics. It's as if their soul is like a garden, hidden behind locked gates - the will - as they keep God out, but also keep out His wisdom and His consolations.

God's faithful people are walking steadily towards Heaven, bravely remaining true to Him, and to His laws, and united in love for Him and one another. Dissident Catholics are like people who stand at one side, saying to them, "You're going the wrong way!" - and inviting them to ignore the teachings of the Church and to resent her discipline.

Very few Catholics accept the truth: that it is Christ Who teaches us through His Church; and that she teaches the truth about faith and morals. It is with pride that many speak, when they say, in effect: "On the subject of contraception, I know better, what is right and wrong, than all these Patriarchs, Prophets, teachers, Popes, Bishops and Saints."

Christ has called His priests to be apart, as He was, when He prayed on the mountain to His Heavenly Father. A priest must lead his flock along a narrow road, high into the peaks which lie ahead: peaks of sanctity. He can only lead if he himself is prayerful, and charitable and willing to bear hardship in the Lord's service.

Some people suppose that after a good Confession everything in the spiritual life will become easy, or the way ahead will be plain; yet they seem to be walking in a great spiritual cloud, unable to see the next step. They should believe that it is God who hides them within Himself. They are held by God, in God, as He urges them to take one step at a time, in faith, doing what is right and avoiding all that is wrong.

The souls in Purgatory are faithful people, some of whom are still marred by attitudes unworthy of Heaven - hence the need for the purification wrought in each person by the Holy Spirit. No-one can enter Heaven unless full of gratitude, joy and humility. No-one can go in, still thinking, about his health in earthly life, or other matters: "Why should I be treated like this? I deserve better".