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We are right to pray for people who are torn between love of God, and selfish behaviour - and for everyone. There is a battle for souls going on, as Satan tries to influence us all, and our Guardian Angels act to protect us.

A great battle goes on when a person is torn between love of God and love of self. Satan attacks that heart and mind, while the Guardian Angel acts to restore that soul's peace. Someone like this desperately needs to pray in the name of Jesus.

At the Last Judgement, the Angels and Saints who have joined in the praises of Catholics at Mass will gaze upon those Catholics who used to pray with them but who stopped attending. They will look on with pity, as those unhappy souls realise how dreadful has been their carelessness in God's service - or as some souls finally turn away from God, to enter darkness.

When we ask Our Lady to intercede for us, God responds to her prayer by raising up the lost soul, out of the cloud which obscured the view, to show him a path, that leads to the main road to Heaven. It is always worthwhile to ask Our Lady, and to other Saints, and the Angels, for their prayers

By offering up our pains and unavoidable sufferings in union with Christ in His Passion we join in His redeeming work in our generation and bring powerful help to needy souls caught in sin, sadness or near-despair.

Just as a person who tries to clean the outside wall of a house has little success with a garden hose but amazing results from a power-hose, so a sinner who is ashamed but does not bother to go to confession remains stained with sin, whereas one who is cleaned in the Confessional in the Sacrament of Penance emerges with a soul made glorious by Divine action.

There are souls in Hell who are being tormented by demons. In earthly life, they refused to listen to God who loves them. They chose to walk on the path to Hell as they cried out, until death. 'I can do whatever I like'.

No-one can enter Heaven by beating on the great doors, and demanding to be let in. Those who love God are willing to trust, to adore, and to wait in humility and repentance; then He lifts the patient soul over the gates, in prayer, to see the beauty of God's glory, and to prepare him for permanent union.

The Lord asked me to take care, in my explanations about the Last Judgement painting, especially about the entrance of souls to Purgatory. I must make sure, he said, that I explain it is for purification not punishment.

All over the world, as if through the clouds, the Spirit of God sees the evil in human communities, where people are horribly killed for trivial offenses, or unjustly tormented by armed mobs in pursuit. All the more need, therefore, He said, for the offering-up of sufferings, in union with Christ, to save souls.

Christ told me, as we prayed together, that although I had just been looking at my picture of Hell, He was at that moment seeing the reality. He can see all those souls who refused to listen to Him as He spoke through their conscience, their good friends, and the Church. He gave them freedom; they chose to ignore Him.

How sadly we look upon a person now dead and buried. Yet a person living in mortal sin is like a dead man, in spiritual terms. With a dead soul, no longer in communion with Christ and the Church, he is in a pitiable state, deserving of the prayers of his neighbours.

When a person repents of serious sin, and is reconciled with God, his Father and Creator, it is as marvellous as a raising-from-the-dead miracle worked by Elijah and by Jesus. That soul, in an instant, can rise up by the Spirit's power, in prayer, in the freedom and joy of a fervent child of God.

It's as if it almost breaks Christ's heart when someone refuses to listen to Him, refuses to accept the truths taught by His Church about good and evil, and deliberately walks away from the life of grace, joy and union with God to enter the fire of Hell, where live Satan and the demons and all rebellious and unrepentant souls.

It is a dreadful surprise, when a true follower of Christ approaches Him after death, only to discover that she had been fervent in prayer, but had neglected to help her neighbours and relations, or that she had been of service to the needy but had failed to praise and thank God for all His gifts. In Purgatory, the soul can be purified.

When a monk or nun or devout lay-person offers prayers and penances in order to draw a soul away away from mortal sin, into a state of grace, it's as though that sinner has been pushed along in a dangerous coal-mine, helped to reach the main shaft leading upwards so that he can reach God's light, and freedom.

We might not always see the results of our prayer, but when a monk or nun or devout lay-person rescues a soul from sin by offering prayers and penances on his behalf, it's as though he had brought that soul from the depths of a dangerous mine, to emerge into sunlight, greeted by a joyful crowd: the Saints and Angels.

When we feel threatened by spiritual forces that would disturb our souls, or try to draw us away from Christ, the prayers we offer 'in Christ', and the prayers we request of the Saints and Angels, are so powerful that it's as if, by Divine grace, a strong, beautiful wall is built around us, protecting us from spiritual assaults.

The Lord said that if we looked all over the entire town we would find only a few souls who would act in obedience to Him, in something uncongenial, just because He had requested it. Most do His Will only if it corresponds with their own desires.

They are close to God, and safe; yet like the Chinese statues hidden from sight, the Holy Souls wait in a dimly-lit place, enduring their purification, as they think about their past lives, and suffer heartache because they were lukewarm in the Faith, or lacked faith in some of the Church's teachings - or prayed only occasionally, or made little effort to resist temptations, or to become really holy.