So who knows anything about paradise?  I know St. Paul said we can't imagine.....

Not sure about this one, but I always imagined Paradise is the garden outside of Heaven.  Just before you go through those pearly gates.

Sometime you might read a story about a person who died but was brought back to their life, and they describe a beautiful place, it is my opinion they are in Paradise but haven't been judged yet.  They are rushed back into their body and they think they experienced Heaven.  

Paradise is the place where all the souls that died before Jesus ascended into heaven waited for the gates of Heaven to be opened.  Then on Ascension Thur. when Jesus came, all those souls marched into Heaven with Our Lord.  

I imagine it has vivid colors, beautiful flowers, and lush vegetation with no weeds, birds and animals live there, among waterfalls, because whatever beauty we have on earth, it is better in Paradise.  Anyway that is all I know about Paradise and most of what I posted is my imagination for what it is worth to you.  

So it would seem no one knows what heaven is like.  Did I misunderstand what our purpose is?  Aren't we all trying to get there?  If so, why do we seem so disinterested in it?  

Good thing God wants us to go there instead of hell.  With all this enthusiasm (tongue in cheek) we're going to need every bit of His pull to make it.

Good point, Alexandria.  When thieves (like Obama) steal from us, they steal more than our goods.  They steal the time and attention we need to work out our salvation.  When they steal the truth (by lying) they steal our map.  When they steal our sense of worth (by running us down or otherwise making us feel bad) they steal our belief that we can even make it to heaven.

Heaven becomes beside the point for us and far from our focus.  We are drained.  Drained even of the energy to try.  We no longer pant after heaven like the hart, doesn't the Bible say?  

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that we ought to want it a lot, and that it is an insult to God to have so little care.   I hesitate to take this further.

I do not put enough faith into my prayers.  I pray with little confidence of being heard - that in itself sets me up for failure.

Our Lady said that she would put new efficacy into the recitation of the Rosary, and Sr. Lucia said that there is no problem, and she repeated that, that could not or can not be solved by the Rosary.

What I propose is that we all earnestly pray for one another.   We are all in great need.  Our Lord fits the back to the burden.  Many years ago, about thirty, someone once told me that if everyone threw their problems into the center of a table and everyone looked around, you'd grab your own back!  The moral being is that Our Lord does know what He is doing.

You are all in my prayers!  

Got a joke for ya.

Seems this man was going to die, so he asked God if he could take something with him.  Quite a bit of arguing later God agreed.  So the man took thought as to what he should take and finally concluded that gold bricks would be the best thing.

So finally the man dies and he gets to St. Peter with his suitcase of gold bricks.  St. Peter says he can't bring them into heaven, cause no one gets to bring anything into heaven.  The man says, 'Go ask God.  He said I could bring this.'  

So St. Peter asks God and God confirms it.  'But,' says St. Peter, ' I'm curious.  What are you bringing to heaven?'  The man opens the suitcase, St. Peter looks and says, 'Pavement.  You're bringing pavement to heaven!'

I don't get it.

I've never been good at getting jokes.  I'm one of those people who laughs two hours later - sometimes the next day - sometimes weeks later.

I imagine because Heaven's streets "are paved with gold".  

So much for gold being safe from inflation!  :roll-laugh1:

I get it now.   Thank you.

 

Well? Go on... laugh!  :dancing-banana: