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From "Annette -- a Soul in Hell"


"My father and mother were still young when they left the country to go and live in the town, but both of them had already stopped going to church, and a good thing too!! They got friendly with other non-churchgoers. They first met in a dance hall, and at the end of six months they 'had to get married.' They brought away just enough religion from the marriage ceremony to take my mother to Sunday Mass maybe twice a year. She never really taught me to pray. The only things that interested her were the day to day material tasks that had to be done, even though we did not have to worry about money."


"You were shocked once when we were out walking and I told you that a few days before my First Communion my father had said to me, 'My dear Annette, do get a pretty dress. All the rest is just a farce.' Because you were shocked I was almost ashamed. Now the whole thing seems laughable."

"The only sensible thing about the whole business was that children were not admitted to Communion before they were twelve. Well, by that age I was already crazy about worldly pleasures, so I did not worry at all about not taking religion seriously and I did not attach much importance to my First Communion. It makes us furious when we see that nowadays many children of seven go to Communion, and we do all we can to persuade people that at that age their powers of reason are not yet sufficiently developed. They must have time to commit a few MORTAL SINS. Then that white disc won't do as much damage as it would if their souls were still living by faith, hope, and charity -- BAH! what a thought -- that they received at baptism. If you remember, I was already thinking along those lines when I was on earth."

"I have already mentioned my father. He often used to fight with my mother. I did not say much to you about it because I was ashamed. How ridiculous, to be ashamed of something evil!! It is all the same to us in this place."

"My parents no longer even slept in the same room. I was in with my mother, and my father had the room next door, so that he could come in as late as he liked. He used to drink heavily, and he was squandering all of our money on alcohol. My sisters both went out to work because they said they needed the money, and my mother took a job to bring something in as well."



"You and Martha persuaded me to join the young people's association. I never hid the fact that I considered the talks given by the organizers as pretty parochial sort of stuff, but I liked the games. As you know I became one of the leaders straight away, which was typical of me. I liked the outings as well. I even went as far as going to Confession and Communion occasionally, although I did not have anything to confess. I did not consider thoughts and words were of any importance, and at the time I was not sufficiently corrupted to go in for any really immoral actions."

"You warned me once, 'Annette, if you do not pray more, you are headed for Hell.' Well, you were right when you said I did not pray much, and when I did it was in a casual sort of way. You were all too right. All of these now burning in Hell were people who did not pray, or did not pray enough. Prayer is the first step towards God, and it is always the decisive step, especially prayer to HER WHO WAS CHRIST'S MOTHER, and whose Name we never speak."

"Countless souls are torn from the Devil's clutches by the spirit of prayer, souls that would otherwise be bound to fall into his hands as a result of sin."