There are many mansions. There are hovels and huts and basements and small homes. There are lonely apartments. There are grand edifices. We move into our state of mind.

Everyone reading this has a chance to turn their state of mind into Heaven.

The very last decision a non-believer can make in a state of earthly free-will is whether he finally accepts the Lord now that he faces eternity.

There is that one last chance – which is why prayers must be said for the dying no matter how hostile they have been to religion.

The Blessed Mother has said to “pray daily for the souls in purgatory. For every soul, prayer and grace are necessary to reach God and the love of God. By doing this, dear children, you obtain new intercessors who will help you in life to realize that all the earthly things are not important for you, that only Heaven is that for which it is necessary to strive. Therefore, dear children, pray without ceasing that you may be able to help yourselves and the others to whom your prayers will bring joy.” Sometimes the call for prayer comes in dreams, when the veil is thin.

“I want to share a very powerful story with you that occurred a little over a year ago,” a woman from Shakopee, Minnesota, named Angela Howick wrote me. “It begins with a dream I had.

“This dream was very different and I woke up with an intense desire to pray. I dreamed that I walked into a large room and it was filled with many deceased family members and friends. Although I could not see faces or physical bodies, I knew every single one of them. It was as if I knew their souls.

“I left the room and went down a small hallway. There in the hallway was my recently deceased uncle sitting on a bench. He was staring towards the sky and did not even look at me. I was very excited to see him and immediately said ‘Freddy!  What are you doing?’ He responded in a very calm yet discontent voice, saying, ‘I am waiting.’ This was not the response I was expecting. My uncle was a very happy go-lucky, loud man who was always excited to see anyone. I asked him again, ‘Freddy, what are you doing?’ 

“He looked down at me and we locked eyes. His response was the same: ‘I am waiting.’ He then continued to stare towards the sky. 

“At that moment I knew what he was waiting for. He was waiting to be released from purgatory. In that moment I woke up and knew he needed prayers. 

“A couple of weeks later, I called my aunt to discuss having a Gregorian Mass said for him. I was surprised to find out that she was actually having many Gregorian Masses said for several deceased relatives and friends. She had even already called in the Masses, including one for my uncle. My aunt gave me the list of names and dates for when their Masses would start, so that I could unite my prayers and intentions with them.  I wrote down all the names and dates.

“Later that night, I was praying and I realized that all of the names she had mentioned to me were the souls I saw in my dream. One particular name stood out for me. This was her father-in-law (let’s call him Bert), a man who died before I was born. Even though, I had never seen a picture of him or thought about him before, I know that he was in that room in my dream, along with all of the other people on the list for Masses. 

“A few weeks later, I was praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, while driving to Mass and when I got to the very last ‘Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world,’ I was overcome by an enormous sense of peace and joy.

All of a sudden I started to cry because of this joy. I was not just shedding a few tears. I was wailing. I called out to the Lord, ‘Why do I feel this way?’  Then I heard three names: ‘Freddy, Hermie, and Bert were released from purgatory.’ I looked at the clock, 10:30 a.m. I knew that someone’s Gregorian Masses were ending that day, but I couldn’t remember whose.  When I returned home, I looked at the list of names and dates and discovered that was the day the Masses for those three people had finished.”

Alone in the dark – if only briefly – those who have strayed from the Lord are there to contemplate themselves.

In that contemplation is the truth of the situation and the need for prayers.

There are no more masks.

No longer can one hide behind a smile or hypocrisy or materialism.

We go where we think.

We step into the love we created.

With that love, said the Blessed Mother, we will not even feel the transition.

“If you would abandon yourselves to me, you will not even feel the passage from this life to the next life,” was her incredible promise to a locutionist. “You will begin to live the life of Heaven from this earth.”

[adapted from The Other Side]

[See also: Retreats, Louisiana and Kansas City]