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WITH FASTING AND PRAYER WE CAN CLEANSE THE ROBE WE WILL WEAR IN BRIGHTNESS OF HEAVEN

The goal in life should be to cleanse all that spiritual grit by the time we die and that is done by looking toward the Eucharist as both a cleansing agent and an example.

Through Communion we can present our inner turmoil (and darkness) to the Lord and fill ourselves with Him -- over and over, until we are white -- like the Host.

This is why it's an example!

Whiten your soul to the color of the Eucharist.

Heaven is that level of white and we can step into it only if our own whiteness matches it.

Clarity in full; purity in all infinity:

The goal of life should be to die in a state of innocence -- in the squeaky cleanliness of our "first creation."

Those are potent words. It means how we were born into this world.

If we can achieve that -- if we can re-establish such innocence -- we achieve Heaven!

Purity. Openness. Innocence. Did not Jesus Himself say that unless we are like children we won't enter His Kingdom?

Think about it:

Ever since birth, we've fought off the grit of temptation. The devil has tried to muddy us -- to soil the garb we will bring to eternity. It really is a robe. We get this from both Catholic mysticism and near-death experiences: in Heaven they wear robes that are immaculate, and we have to be immaculate to have one.

Upon death we step into who we really are (we are turned inside out) and that means we must be especially attuned to our purity, which will be reflected in what we wear. A sullied robe equals that cosmic laundromat known as purgatory.

They say that in Heaven they wear robes that are white and so bright that they appear to be like a combination of spun glass and spun cotton. It is like light that is woven!

During a vision of Heaven Teresa of Avila said, "I saw myself being clothed in a garment of great whiteness and brightness. At first I could not see who was clothing me, but later I saw Our Lady on my right hand and my father St. Joseph on my left, and it was they who were putting the garment on me."

She described the brightness as "a radiance which dazzles, but a soft whiteness and an infused radiance which, without wearying the eyes, cause them the greatest delight. So different from any earthly light is the brightness and light now revealed to the eyes that, by comparison with it, the brightness of our sun seems quite dim."

Isn't that also the way Sister Lucia of Fatima described the Blessed Mother: "dressed all in white, more brilliant than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal glass filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the burning rays of the sun"?

Many who come back from "death" say the same, recounting what one witness described as "this pure crystal clear light, an illuminating white light. It was beautiful and so bright, so radiant, but it didn't hurt my eyes. It's not like any kind of light you can describe on earth."

This is the light that clothes us -- when we reach the right level of purity (which also means purity of every intention, meaning love; strive only for this!). This is the light we can begin to surround ourselves with here on earth. Do you not know "bright souls" as well as those who seem to be surrounded by darkness?

Addiction. Hatefulness. Competition. This cause blotches on the spirit. We want the whiteness!

"I became fascinated by the fabric of his robe, trying to figure out how light could be woven!" said another.

"At the end of the table closest to me was a man sitting in a throne type chair; He was clothed in a white robe," said another describing Jesus.

"Immediately after leaving my body a shaft of very white light came down in the room and a beautiful woman with long black hair in a white robe trimmed in gold came down through the Light," is a third testimony. "She extended her hands toward me and gave me the choice of either going up in the Light with her or staying on earth in my body. At first, I wanted to go with her in the Light as the experience was so beautiful and peaceful. I was also totally out of pain as the Light surrounded me."

"I had no body but I could see a man dressed in a brilliant white robe," says yet another. "His clothes were as bright as a lightning bolt."

"I noted that all four of us were wearing traditional flowing white robes (traditional in the sense of what you might have seen people wearing around the first century, not the flimsy, silky type of robe we often see Jesus depicted in), although mine was slightly whiter or brighter than those of the angels around me," said an minister who "died," Lonnie Honeycutt.

And we hear:

"There was a brilliant, brilliant light all around us – all around me and everything else.  In fact, the word I choose to use to describe my entire time in Heaven is 'brilliant'!  Everything that I saw and experienced felt more real than anything I’ve ever known here on earth."

This also fits with descriptions of angels. 

One girl who saw her deceased grandmother said she "was dressed in a white suit and she looked like an angel."

It's what we want to wear -- in the eternal.

One near-deather saw it fashioned by those in Heaven earnestly matching it to the arrival's spirit -- or as coming from the living waters.

And we receive this attire by humbling ourselves and ridding the inner parts of our spirits of every resentment and over-attachment -- every tang of evil -- to a state that will let us know we are purifying because after turmoil will be peace. And joy. The soul knows when its headed in the right direction!

And it happens especially fast when we fast -- when we do penance -- which separates the spirit a bit from the flesh and lets it operate out of the confines of worldliness.

Those who have glimpsed purgatory said the robes there were blemished or gray.

Expel darkness. Discipline your thoughts. Note how Jesus fasted before He went into public ministry. It was sacrifice that led to His resurrection. Often, if it is in God's Plan, penance done voluntarily may lessen suffering that otherwise will be sent to us involuntarily (as purification). In other words, through fasting and selfless works (without any expectation of return) may allow us to avoid other forms of suffering (it may well prevent future sickness).

Through fasting we can choose the time and way to purify, when it fits with God's perspective. With fasting we fashion.

Most importantly, we can also go back through our lives and rectify times that need to be washed in His Blood (and sanctified).

"Blessed are those who wash their robes," says Revelation 22:14, "so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city."

Darkness is distance from God.

Go back. Pray about every year in your life. Replace darkness with light. Take Communion for this cause -- repeatedly. Expel all negative inclinations. Let not a patch of unforgiveness, or lust, or falsity, or vengefulness, or jealousy, or resentment, or anger, or addiction, or greed, or selfishness cause a blot on what you will one day wear. You don't want to wear your bad habits! (Everyone sees every truth in Heaven.)

Prepare now and step into the immaculate and brilliant state we are called to emulate by the Immaculate Virgin Mary. What kills is judgment; what heals is love.