Heaven | What You Need to Know

Heaven is hard to pin down. It is impossible for us to imagine what it is like to see God face to face, and hard to know what form the new heaven and new earth will take at the end of time. The key to all these joys, however, is union with God.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church treats briefly of both heaven and our hope in the new heaven and new earth in connection with the twelfth article of the creed, “I believe in life everlasting”, particularly paragraphs 1023 - 1029 and 1042 - 1050.

The topic of heaven was mentioned frequently by Pope John Paul II throughout his long pontificate as a means of encouraging Christians to keep their focus. He made it the subject of his weekly audiences at least a dozen times.

An excellent and more extensive treatment of heaven, along with the joys and dispositions of the blessed, was provided a century ago in a famous sermon by the great Catholic convert Henry Edward Cardinal Manning of Westminster, England.

Essential Perspective

1. Heaven in the Catechism
2. Heaven is Fullness of Communion with God (John Paul II)
3. The Joys of the Resurrection (Cardinal Manning)

Extra Reading

Good materials on heaven are hard to come by, partly because we simply don’t have much specific information about it. After all, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what joys God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9). The section of the Catechism which treats of heaven is included above; consider also the section which treats briefly of the new heaven and the new earth.