In the real economy of the Mystical Body of Christ, intercessory prayer is essential for the ‘renewal of the face of the earth’. But can it bring about the eternal salvation of all humanity? Sr. Gabriella of the Incarnation, a Carmelite nun, gave her response to this question in an article from the website, Where Peter Is, January 17, 2024. (Her words are in italics.)

‘Pope Francis, in a recent interview, said “I like to think hell is empty; I hope it is.”… I would like to add my viewpoint on the matter…it is an extremely serious matter for me because it calls my whole vocation into question.

I am a cloistered religious, a Discalced Carmelite nun, a member of a community totally dedicated to contemplation. We have no outside apostolate. Our apostolate is prayer for the Church and for the world. We don’t teach, we don’t nurse, we don’t run a retreat center. Our life is centered on prayer, liturgical prayer, and personal prayer. We are here to let God turn our every thought and action into prayer until, with His grace, we may be so united with Him that we will whatever He wills.

One thing that we know that God wills is that “all human beings be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2: 4).^[Is that something that we, as contemplative nuns, should pray for? Certainly, if we will what God wills, then we should definitely pray for what He wills.

Is what He wills possible? Is it possible that all human beings be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth? The answer to that is another question: can God want the impossible? Can God will what cannot possibly be done? If God wills something, then it is accomplished.

There is a very interesting event described in the Gospel of Mark. ‘When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven’ (Mark 2: 1-5).

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I want to draw your attention to that last sentence: “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’” In every other encounter with people whom Jesus healed, he told the person, “Your faith has made you well.” Each person is saved by their faith. That is the general rule, but it doesn’t apply here. This situation was totally different. The paralytic was not saved by his own faith. The healing of his sins, was in response to the faith of those who brought him to Jesus. That is a gift that he received because of the faith of others.

Can my prayers and the prayers of contemplatives and believers around the world cause all sins to be forgiven? Every sin that has been, will be or is being committed was lavishly paid for on Calvary 2,000 years ago. Countless times throughout the day, Catholics recite the Our Father. That prayer includes the words, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” There is enough grace through Christ’s sacrifice to save every human being ever created.

I entitled this article “Can Prayer Empty Hell?” I do not know the answer to that question. Anyone who doubts the possibility that prayer can indeed accomplish what God wills, calls into question the very value of prayer, and therefore the value of the wholly contemplative life and the place of contemplatives in the Church.

All I can say is that, whatever criticism I may receive for my viewpoint, it will not deter me in the least from praying that God’s will be done and that every human being will be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.’

More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of^[4]

Sr. Gabriella of the Incarnation speaks of Hell’s emptying, which may seem to refer only to our prayer assisting the souls of those who have died. We have to combine that intercession with prayer for the affairs of this world now. In so far as they effect the salvation of souls, they effect the gradual renewal of the face of the earth. Wars, famines, and all the evil movements in society which are drawing people into illusion and corruption can all be turned about by prayer and truth.

We often take up the sword to fight for truth, but less seldom do we persevere in intercession. The hardened spiritual warrior endures to the end until evil is overturned.

Spiritual warriors

When I speak of the ‘hardened’ spiritual warrior, I do not refer to those who summon up their wills and force themselves to persevere. There is another hardness which comes to the person used to contemplative prayer which is not of our own making, but the effect of grace. Prayer will expose us to the weakness in our own make-up leading to humility, but through it, grace awakens us to the inner strength which God is exercising in and with our spirits.

I think it is what St Paul means when he talks of ‘the gift of faith’ (1 Corinthians12: 9). We sense a strengthening within ourselves which we only occasionally are aware of. It is a strength which will come out plainly when we are tested most strongly.

I write this on May 4^th, the feast of the English and Welsh Martyrs. In the Office of Reading Pope St Paul VI writes about the serenity, fortitude and forgiveness they all displayed as they were being publicly executed, sometimes through hanging, drawing and quartering – the pregnant St Margaret Clitherow was crushed to death under a heavy door which was loaded by more and more stones being put on top. She maintained her courage and fortitude.

On the same day we celebrate many Carmelite priests and religious slaughtered during the dreadful Spanish Civil War. Such fortitude is a gift of God, but it grows steadily in the spirits of the person who contemplates. It calls them to persevere in intercession. This is the ‘faith’ Jesus talks of when he says it can move mountains (Mark 11: 19). These friars and nuns were martyred after suffering dreadful torture.

The gift of fortitude, promised to those who witness to Christ unto death, has been poured out over centuries, and never more so than in our day and age.

The Martyrs’ blood fertilises fields in which the Kingdom of God will flourish. They endured the horror of their imprisonments, tortures and deaths, turning them into "spiritual sacrifices". These offerings were all shot through with contemplation of God’s love, and also prayer for humanity. Such prayer has inexorable effect on all of humanity.