Heaven is the dwelling of God, the place where He manifests Himself in a special manner in the light and grandeur of the Paradisal firmament. Heaven also is the abode of the angels and the souls of the just. Heaven is the happiness and the abode of just in the next life.

The heaven of the blessed is a special place with definite limits, which exists, not within the earth or this universe, but without and beyond its limits.

God will bestow happiness and the richest gifts on all those who depart this life free from original sin and personal mortal sin, and who are, consequently, in the state of justice and friendship with God, in Heaven.

Such persons immediately begin eternal happiness after death; or eventually, for those who depart in venial sin or who are still subject to temporal punishment for sin, after the passage through purgatory.

The bliss of heaven is eternal and consists primarily in the possession of God. Heaven is a condition of perfect happiness, in which every wish of the heart finds adequate satisfaction.