And here's what Father Arnall says about the duration of Hell:

“Last and crowning torture of all the tortures of that awful place is the eternity of hell. Eternity! O, dread and dire word. Eternity! What mind of man can understand it? And remember, it is an eternity of pain. Even though the pains of hell were not so terrible as they are, yet they would become infinite, as they are destined to last for ever. But while they are everlasting they are at the same time, as you know, intolerably intense, unbearably extensive. To bear even the sting of an insect for all eternity would be a dreadful torment. What must it be, then, to bear the manifold tortures of hell for ever? For ever! For all eternity! Not for a year or for an age but for ever. Try to imagine the awful meaning of this. You have often seen the sand on the seashore. How fine are its tiny grains! And how many of those tiny little grains go to make up the small handful which a child grasps in its play. Now imagine a mountain of that sand, a million miles high, reaching from the earth to the farthest heavens, and a million miles broad, extending to remotest space, and a million miles in thickness; and imagine such an enormous mass of countless particles of sand multiplied as often as there are leaves in the forest, drops of water in the mighty ocean, feathers on birds, scales on fish, hairs on animals, atoms in the vast expanse of the air: and imagine that at the end of every million years a little bird came to that mountain and carried away in its beak a tiny grain of that sand. How many millions upon millions of centuries would pass before that bird had carried away even a square foot of that mountain, how many eons upon eons of ages before it had carried away all? Yet at the end of that immense stretch of time not even one instant of eternity could be said to have ended. At the end of all those billions and trillions of years eternity would have scarcely begun. And if that mountain rose again after it had been all carried away, and if the bird came again and carried it all away again grain by grain, and if it so rose and sank as many times as there are stars in the sky, atoms in the air, drops of water in the sea, leaves on the trees, feathers upon birds, scales upon fish, hairs upon animals, at the end of all those innumerable risings and sinkings of that immeasurably vast mountain not one single instant of eternity could be said to have ended; even then, at the end of such a period, after that eon of time the mere thought of which makes our very brain reel dizzily, eternity would scarcely have begun”

Of all things I have experienced in life, the idea of hell has inflicted upon me the greatest amount of mental distress and pain.  Being a devout religious person at such a young age, I take hell seriously and was constantly horrified by the thought of it.  This is one of the reason why I still have strong ill feelings towards the Catholic Church and those who instill in my mind the fear of hell (my parents).  I cannot imagine instilling these strong fears into my  child's innocent heart, telling him that if he does not follow God's simple laws he would go to such a terrible place called Hell , where he is burned and tortured for eternity.  This is also one of the reasons I wholeheartedly rejected the Catholic Church for its hideous and evil teachings on hell . 

Imagine that a caring and loving father becomes so angry and mad at his dear child that he burns and tortures him for eternity, simply because his son fails to follow an obligation on Sunday.  You cannot imagine that can you?  No sane person can imagine that such a caring and loving father is able to do commit such a horrible crime  Now, I was taught that God, a loving and caring father would send me to hell if I decide not to go to Sunday mass.  I was taught by my priest that if I steal my neighbor chicken, I would be sent to hell for eternity.  I was taught by mother that if I lied to her, a simple lie, I would be spent in purgatory (a slightly less evil place than hell) for millions of years.

Enough said, I will teach my children not be afraid of life and help them cultivate their good self-esteem and confidence that are essential for lasting success and happiness in life.  I will teach my children that there is no such  place called hell.  I will teach my children that there are people and institutions out there that are striving to instill in their minds fears in an effort to gain control over them.  I will teach my children to be a good and responsible citizens not because doing that will keep them out of hell, but because these are the virtues that will bring them lasting happiness and success in life.