In light of today’s solemnity, let us reflect on the immediate precedent of our encounter with Christ the merciful judge, when we end our earthly days and go to Him. Use this meditation from St. Francis of Sales‘
Introduction to the Devout Life in your personal prayer time (10 minutes recommended).
CH. XIII. Fifth Meditation (abbreviated by Fr. Terry)
Preparation. (1) Place yourself in the Presence of God. (2) Ask His Grace upon you prayer time. (3)Imagine yourself to be at the end of your life, on your deathbed, without the smallest hope of recovery.
Considerations (1) Consider the uncertainty as to the day of your death. One day your soul will quit this body— in summer or winter? in town or country? by day or by night? suddenly or with warning? Who will be there? Your family? A priest? Were you conscious enough to make a good Confession? We know absolutely nothing: all we know is that die we shall, and so often sooner than we expect. (2)In death, the world is ended as far as you are concerned. There will be no more of it for you, since all pleasures, vanities, worldly joys, are then just a memory. Woe is me, for what mere trifles and unrealities I have ventured to offend my God? Then you will see that what we preferred to Him was nothing. But, on the other hand, all devotion and good works will then seem so precious and so sweet:—Why did I not tread that pleasant path? Thus, your “little” sins will look like huge mountains, and your devotion to God just a very little thing. (3) Consider the great goodbye that your soul will take of this world - goodbye to riches, pleasures, and idle companions; to amusements and pastimes, to friends and neighbors, to spouse and child, in short to all creation. And lastly your soul will say farewell to its own body, which it will leave pale and cold, to quickly decay. (4) Consider how fast your body will be buried and people will barely think of you, any more than you have done to those already gone. O death, how pitiless, how hard thou art! (5)Consider that when it leaves the body the soul must go at once either up or down. To which will your soul go? Be sure, only where it had chosen to go while still in this world.
Affections and Resolutions Pray to God, and throw yourself into His Arms.
O Lord, be Thou my stay in that day of anguish! May that hour be blessed and favorable to me, even if all the rest of my life be full of sadness and trial. (2) Despise the world. Since I don’t know the hour in which I must quit the world, I will not grow fond of it. Why should I cling to things with a tie that will surely be broken? I will prepare for my end and keep my soul ready to meet death; I will thoroughly examine the state of my conscience, and set right whatever is not toward eternity.
Conclusion. Thank God for inspiring you with these resolutions: offer them to His Majesty: beg Him anew to grant you a happy death by the Merits of His Dear Son’s Death. Ask the prayers of the Blessed Virgin and other Saints. Say Our Father, etc. Gather a bouquet from your prayer time (choose various sentisentiments of your prayer to carry with you into your day).