Page:AceticLibraryV2PreparationForDeath.djvu/82

 just thought. Give me holy perseverance, and give me Thy love.

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death." (Rev. xxi. 4.) Therefore, in death the Lord will wipe away from the eyes of His servants the tears which they have shed, living as they do in trouble, in fears, in dangers, and in battles with hell. What can be greater consolation to a soul that has loved God when death is announced, than the thought, that soon it will be freed from the many dangers that there are in this life of offending God, from the many stings of conscience, and from the temptations of the devil. This present life is a continual warfare with hell, in which we are in constant danger of losing our souls, and then our God. S. Ambrose tell us, that upon this earth we are ever walking amidst the snares of the enemy who lies in wait to rob us of the life of grace. It was this danger which caused S. Peter of Alcantara to say when dying to a religious who, when assisting him, touched him, " My brother, keep away from me, because I am still living and am yet in danger of being eternally lost!" It was this danger also that caused S. Teresa to be consoled each time that she heard the clock strike, rejoicing that another hour of warfare was passed, for she said, "At any moment of my life I may sin, and by doing so I may lose God." Therefore it is, that the saints are so rejoiced when death is " announced to them, knowing, as they do, that very soon their battles and their dangers will be ended, and that they, within a very short time, will reach that happy state when they will no longer be able to lose God.

It is related in the lives of the Fathers, that once when an aged Father was dying in Scythia, he laughed when the others wept; on being asked why he laughed, he answered, " Wherefore do you weep, knowing, as you do, that I am going to my rest? " Likewise, Catherine of Sienna, when she was dying, said, " Rejoice with me, for I am leaving this world of sorrows, and I am going to a place of rest." S. Cyprian observes, that if some one were living