Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/48

 be much  more  solicitous  in  regard  to  our  departure  from this life,  for  it  will  be  our  final  journey  into  everlasting happiness or  eternal  misery. The importance  of  this journey induced  our  Lord  frequently  to  inculcate  the necessity of  being  always  ready. "Be ye  then  also ready,"  He  says,  "  for  at  what  hour  ye  think  not  the  Son of  man  will  come." (Luke xii.  40.)

II. This preparation  for  death  consists  principally  in this,  that  at  its  departure,  whenever  that  may  be,  the soul finds  itself  free  from  all  mortal  sin,  and  as  much  • as possible  free  from  all  venial  sin. Wherefore examine yourself  and  discover  if  there  be  anything  on  your conscience which  might  prevent  entirely  or  retard  your entrance into  heaven  were  you  to  die  this  moment. Put yourself in  that  state,  then,  in  which  you  would  wish  to be  found  at  death,  and  labor  to  persevere  in  it;  for  death may call  on  you  suddenly,  and  even  if  it  do  not,  it  is  a common  remark  that  few  are  mended  by  sickness. " The sinner,"  says  St.  Augustine,  "  has  this  punishment  inflicted on  him,  that  when  he  is  at  the  point  of  death  he is  unmindful  of  himself;  because  whilst  he  was  living he  was  forgetful  of  God." Do not,  therefore,  forget God during  health.

III. What is  most  calculated  to  give  comfort  to  a dying  person? 1. To  have  suffered  much  for  Christ, and to  have  undergone  mortification  and  penance. 2. To have  been  devout  to  the  Blessed  Virgin  and  the  Saints, etc. — Apply yourself  seriously  to  these  things,  for  the time will  come  when  you  will  wish  to  have  done  so. Happy was  that  holy  man  who  could  say  on  his  deathbed, "  I  have  never  done  my  own  will,  neither  have  I ever  taught  any  one  what  I  did  not  first  practise  myself."