FIFTH MEDITATION from The Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales.
Of Death. Preparation.
1. PLACE yourself in the Presence of God. 2. Ask His Grace. 3. Suppose yourself to be
on your deathbed, in the last extremity, 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—will it be in summer or winter? in town or country? by day or by night? will it be
suddenly or with warning? will it be owing to sickness or an accident? will you have time
to make your last confession or not? will your confessor or spiritual father be at hand or
will he not? Alas, of all these things we know absolutely nothing: all that we do know is that
die we shall, and for the most part sooner than we expect.
2. Consider that then the world is at end as far as you are concerned, there will be no
more of it for you, it will be altogether overthrown for you, since all pleasures, vanities,
worldly joys, empty delights will be as a mere fantastic vision to you. 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 nought. 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? Then what
you thought to be little sins will look like huge mountains, and your devotion will seem but
a very little thing.
3. Consider the universal farewell which your soul will take of this world. It will say
farewell to riches, pleasures, and idle companions; to amusements and pastimes, to friends
and neighbours, to husband, wife and child, in short to all creation. And lastly it will say
farewell to its own body, which it will leave pale and cold, to become repulsive in decay.
4. Consider how the survivors will hasten to put that body away, and hide it beneath
the earth—and then the world will scarce give you another thought, or remember you, any
more than you have done to those already gone. “God rest his soul!” men will say, and that
is all. O death, how pitiless, how hard thou art!
5. Consider that when it quits the body the soul must go at once to the right hand or
the left. To which will your soul go? what side will it take? none other, be sure, than that to
which it had voluntarily drawn while yet in this world.
Affections and Resolutions.
1. 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 favourable to me, if all the rest of my life be full
of sadness and trial.
2. Despise the world. Forasmuch as I know not the hour in which I must quit the world,
I will not grow fond of it. O dear friends, beloved ones of my heart, be content that I cleave
.to you only with a holy friendship which may last for ever; why should I cling to you with
a tie which must needs be broken?
I will prepare for the hour of death and take every precaution for its peaceful arrival; I
will thoroughly examine into the state of my conscience, and put in order whatever is
wanting.
Conclusion.
Thank God for inspiring you with these resolutions: offer them to His Majesty: intreat
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 the Saints. OUR FATHER, etc.
Gather a bouquet of myrrh
