Our most important affair is that of our eternal salvation; upon it depends our happiness or misery forever. This affair will come to an end in eternity, and will decide whether we shall be saved or lost forever; whether we shall have acquired an eternity of delights, or an eternity of torments; whether we shall live forever happy, or forever miserable.
O God! What will my lot be? Shall I be saved, or shall I be lost? I may be either. And if I may be lost, why do I not embrace such a life, as may secure for me life eternal? O Jesus! Thou didst die to save me; yet have I been lost, as often as I have lost Thee, my sovereign good: suffer me not to lose Thee any more.
Men esteem it a great affair to gain a lawsuit, to obtain a post of honor, or to acquire an estate. Nothing, however, that will end with time deserves to be esteemed great. Since, therefore, all the goods of this world will one day end in our regard, as we shall either leave them or they will leave us, that affair alone should be esteemed great, upon which depends eternal happiness or eternal misery.
O Jesus, my Redeemer, cast me not away from Thy face, as I have deserved! I am indeed a sinner; but I am grieved from the bottom of my heart for having offended Thy infinite goodness. Hitherto I have despised Thee, but now I love Thee above all things. Henceforth Thou alone shalt be my only good, my only love. Have pity on a sinner who penitently casts him-self at Thy feet, and desires to love Thee. If I have grievously offended Thee, I now ardently desire to love Thee. What would have become of me, if Thou hadst called me out of life when I had lost Thy grace and favor? Since Thou, O Lord! hast shown so much mercy to me, grant me grace to become a saint.
Let us awaken our faith in a heaven and a hell of eternal duration: one or other will be our lot.
O God! how could I, knowing that by committing sin I was condemning myself to eternal torments — how could I sin so often against Thee and forfeit Thy grace? Knowing that Thou art my God and my Redeemer, how could I, for the sake of a miserable gratification, so often turn my back upon Thee? O God, I am sorry above every evil for having thus despised Thee. I love Thee above every good, and henceforth I will suffer the loss of all things rather than lose Thy friendship. Give me strength to continue faithful. And do Thou, O Blessed Virgin Mary! pray for me and assist me.
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"Those who pray will be saved; those who do not pray will be condemned." These meditations were published by Saint Alphonsus in 1767. Read them in chronological order.
