promised to do so, but I have not done it; and now, in a short time, what will become of me?"
Ah, my Jesus and my judge! I return Thee thanks for the patience with which Thou hast hitherto waited for me. How many times have I myself written my own eternal condemnation '. Since Thou hast thus waited to pardon me, reject me not, now prostrate at Thy feet. Receive me into Thy favor through the merits of Thy bitter Passion. I am sorry, my sovereign good! for having despised Thee. I love Thee above all things. I desire never more to forsake Thee. O Mary! recommend me to thy Son Jesus, and do not abandon me.
MEDITATION XIII.
Preparation for the Particular Judgments
1. Be you ready: for at what hour you think not, the Son of man will come. The time of death will not be the time to prepare ourselves to die well; to die well and happily, we must prepare ourselves beforehand, There will not be time then to eradicate bad habits from the soul, to expel from the heart its predominant passions, and to extinguish all affection to earthly goods. The night cometh when no man can work? All in death will be night; when nothing will be seen; and, hence, nothing done. The heart hardened, the mind obscured, confusion, fear, the desire of health, will all render it almost impossible at the hour of death to set in order a conscience confused and entangled in sin.
O Sacred wounds of my Redeemer! I adore you, I humbly kiss you, and I confide in you.
2. The saints thought they did but little, though they spent their whole lives in preparing for death, by acts of
