An Easy Way to Become a Saint - September 20

Continued from yesterday...

Chapter 9. Meditation

...Why we must make meditation.

First of all, every Catholic should make daily meditation. St. Teresa says that the person who does not meditate needs no devil to throw him into Hell; he is going there himself.

2nd) Meditation is by no means hard to make, if only we learn how to make it, and this presents no difficulty.

3rd) If we do not meditate, we never see our faults, and so we never correct them.

4th) If we do not meditate, we can form no idea of the malice of sin, and as a consequence, we do not feel sorry for it; we do not avoid it.

5th) If we do not meditate, we do not see the awful danger we are in of falling into Hell. For this reason, thousands of men and women - men and women like ourselves - are falling into Hell every day.

6th) If we do not meditate, we do not prepare for death; we are afraid of death; we are afraid to think of it. That is just the reason why so many have bad deaths. Those who know how to meditate on death are no longer afraid of it, and moreover, they are sure to have happy deaths. "Think of your last end and you shall never sin" are God's own words.

7th) The greatest happiness anyone can have on this earth is to have a good friend, a true friend, a friend who can and is ready to help him.

God is really and truly our Friend in the truest sense of that word. He is our most loving Father, a most tender Father. Never was there a father or mother on this Earth who loved a child as God loves us. The day we understand this truth will be the happiest day of our lives.

We must always think of God as a God of tenderest love. Then we must love Him....

[Continued tomorrow]
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From An Easy Way to Become a Saint
by E. D. M. (1949)
The Catholic Printing Press
Lisbon, Portugal
With Ecclesiastical Approbation
13th June 1949