Meditations on Death: Preparing for Eternity

by Thomas à Kempis

Overview

Thinking on death is the most profitable meditation we can make.

Indeed, Our Lord’s most holy passion and death offers us the greatest meditation, but pondering our own imminent death can bring us great fruit as it prepares us for the most important thing we will do: enter into eternity.
“Remember man that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

By meditating on their deaths, many have renounced this fleeting world for the monastery and cloister. By meditating on their deaths, many have conquered the flesh, the world, and the devil. By meditating on their deaths, many have climbed the ladder of holiness in a brief time.

To keep death daily before your eyes is one of the greatest secrets to sanctity, for death is the only certainty in this life. And those who ponder the hour of their death daily will not be surprised when that moment comes; rather, they will have prepared for it their entire lives and will be ready to meet their Creator.

In this soul-jarring work, Thomas à Kempis guides the reader to consider the last four things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell. One of the devil’s favorite words is tomorrow. But God’s is today. Meditations on Death is like a mini-retreat that will redirect your heart to eternal things rather than passing things. For to contemplate the hour of your death is to already have one foot in heaven.
 
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781505128062
Publisher:	TAN Books
Publication date:	01/10/2023
Pages:	88
Sales rank:	967,037
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471) was a medieval monk steeped in the mystical tradition of his time. His well-loved work, The Imitation of Christ, is one of Christian history's best known works on spiritual devotion. This small book sidesteps academic pretension to consider larger truths. "A poor peasant who serves God," Thomas wrote, "is better than a proud philosopher who . . . ponders the courses of the stars."

Table of Contents

Translator's Note ix

Part I Reflections on the Last Things

1 Consideration of One's Own Death 3

2 The Torments of Hell 10

3 The Final Judgment 20

4 The Joys of Heaven 25

Part II A Discourse in the Person of a Sinner about to Die

5 Mindfulness of Death: A Sure Remedy to the Vices 33

6 A Lament over Time Wasted 39

7 Regrets Concerning the Deferral of Repentance and Reformation 43

8 The Uncertainty of the Last-Minute Repentance and Conversion 49

9 The Unreliability of Human Assistance in the Hour of Death 53

10 A Final Exhortation to Those Who Still Live 57

Part III Canticles to Heaven

11 A Canticle on the Joys of Heaven and the Choirs of Angels 65

12 A Canticle to the Angels and Saints in Heaven 68