The Sinner’s Guide

An excerpt from The Sinner’s Guide  by Venerable Louis of Granada:

“The Seventh Motive for Practicing Virtue: The Thought of Death, the First of the Four Last Things.

To preserve you, my dear Christian, from these vain regrets, I beg you to gather from what has been said three considerations, and to keep them continually before your mind.

  1. The first is the terrible remorse that your sins will awaken in you at the hour of death.
  2. The second is how ardently, though how vainly, you will wish that you had faithfully served God during life.
  3. The third is how willingly you would accept the most rigorous penance, were you given time for repentance.

Acting on this advice, you will now begin to regulate your life according as you will then wish to have done.”