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Part 1 -Chapter 13 of the Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales

This is a Discerning Hearts recording read by Correy Webb

CHAPTER XIII. FIFTH MEDITATION.

Of Death

Preparation.
1. PLACE yourself in the Presence of God.
2. Ask His Grace.
3. Suppose yourself to be on your deathbed, in the last extremity, without the smallest hope of recovery.

Considerations.
1. Consider the uncertainty as to the day of your death. One day your soul will quit this body—will it be in summer or winter? in town or country? by day or by night? will it be suddenly or with warning? will it be owing to sickness or an accident? will you have time to make your last confession or not? will your confessor or spiritual father be at hand or will he not? Alas, of all these things we know absolutely nothing: all that we do know is that die we shall, and for the most part sooner than we expect.
2. Consider that then the world is at end as far as you are concerned, there will be no more of it for you, it will be altogether overthrown for you, since all pleasures, vanities, worldly joys, empty delights will be as a mere fantastic vision to you. Woe is me, for what mere trifles and unrealities I have ventured to offend my God? Then you will see that what we preferred to Him was nothing. But, on the other hand, all devotion and good works will then seem so precious and so sweet: —Why did I not tread that pleasant path? Then what you thought to be little sins will look like huge mountains, and your devotion will seem but a very little thing.
3. Consider the universal farewell which your soul will take of this world. It will say farewell to riches, pleasures, and idle companions; to amusements and pastimes, to friends and neighbors, to husband, wife and child, in short to all creation. And lastly it will say farewell to its own body, which it will leave pale and cold, to become repulsive in decay.
4. Consider how the survivors will hasten to put that body away and hide it beneath the earth—and then the world will scarce give you another thought, or remember you, any more than you have done to those already gone. “God rest his soul!” men will say, and that is all. O death, how pitiless, how hard thou art!
5. Consider that when it quits the body the soul must go at once to the right hand or the left. To which will your soul go? what side will it take? none other, be sure, than that to which it had voluntarily drawn while yet in this world.

Affections and Resolutions.
1. Pray to God, and throw yourself into His Arms.
O Lord, be Thou my stay in that day of anguish! May that hour be blessed and favorable to me, if all the rest of my life be full of sadness and trial.
2. Despise the world.
Forasmuch as I know not the hour in which I must quit the world, I will not grow fond of it. O dear friends, beloved ones of my heart, be content that I cleave to you only with a holy friendship which may last forever; why should I cling to you with a tie which must be broken?
I will prepare for the hour of death and take every precaution for its peaceful arrival; I will thoroughly examine into the state of my conscience and put in order whatever is wanting.

Conclusion.
Thank God for inspiring you with these resolutions: offer them to His Majesty: intreat Him anew to grant you a happy death by the Merits of His Dear Son’s Death. Ask the prayers of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints.

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;

thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
Glory Be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.

At the end of your meditation linger a while, and gather, so to say, a little spiritual bouquet from the thoughts you have dwelled upon, the sweet perfume that may refresh you through the day.