Union: December 31
(same as December 30)
Oh, what remorse we will have at the end of our lives on considering the great number of examples given us by God and the saints for our perfection – examples so neglected by us! If today marked the end of your life, would you be satisfied with the way you have lived this year?
– St. Francis de Sales
Thomas à Kempis relates that a pious soul once became greatly upset and worried about his final perseverance. Prostrating himself before the altar, he prayed: "Oh if I only knew that I would persevere in good will to the end!" At that he heard an interior voice replying: "And if you knew it, what would you do? Do now what you will wish to have done at the end of your life, and you will feel secure."
It is related in the lives of the Fathers that once when an elderly monk was asked what he had done to acquire perfection, he replied, "The moment I left the world I said to myself: 'Today you have been born again; today you are beginning to serve God and to live in this holy place. Daily being life anew as though the next day were to be your last.' This is exactly what I have done every day."
