Thought for the Day – 26 August – Two Paths to Heaven

Thought for the Day – 26 August – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

Two Paths to Heaven

“The first road to Heaven is the way of innocence.
There are some generous souls who preserve, until the end of life, their original baptismal purity.
St Aloysious Gonzaga never ceased to repent of two small faults for which he could hardly be held responsible since he committed them in the ignorance of ealy childhood.
Having lived like an angel in human form, he died with a smile on his lips, murmuring that he was happy to be going to Heaven at last.

In more recent times, there was the lovable boy Saint Dominic Savio.
On the day of his first Holy Communion, he made the resolution “Death rather than sin,” a resolution to which he remained faithful throughout his innocent young life.

Throughout it’s history, the Church could boast of many other members like these, who reflected the absolute purity and perfection of it’s divine Head and Founder.
It should be our desire to possess this innocence, so that we may be pure and holy in the sight of God and may remain always close to Him.
Sin is ugly.
It deprives us of God, our only true good and makes us unhappy because, the sinner can never be at peace.
It makes us restless and remorseful during life and when we come to die, unless God’s mercy intervenes, it causes us to despair of salvation.
Let us jealously guard our state of innocence, keeping it intact by fervent prayer and meditation.“

Antonio Cardinal Bacci