Thought for the Day – 24 April – During this Season of Alleluias and Joy, we will consider Fr von Cochem’s Reflections upon our Heavenly Homeland.
Excerpts from THE FOUR LAST THINGS —- DEATH, JUDGMENT, HELL and HEAVEN
FR MARTIN VON COCHEM (1625-1712) OSFC .
Nihil Obstat: Thomas L Kinkead, Censor Liborium
Imprimatur: Michael Augustine — Archbishop of New York (New York 5 Oct 1899)
PART IV
ON HEAVEN
CONCLUSION
Let us all, my dear reader, courageously and cheerfully do all, undertake all, sacrifice all that we may gain the ineffable happiness of Heaven, for we never can purchase Heaven at too dear a price.
Let us not be disheartened at the difficulties on our road, for, after all, it is not so difficult to merit Heaven. Were we to do for Heaven half as much as people do to earn a living, to acquire a little wealth, power or fame, or to enjoy life, we would be sure of securing a high place among the Saints.
All we have to do to gain Heaven is to keep the Commandments of God and of His Church, to bear our little crosses, to discharge the obligations of our state of life, to overcome temptation and although this is above our natural strength, we nevertheless. can count on the Grace of God, if we pray earnestly for it and with God’s help, everything will become comparatively easy, for, as St Paul says: “I can do all things in Him Who strengtheneth me” (Phil iv. 13).
Earnest, persistent prayer will secure Heaven.
I now, dear reader, address to you the words the mother of the Machabees addressed to her youngest son, a mere boy, when he was about to be tortured to death, as his six brothers had been before him: “My son, I beg thee to look up to Heaven.”
Look up to Heaven everyday, especially in time of trial and temptation.
Heaven is well worth every suffering and every sacrifice and every combat required of us and even a thousand times more!
Life is short; it is trials, it is sufferings, it is labours, it is combats, it is crosses too are short and transitory but Heaven and its joys, are inconceivable, satiating every desire of the heart and neverending!
“ Our present momentary and light tribulations, worketh above measure exceedingly, an eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor iv. 17).
May God in His Mercy grant this happy end to the writer of this book and all into whose hands it may fall!
AnaStpaul 