St Peter of alcantara 3

 A meditation for Tuesday

( From St Peter of Alcantara)

This day you shall meditate upon the miseries of the life of man, out of which consideration, you will take notice of worldly vanities and learn how much glory of them ought to be despised, seeing they are built upon so weak a foundation as our fading life...

Therefore, consider the shortness of the life of man, being restrained within the limits of threescore and ten, or fourscore, years, whatsoever the overplus be, it is but labor and sorrow, as the prophet speaks: out of this time, if you subtract your infancy, which time you did live rather the life of a beast than a man; the time you spend in sleep, for then you are deprived of the use of reason, which only distinguishes man from other creatures, and you will find your life to be far shorter than ever you did imagine. This time if you do compare with the eternity of the world to come, you will find it to be less than a moment. Conjecture ,then, the foolish madness of the lovers of this world, who, that they might enjoy one only momentary pleasure of this transitory life, do not fear to expose themselves to the loss of eternity...