The End Of The Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life

All things pass. Glory fades. Nature groans in labour. The day of the Lord is coming, and with it will come the end of the entire created order. And yet so many of us live with our eyes fixed on this passing world only, rather than on the everlasting world to come. Preoccupied witth earthly pleasures and cares, we ignore our eternal destiny.

This was no less true in the late nineteenth century, when Father Charles Arminjon, a priest from the mountains of southeastern France, assembled his flock in the town cathedral to preach a series of conferences to help them turn their thoughts away from this life's mean material affairs-and toward the next life's glorious spiritual reward. His wise and uncompromising words deepened in them the spirit of recollection that all Christians must have: the abiding conviction that heavenly aims, not temporal enthusiasms, must guide everything we think, say, and do.

"Reading this book was one of the greatest graces of my life." - St Therese of Lisieux