Paperback: It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment. - Hebrews 9:27
Never in any other book, perhaps, has an author held up a mirror to human life so well as Cardinal Bona has done in the 17th-century classic Guidance to Heaven (1658).
If the reader derived no other value from this book than the realisation we are each one going to die - we know not when - and pass to our real life which will last for all eternity, and that our every waking hour of this one should be a preparation for that one, then a reading of this book would have been for him of ultimate value - the best thing he ever did.
Starting with a stark analysis of just what human life is and of our completely tenuous grasp on it, the author then proceeds to analyze each of the major vices we must conquer and the virtues we must acquire if we are to save our souls.
The unique contribution of Cardinal Bona in Guidance to Heaven is that he outlines starkly the Catholic attitude of philosophy about the nature and purpose of human life - which ultimately determines a person's whole course of action during his time on earth.
Though recreation has its place in our lives, as he acknowledges - and is even essential for successful living - nonetheless, we are basically not here on earth just to play and enjoy ourselves, as many people do, but to prepare ourselves for our real life in eternity. And that eternity for us can begin at any time - we know not when. Our only guarantee is that begin it shall, one day, and maybe for us very soon.
The Cardinal's great message is: "Do not live your life in fear of death because you are not prepared to die. Rather, live your life in anticipation of death - which will be your grand entrance into true life, true happiness - because you are ready for it, because you are prepared, because you have so lived that you are ready to go and be with God!"
Guidance to Heaven is translated from the Italian by Fr Andrew Byrne. The present edition of Guidance to Heaven is a careful adaptation for modern usage of Fr Andrew Byrne's 1852 translation of Cardinal Giovanni Bona's Manuductio ad coelum (1658), published by James Duffy and Sons, London in 1881 (third edition) under the title, The Hand That Leads To Heaven.
About the author: Cardinal Giovanni Bona, Italian Cistercian, cardinal, liturgist and devotional author, was born in 1609 to an old French family at Piedmont, Italy. Though his father wanted him to pursue a military career, Giovanni became a Cistercian instead and worked for fifteen years at Turin. He later became a superior general in Rome and modestly refused the Bishopric of Asti. He was eventually made a cardinal in 1669 by Pope Clement IX. Giovanni's literary works include An Easy War to God, Principia et Documenta Vitae Christianae, and Manuductio ad Caelum, the latter often compared to Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ on account of simplicity of the style in which the solid doctrine is taught. He died in Rome in 1674.
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