Hardback: “Remember That Thou Art Dust and Unto Dust Thou Shalt Return.”
Thinking on death is the most profitable meditation we can make.
Indeed, Our Lord’s most holy passion and death offers us the greatest meditation, but pondering our own imminent death can bring us great fruit as it prepares us for the most important thing we will do: enter into eternity.
By meditating on their deaths, many have renounced this fleeting world for the monastery and cloister.
By meditating on their deaths, many have conquered the flesh, the world, and the devil.
By meditating on their deaths, many have climbed the ladder of holiness in a brief time.
To keep death daily before your eyes is one of the greatest secrets to sanctity, for death is the only certainty in this life. And those who ponder the hour of their death daily will not be surprised when that moment comes; rather, they will have prepared for it their entire lives and will be ready to meet their Creator.
In this soul-jarring work, Thomas à Kempis guides the reader to consider the last four things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell. Meditations on Death (2022, English Translation) is like a mini-retreat that will redirect your heart to eternal things rather than passing things for to contemplate the hour of your death is to already have one foot in heaven. Meditations on Death us translated from the Dutch by Father Robert Nixon, OSB.
About the author: Thomas à Kempis (c1380-1471; German: Thomas von Kempen; Dutch: Thomas van Kempen) was a German-Dutch canon regular of the late medieval period and the author of The Imitation of Christ, written anonymously in Latin in the Netherlands c 1418–1427, one of the most popular and best known Christian devotional books. The Imitation of Christ is said to have made more saints than any other book - next to the Bible, of course. Countless saints from Thérèse of Lisieux to Ignatius of Loyola have kept this book on their nightstands, used it to direct their minds during adoration, and carried it in their pockets as a soldier carries his weapon into battle.
His name means "Thomas of Kempen", Kempen being his home town. He was a member of the Modern Devotion, a spiritual movement during the late medieval period, and a follower of Geert Groote (1340-1384) and Florens Radewyns (1350-1400), the founders of the Brethren of the Common Life.
The other popular book, next to The Imitation of Christ and Meditations on Death, is Humility and Elevation of the Mind to God. The books are available on Amazon UK and USA and tanbooks.com
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