S Maria Goretti: "you will not die”

... the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him, upon those who hope for his kindness, to deliver them from death

-- Psalm 33:2-3, 10-11, 18-19

The Church encourages us to prepare ourselves for the hour of our death. In the ancient litany of the saints, for instance, she has us pray: "From a sudden and unforeseen death, deliver us, O Lord"; to ask the Mother of God to intercede for us "at the hour of our death" in the Hail Mary; and to entrust ourselves to St. Joseph, the patron of a happy death.

Every action of yours, every thought, should be those of one who expects to die before the day is out. Death would have no great terrors for you if you had a quiet conscience. . . . Then why not keep clear of sin instead of running away from death? If you aren't fit to face death today, it's very unlikely you will be tomorrow. . . .

Praised are you, my Lord, for our sister bodily Death,
from whom no living man can escape.
Woe on those who will die in mortal sin!
Blessed are they who will be found
in your most holy will,
for the second death will not harm them.

-- CCC 1014

Photo: Body of Saint Maria Goretti in the crypt church of the shrine dedicated to her at Nettuno, Italia.

St Gilbert of Sempringham: "My vows to the Lord I will repay"

... in the sight of all his people.

-- Ps 116:12-13, 14-15, 18-19

The Church recognizes an exemplary value in the vows to practice the evangelical counsels:

Mother Church rejoices that she has within herself many men and women who pursue the Savior's self-emptying more closely and show it forth more clearly, by undertaking poverty with the freedom of the children of God, and renouncing their own will: they submit themselves to man for the sake of God, thus going beyond what is of precept in the matter of perfection, so as to conform themselves more fully to the obedient Christ.

-- CCC 2103

St Gilbert of Sempringham, pray for us.

Photo credit: Ed O'Keefe.