Alphonsus Liguori

“ Oh, God, what a punishment will it be for the condemned to bear, to see men the cause of their own condemnation? At the present, what does our past life seem to us but a dream, a. moment? Now, what will appear to those in hell the fifty or sixty years of the life which they have lived on this earth, when they find themselves in the abyss of eternity, in which a hundred or a thousand millions of years having passed it will be seen that their eternity then begins? But why do I say fifty years of life, all, perhaps, passed in pleasure? ”

“ How long do the pleasures of sin last? They endure but moments, and all the rest of the time in which the sinner lives out of the grace of God, is a time of pains and torments. Now, what indeed will these moments of pleasure appear to the poor condemned one, and what in particular that last moment and last sin, through which he was lost? Then he will say, for a wretched animal pleasure that endured but for a moment, and which, as soon as possessed, disappeared as the wind, I shall have to continue to burn in this flame despised and abandoned by all, whilst God shall be God for all eternity. ”

“ For the thought of hell will make you fly to God.
Affections and Prayers.
Ah, my Highest Good! how often have I lost Thee for nought, and have deserved to lose Thee for ever! But it comforts me to think of that which the Psalmist says, " Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord." (Ps. cv. 3.) I ought not, therefore, to despair of recovering Thee, my God, if I seek Thee with the heart. Yes, my Saviour, I now yearn after Thy grace more than for any other good. I am content to be deprived of all things, even of life, rather than to be deprived of Thy love. ”