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 enter into eternity. “Remember man that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” 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 death, judgment, heaven, and hell. One of the devil’s favorite words is tomorrow . But God’s is today . Meditations on Death 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.
Author
Thomas Hammerken (or Hammerlein—both mean "little hammer") / Thomas de Kempis / Thomas Hamerken von Kempen was born at Kempen (hence the "A Kempis") in the duchy of Cleves in Germany around 1380. He was educated by a religious order called the Brethren of the Common Life, and in due course joined the order, was ordained a priest, became sub-prior of his house (in the low Countries), and died 25 July 1471 (his feast is observed a day early to avoid conflict with that of James bar-Zebedee the Apostle). Thomas is known almost entirely for composing or compiling a manual of spiritual advice known as The Imitation of Christ, in which he urges the reader to seek to follow the example of Jesus Christ and to be conformed in all things to His will.
