Mirror of Sinners on the Contempt of the World

"...reproaching them, where are they who from the beginning, from ancient days, burned with desire for this whole world, who living voluptuously, submitted themselves to various desires? Eya! What now do the earthly goods avail them, which like a shadow passed quickly, for a short delight to drag after itself a long rest of eternal misery? O foolish and weak-minded, what do all the sweet things now avail you, which you were so quickly deprived of? For indeed, it now falls to you to wail eternally and, wailing, to exclaim, saying: 'Woe, woe, woe to us, now and in eternity! Woe that we were ever born! Woe that we are not able to die anymore! Woe, because we will be tormented in eternity, and we will never be freed from the torments!' O, who is it who thinks of such torments and places these to his heart? For these torments are such that whatever horrible thing could be thought of in the world, it cannot equal them in cruelty. O how happy is the undefiled who did not go after the joys of this world, who did not return to vanities and false insanity! We wandered from the way of truth and justice; the light did not shine for us, and the sun of intelligence did not rise for us. What did pride avail us, or what did the boasting of riches bring us? All those things passed away like a shadow; that which was temporal passed, but, alas, that which remains in eternity remains. O eternity, never having an end! O end without an end! O death, more grievous than any death: to always be able to die and never die! O tears, flow incessantly; eyes, weep; and all my vitals, wail over this unhappy separation, which is from the Highest Good and from that glorious and joyful face, and from that angelic choir, and also from that number of the retinue, etc., and the expectation of being added to that miserable and cruel and cursed crowd of the damned, to be tortured without end. O inner groaning of all hearts! O gnashing of teeth and immense frenzy of spirits! O weeping and great wailing! O cry and sound that will remain eternally, which will always last and never have an end, which will always be renewed and never be terminated! Our miserable eyes will see nothing else but misery. Our miserable ears will hear nothing else but woe, woe, and sadness, groans, and the gnashings of teeth. O pious hearts, consider that interminable, cruel, eternal, and intolerable punishment of damnation, and weep while in time, doing penance, and deplore the future. Alas, alas, why did we not, miserable ones—nay, more miserable than all creatures—provide for the greatest future evils and prevent them when strength was present, when the opportunity was at hand? Would that, while all that time was spent uselessly, one little hour for us had been conceded as a remedy for such great pain! But alas, by the divine justice, the way of salvation is closed to us, mercy is denied, all hope taken away. Why do we, miserable ones and more miserable than all creatures, afflict ourselves so much?"