Mirror of Sinners on the Contempt of the World

Do you not think of the matter of the vanity of the world, passing and deceptive

misery. O our miserable ears: you will hear nothing but woe, sadness, groaning, and the gnashing of teeth. O pious hearts, look upon that endless, cruel, eternal, and intolerable punishment of damnation: and while you are in the time of grace, lament these things, perform penance, and weep for your sins. Alas, alas, why do we not foresee and prevent these great future evils while we are here, miserable creatures—indeed, more miserable than all other creatures? When strength was present, when the opportune time was at hand, would that we had been granted even one little hour as a remedy for such great pain during all that time we spent uselessly. But alas, the divine justice has passed judgment, the way of salvation is closed to us, mercy is denied, and all hope is taken away.

What more is there to say? We, miserable and more miserable than all creatures, are so afflicted and sorrowful concerning that eternal woe that any term of punishment we could imagine, provided it would eventually end, would be a solace to us above all worldly comforts and joys. For, if it were possible, imagine a millstone so large that its circumference reached the boundaries of the sky, and that a tiny little bird came after every hundred thousand years and removed from the stone only a tenth part of a grain of millet. Then, after another hundred thousand years, the bird took away another small particle, and so on for each part, such that in ten hundred thousand years the quantity of the stone would not be diminished by more than the size of a grain of millet. Oh, woe! We, miserable as we are, would be greatly gladdened and consoled if our sentence of eternal damnation could have an end after the long and full consumption of the entire stone. But alas, this same consolation is denied to us miserable souls by divine justice. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear and lay these horrible things to heart, and let him do penance by amending his life here in the time of grace, because those who are spared the scourges of the sons here in the time of grace will otherwise be whipped in eternal torments. Whence the blessed Gregorius Pope Gregory the Great says: "The prosperous success of temporal things is the most certain sign of eternal damnation."