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"Death
begins at birth" (St. Gregory of Nyssa)
"Death, but not sin!" (St. Dominic
Savio)
"He who has made me, unmakes me."
(Bl.
Eugenie Smet)
"You
wont' die. Your body will."
"Two
events await each man: death and judgment."
"Death alone never dies." (Liturgical
Year)
"[T]he divine Redeemer [is the] conqueror of
death" (Pope Pius XII, "Haurietis Aquas", 1956)
"The end of sin is death." (St. Basil
the Great, Doctor of the Church)
"[E]arthly things must give place to those of
heaven" (Pope Pius XI, "Mens Nostra", 1929)
"...they shall exchange a mortal for an
immortal life." (Catechism of the Council of Trent)
"To the good man to die is gain." (St.
Ambrose, Doctor of the Church, 4th century A.D.)
"All seek joy, but it is not found on
earth." (St. John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church)
"Death is the entrance into that life for
which we are made" (Lafarge)
"Life is short; death is certain; and the
world to come is everlasting." (Cardinal Newman)
"The general rule for a good death is to
lead a good life." (St. Francis de Sales, Doctor of the
Church)
"And paying the whole debt, by slaying you
have changed death into life." (St. John of the Cross, Doctor
of the Church)
"[I]t
is a great grace to know that you are going to die soon rather
than to be unprepared and die suddenly"
"It is much better to lose a friend or
family member than to lose God for all of eternity." (Fr.
Fanzaga)
"[H]e
dies not who has not at one time lived." (St. Ambrose,
Doctor of the Church)
"The body dies when the soul departs; but
the soul dies when God departs." (St. Augustine, Doctor of
the Church)
"Our physicians cannot heal us, they can
merely ward off death for a little." (Benson)
"[D]eath shall be emptied out and despoiled
of his every captive" (St. Aphraates, c.
336-345 A.D.)
"[O]ur death was killed by the voluntary
acceptance of death in His body" (St. Fulgence of Ruspe, 6th
century A.D.)
"Preventing
the
first death is not what's important - it's preventing the second
death that's important!"
"Jesus,
I want to live as long as you will; I want to suffer as you will
me to; I want to die as soon as you will it." (St. Clement
Maria Hofbauer)
"[P]riests must be solicitous for the sick
and the dying, visiting them and strengthening them in the
Lord." (Second Vatican Council)
"[W]e too [are] pilgrims and strangers in
this world, where all things are fleeting and hurry on to
death" (Liturgical Year)
"All our life on earth is the truthful and
exact image of a pilgrimage." (Pope Leo XIII, "Tametsi
Futura Prospicientibus", 1900)
"It is a thousand times better to die with
our Lord than to live without Him." (St. Francis de Sales,
Doctor of the Church)
"Let death immediately stand before your
eyes, and you will never desire anything bad or worldly."
(St. Antony the Great)
"In
hora mortis meae voca me, et iube me venire ad te - at the hour of
my death, call me and bid me come to you. This is the prayer of
Christian hope" (Pope John Paul II, 1999)
"O Jesus! Grant that I may die praising
you, that I may die loving you; that I may die for love of you.
Amen." (St. Claude de la Colombiere)
"[L]ife here
below...[is]a stage in the
journey to the life that will know no ending." (Pope Leo
XIII, "Immortale Dei", 1885)
"...we must...look on this present life as
a path to the grave. The path may be long or short, but to the
tomb it must lead us." (Gueranger)
"[W]e are exiles; but alas! We are so
often tempted to love our exile as though it were our home. Oh!
Detach us from this earth and its vanities." (Gueranger)
"Give
me Thy grace to amend my life and to have an eye to mine
end without grudge of death, which to them that die in
Thee, good Lord, is the gate of a wealthy life." (St. Thomas
More)
"The silence of death will tell us so
plainly that our life is but a vapor, the world a passing scene,
its dearest hopes illusive; that God and eternity are our all and
all forever." (St. Elizabeth Ann Seton)
"Be willing to languish in obedience to his
will, and prepare to die when he calls you, that you may be with
him and praise him forever." (St. Francis de Sales, Doctor of
the Church)
"In Christ, death - tragic and
disconcerting as it is - is redeemed and transformed; it is even
revealed as a 'sister' who leads us to the arms of our Father." (Pope John Paul II, 1999)
"And know, brethren, that the dwelling of
our flesh in this world is short and lasts but a little time but
the promise of Christ is great and wonderful and so is the rest in
the kingdom which is to come and life everlasting." (Pope St.
Soter)
"For no sooner do we begin to live in this
dying body, than we begin to move ceaselessly towards death. For
in the whole course of this life (if life we must call it) its
mutability tends towards death." (St. Augustine, Doctor of
the Church, 5th century A.D.)
"Praised by You, my Lord, through our
Sister Bodily Death, from whom no living man can escape. Woe to
those who die in mortal sin. Blessed are those whom death will
find in Your most holy will, for the second death shall do them no
harm." (St. Francis of Assisi)
"May the angels conduct thee into paradise:
may the martyrs receive thee at thy coming, and lead thee into the
holy city of Jerusalem. May the choir of angels receive thee, and
mayst thou have eternal rest with Lazarus, who was formerly
poor." (Antiphon)
"We are commanded to use this world as
though we used it not; to have an abiding conviction of our not
having here a lasting city, and of the misery and danger we incur
when we forget that death is one day to separate us from
everything we possess in this life." (Gueranger)
"Life on earth, however good and desirable
in itself, is not the final purpose for which man is created; it
is only the way and the means to that attainment of truth and that
love of goodness in which the full life of the soul consists." (Pope Leo XIII, "Rerum Novarum", 1891)
"The world was redeemed by the death of one
Man. It was possible for Christ not to have died, had He not
willed to do so. But He did not regard death as something to be
shunned, as if it were ignoble, nor did He think He could rescue
us any better than by His dying. Thus His death became life for
all." (St. Ambrose of Milan, Doctor of the Church, 378 A.D.)
"If we meditate on the fact that God did
not make death, but only after man fell into the disgrace of guilt
and deception did God decree the sentence that earth should return
to earth, we shall discover that death is the end of sin; and if
were to live longer our guilt would only be the greater."
(St. Ambrose of Milan, Doctor of the Church, c. 388 A.D.)
"Though we are born and die here, let us
not love this world; let us ever, through love of God, pass on
hence; let us by charity dwell among the heights, by that charity wherewith we love God. Let us during this our earthly
pilgrimage be ever occupied with the thought that we shall not
always be here, and then, by leading good lives, we shall be
preparing for ourselves a place whence we shall never pass
on." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church)
"Grant that we may lovingly accept your
will, and place ourselves each day in your merciful hands. And
when the moment of our definitive 'passage' comes, grant that we
may face it with serenity, without regret for what we shall leave
behind. For in meeting you, after having sought you for so long,
we shall find once more every authentic good which we have known
here on earth, in the company of all who have gone before us
marked with the sign of faith and hope." (Pope John Paul II,
1999)
"O my God, up to now I have not thought too
much about death, I have not looked into its face. And perhaps
this is why I have offended you too much and have not loved you
enough. But now I firmly resolve to serve you in earnest. Give me,
O Lord, the strength to do so. Do not abandon me. You did not
abandon me when I offended you; I therefore, hope more confidently
for your help now that I propose to serve you more
faithfully." (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church)
"Our Blessed Lord has already, over the
grave of Lazarus, hinted that this shall be so, so soon as He has
consecrated death by His own dying. 'He that believe in Me shall
never die.' He, that is to say, who has died with Christ, whose
center henceforward is in the supernatural, simply no longer finds
death to be what nature finds it. It no longer makes for division
but for union; it no longer imperils or ends life and interest and
possession, but releases them from risk and mortality."
(Benson)
"Human
life and death are thus in the hands of God, in his power: 'In his
hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all
mankind', exclaims Job (12:10). 'The Lord brings to death and
brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up' (1 Sam
2:6). He alone can say: 'It is I who bring both death and life' (Dt
32:39). But God does not exercise this power in an arbitrary and
threatening way, but rather as part of his care and loving concern
for his creatures. If it is true that human life is in the hands
of God, it is no less true that these are loving hands, like those
of a mother who accepts, nurtures and takes care of her
child" (Pope John Paul II)
"In order that they may be justified, it is
necessary for sinners to die with Christ, who died in their place
and in their name. Then they must enter the grave with Christ, in
order to leave behind the flesh defiled by sin. They must hand
over the old man to the wrath of God and to the death of the
sinner, so that by baptism a new man might return to life in us
and live again with Christ in immortality and eternal glory.
Therefore all Christians should think about that eternal life and
not this brief one. They should remove from their hearts the
desire for pleasures and riches which are the instruments of
pleasure. Cast off pride, in which all harmful desires are
contained. The world is passing away, as well as what it craves
for; however, he who keeps the will of God will endure
forever." (Pope Clement XIII, "A Quo Die", 1758)
"For He comes when He hastens to judgment,
but He knocks, when already by the pain of sickness He denotes
that death is at hand; to whom we immediately open if we receive
Him with love. For he who trembles to depart from the body, has no
wish to open to the Judge knocking, and dreads to see that Judge
whom he remembers to have despised. But he who rests secure
concerning his hope and works, immediately opens to Him that
knocks; for when he is aware of the time of death drawing near, he
grows joyful, because of the glory of his reward; and hence it is
added, Blessed are the servants whom the Lord when he comes shall
find watching. He watches who keeps the eyes of his mind open to
behold the true light; who by his works maintains that which he
beholds, who drives from himself the darkness of sloth and
carelessness." (St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Doctor of the
Church)
"While the soul is supplying in purgatory
for the insufficiency of her expiations, the body she has quitted
returns to the earth in virtue of the sentence pronounced against
Adam and his race from the beginning of the world. But, with
regard to the body as well as the soul, justice is full of love;
its claims are a prelude to the glory which awaits the whole man.
The humiliation of the tomb is the just punishment of original
sin; but in this return of man to the earth from whence he sprang,
St. Paul would have us recognize the sowing necessary for the
transformation of the seed, which is destined to live again under
very different conditions... The body of the Christian, which St.
Ignatius of Antioch calls the wheat of Christ, is cast into the
tomb, as it were into the furrow, there to leave its own
corruption, the form of the first Adam with its heaviness and
infirmity; but by the power of the new Adam reforming it to His
own likeness, it shall spring up all heavenly and spiritualized,
agile, impassible, and glorious." (Liturgical Year)
"We
may doubt if God could inflict upon man a more terrible punishment
than to allow him to waste his whole life in the pursuit of
earthly pleasures, and in forgetfulness of the happiness which
alone lasts for ever. It is from this danger that they will be
happily rescued, who, in the pious practice of the Rosary, are
wont, by frequent and fervent prayer, to keep before their minds
the glorious mysteries. These mysteries are the means by which in
the soul of a Christian a most clear light is shed upon the good
things, hidden to sense, but visible to faith, 'which God has
prepared for those who love Him.' From them we learn that
death is not an annihilation which ends all things, but merely a
migration and passage from life to life. By them we are taught
that the path to Heaven lies open to all men, and as we behold
Christ ascending thither, we recall the sweet words of His
promise, 'I go to prepare a place for you.' By them we
are reminded that a time will come when 'God will wipe away
every tear from our eyes,' and that 'neither mourning,
nor crying, nor sorrow, shall be any more,' and that 'We
shall be always with the Lord,' and 'like to the Lord,
for we shall see Him as He is,' and 'drink of the
torrent of His delight,' as 'fellow-citizens of the
saints,' in the blessed companionship of our glorious Queen
and Mother. Dwelling upon such a prospect, our hearts are kindled
with desire, and we exclaim, in the words of a great saint, 'How vile grows the earth when I look up to heaven!'
Then, too, shall we feel the solace of the assurance 'that
which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation worketh
for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory'
(2 Cor. iv., 17)." (Pope Leo XIII, "Laetitiae Sanctae",
1893)
Also
See: Death
& Dying | Death
(Topical Scripture)
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