The Night Prayer of the Church as a “Rehearsal for Death” By: Msgr. Charles Pope

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Some years ago I was addressing a group of young adults at a “Theology on Tap” gathering. I was asked by an attendee of some ways to avoid temptation. Among the things I offered was to meditate frequently on death, especially at night before going to bed. The bar got very quiet and everyone looked at me as though I had just been speaking Swahili. “What did he just say?…Could you repeat that?” Perhaps my remarks were the right answer but the wrong answer at the same time. In these modern, medically advanced times, those in their 20s don’t really relate to death as a concept or near reality. Meditating on death seems strange and foreign to most of them. continued
 
Every time you pray “May the all-powerful Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful death” it certainly is a reminder of what is to come for all of us.
 
SuscipeMeDomine said:
Every time you pray “May the all-powerful Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful death” it certainly is a reminder of what is to come for all of us.
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“In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin.” (Ecclus. 7:40).
 
Reflect, then, on the sentiments that will be yours when you will stand before the tribunal of God, with no defenders but your good works, with no companion but your own conscience. And if then you will not be able to satisfy your Judge, who will give expression to the bitterness of your anguish? For the question at issue is not a fleeting temporal life, but an eternity of happiness or an eternity of misery. Whither will you turn? What protection will you seek? Your tears will be powerless to soften your Judge; the time for repentance will be past. Little will honors, dignities, and wealth avail you, for “Riches,” says the Wise Man, “shall not profit in the day of vengeance, but justice shall deliver a man from death.” (Prov. 11:4).
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The unhappy soul can only exclaim with the prophet, “The sorrows of death have encompassed me, and the perils of hell have found me.” (Ps. 114:3). Unhappy wretch! How swiftly this hour has come upon me! What does it now avail me that I had friends, or honors, or dignities or wealth? All that I can now claim is a few feet of earth and a windings-sheet. My wealth which I hoarded I must leave to be squandered by others, while the sins of injustice which I here committed will pursue me into the next world and there condemn me to eternal torments. Of all my guilty pleasures the sting of remorse alone remains. Why have I made no preparation for this hour? Why was I deaf to the salutary warnings I received? “Why have I hated instruction, and my heart consented not to reproofs, and have not heard the voice of them that taught me, and have not inclined my ear to my masters?” (Prov. 5:12-13).
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To preserve you, my dear Christian, from these vain regrets, I beg you to gather from what has been said three considerations, and to keep them continually before your mind. The first is the terrible remorse which your sins will awaken in you at the hour of death; the second is how ardently, though how vainly, you will wish that you had faithfully served God during life; and the third is how willingly you would accept the most rigorous penance, were you given time for repentance.
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Acting on this advice, you will now begin to regulate your life according as you will then wish to have done.

Ven Louis Of Granada (The Sinners Guide)
 
How do the 20 somethings not know that it’s a part of Catholic devotional life to think of death as you go to bed? You mean they aren’t telling this to the kids at the LifeTeen™ events? Wow, I am just shocked! Shocked I tell you!
 
Estevao said:
How do the 20 somethings not know that it’s a part of Catholic devotional life to think of death as you go to bed?
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How many 30-somethings, 40-somethings, 50-somethings, etc. think about death?
 
Estevao said:
How do the 20 somethings not know that it’s a part of Catholic devotional life to think of death as you go to bed? You mean they aren’t telling this to the kids at the LifeTeen™ events? Wow, I am just shocked! Shocked I tell you!
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Because then they’d have to call it DeathTeen. Adolescents and young adults cannot normally conceive of their own deaths. I would think a healthier emphasis would be to focus on aligning their lives to Christ and his commands - say in a Matthew 25 sense - as opposed to dwelling on death.
 
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