TIME AND ETERNITY

Anyone who thinks of eternity without making plans for it is a madmen! He has lost either his faith or his mind. And yet, we are very busy with temporal matters and try to take care of all of them, while counting on being able to provide for our soul later on, at the point of death. Ah, if the damned could emerge from hell only for a moment, they would tell us, "For a passing pleasure, for five minutes of satisfaction, for an outburst of anger, for the whim of a moment, I condemned myself myself to an eternity of misery, to an eternity of suffering. Life was short, pleasure was fleeting- and now I must suffer for all eternity," "I did but taste a little honey...and behold I must die ( 1 Kings 14:43)
In our mind's eye, let us open the eternal gates of heaven and contemplate the angels, apostles, patriarchs, prophets, martyrs, confessors, virgins, and people of every age and social condition.
There they are happy. Never will they cast a backward glance; never more will they have anything to fear. Instead there will be a day of lasting splendor, a never-ending eternity in which to enjoy the bliss of God himself.

-Rev. James Alberione, SSP, STD, "Pray Always," pp. 211-212 The Vatican II Weekly Missal