What a terrible shock it must be for a soul, on passing from this life, to find that it had been living and spending its energies for things which, in spite of all that they seemed at the time, were in fact nothing.  Each attachment and strong affection for worldly possessions and pursuits holds the soul down like an invisible cable, and prevents it from soaring to God.

There is many a man and woman who, instead of putting their trust in God, bolster up their confidence in themselves before their fellow human beings by relying instead on expensive clothes or on their ability to buy luxurious amusements.  How pitiful their condition will be when death with one swift blow knocks away these props by which they have been supported.  Truly did St Thomas à Kempis write, “O how great a confidence shall he have when dying, whom no affection for any earthly thing detaineth in the world!” (2)