Consideration on the Number of the Reprobate.

Consideration on the Number of the Reprobate.



Consideration on the Number of the Reprobate.

Turn your eyes down, my soul, to hell, count all the damned before the coming of Jesus Christ. That is Cain there; of two brothers, one saved, and one lost! And that great multitude are the souls of those that lived at the time of the flood; except one family, all, or nearly all, damned! And these others are the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrha. And these are idolaters here … oh, how many [souls] there are damned!
Count next those in the time of Jesus Christ. How many Gentiles that were not converted! how many philosophers that were obstinate! how many persecuted Him! how many souls are down there, that conversed with Jesus Christ, that had dealings with Him, that saw His miracles with their own eyes! There is a Pilate, governor of Judea; there a Caiaphas, the high-priest; there a Herod, the king; there a Judas, the disciple of Jesus Christ; and there is a robber, whose lot it was to die at His side!
Then count the damned since His coming. Observe down there the many souls rebel against the Gospel, blind to the miracles, persecutors of the Church; all the Roman emperors, for the first three centuries, the philosophers, and orators, and poets, that made so much to do in the world. Behold there many Catholics, notwithstanding their faith, inspirations, sermons, and sacraments! behold many princes, priests, bishops, and cloistered persons! And now, while I am meditating, how many souls are falling into hell!
And I keep saying within myself, If all sinners must be damned, there will scarcely remain any for Paradise. But consider how many damned there are there! What harm has come to God by their ruin! What loss to Paradise by their absence! Oh, my soul, live with the few, if you would be saved with the few!


How many that would have been among the reprobate, have been saved by devotion to MARY! There were in the year 1714 two youths (Auriem. t. i. p. 47) at their studies in Flanders, with good understanding, but of a very licentious life. They both spent a whole day in drunkenness and jokes, and went at night to a house to offend God. When a good part of the night was passed, one of them wished to retire, the other remained to satiate his unbridled wishes, and drink to the bottom the chalice of Babylon. When the other had got home, he remembered that he had not recited some “Ave Maria’s,” which he used to recite to the Blessed Virgin, and perceived a great repugnance to saying them; yet, though half asleep, and with much weariness, he did recite them. MARY did not leave this homage without its reward, though it came from lips so impure, and in a way worthy of punishment rather than of reward. He was scarce in bed and asleep from being worn out, when he heard a loud knock at the door of his chamber; he awoke, and without getting up to open it, he saw his companion enter in a ghastly shape. Terrified at this visit, and marvelling how he had entered through the locked door, he asked why he had come. The unhappy soul answered him thus: “We ought to have been both sent to hell this night by the just judgment of God; but the Blessed Virgin, to whom you recited the ‘Ave Maria’s,’ has freed you from death; I am now damned. In such a street (and he mentioned which) my body lies killed by the fiends;” and in proof of the truth he uncovered his breast, shewing him the fire and many serpents that tormented him; and this said, he vanished. He speedily got out of bed, and began to weep exceedingly: meanwhile he heard the bell sound for matins in the convent of the Franciscan Friars, and thought that this signal was advice for him too; and that very moment went off thither, and with many tears begged for the habit. The good religious did not credit his words at once, until they had found his unhappy companion dead, and transformed from head to foot. Then they gave the penitent the habit, who changed his life in good earnest, and remained most attached to the Blessed Virgin, for whose intercession he felt deeply grateful; and might say, “Thanks to the Virgin that I am not in the flames.”

Settle upon the devotion that you mean to do your whole life long, in honour of MARY; and write down a solemn promise to fulfil it, that she may free you from hell.


“Gratias tibi, Virgo, quia non ardeo.”

“If time for penance still be mine,
Mother, the precious gift is thine.*’




May Devotion: The Blessed Virgin Mary

Virtue to practice: Meekness, purity, the spirit of poverty




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