by Fr. Jean Croiset, S.J.
FIRST POINT. That Time is very precious.
SECOND POINT. That the Loss of Time can never be repaired.
FIRST POINT.
Consider that nothing is so precious as time, every moment is worth an eternity; that the glory of the saints, the eternal joys of Heaven, which Christ has purchased for us by his blood, are the reward of the good use we make of our time.
Time is so precious, that the smallest part of it is worth more than all the honours and riches in the world; and though we employ but one moment to get all those honours and riches, if that be all we gain by it, God, who judges righteously, will look upon that moment as lost. If a damned soul were master of all the kingdoms of the earth, he would give them all and all its treasures, for one of those precious minutes which he formerly spent in folly, and which we lose every day.
Comprehend if you can what grace the possession of God is; this grace, this God, are the price of our time, which is given us only to obtain more grace, and by its assistance to merit the enjoyment of God; and it is certain that by every moment we spend for anything else, we lose more than the whole world can repay.
The saints in heaven, by reiterated, perfect acts of virtue to eternity, cannot merit a greater degree of glory; yet this I can merit every moment if I will, by one true act of love to God: Reprobates will not be able to satisfy the Divine Justice, not to obtain the pardon of one sin, by all their regrets and tears, nor by an eternity of dreadful sufferings; but I may do it every moment by one sigh, or one tear; by one act of contrition I may appease the wrath of God.
Eternal happiness or misery will be the consequence of my use or abuse of time; I can work out my salvation only while time lasts; how then can men be so much at a loss how to employ their time? How can they amuse themselves, and be taken up with trifles, only to pass away the time? You do not know how to spend the time. Have you never offended God? Are you not obliged to him? Have you received no favours from Him? Ought not you to adore and serve him? The glorious saints do not think eternity too long to love, to praise, to bless and honour him, and shall we think an hour or a day too long?
You don't know what to do; have you no sins to grieve for? Don't you know that Jesus Christ is in person on the altar, where he expects to be adored, and is adored but by few? And can you want employment for your time? We are never at a loss how to spend our time, but when we have most time to serve and love God: For we can spend whole days in business and vain pleasures, in offending God, and destroying our souls, without being uneasy, or thinking the time long.
Let us consider that we can secure our salvation only while time lasts, and that all the time of our lives is given us only for this end; how careful ought we then to be of improving it? Every moment is precious; we lose all if we lose our time.
But do we much value this loss? Do we think that there is such a thing as the loss of time? We improve every moment some things of no consequence, we are cast down at disappointments, and with all our care and diligence we are continually afraid that we shall want time.
But alas! A time will come when we shall think otherwise, because we shall have juster thoughts; a time will come when we would give all the world to recall some of those precious moment which we now throw away, and willfully lose; when we shall be torn with despair to find that they are all lost, and that time is past.
Then will you cry out, Oh! That I were now in the condition I was in such a day of my life, when I was meditating upon the improvement of my time: Oh! That I had now the same health and strength, my God, what would I not do? But wretched that I am, I foresaw this despair, which torments me now, for having lost my time, why did I make no use of that foresight nor of that time.
Time is short, it ends with our lives we have already passed the greatest part of them, and to what purpose? What use have I made of this last year? How much time have I lost in doing what ought not, or in omitting what I ought to have done? And how little of it have I spent in doing my duty? My God, what a terrible account have I to give of my time, and of these present reflections?
How can I expect mercy from God, if I make no better use of what is left, if I defer my conversion any longer? How many are dead who were in better health than I some months ago? How many seem now in their full vigour who will be in the grave before the year is past? And how do I know that I shall not be one of them?
Let us then work while we have time; we cannot expect it should be long, and therefore let us not defer our conversion one moment.
SECOND POINT
Consider that you can never repair the loss of time; that all you can do will never recall one moment; and if you be capable of reflection, and be seriously desirous of salvation, this will be sufficient to convince you of the importance of redeeming time.
It is certain that all the moments of our lives are counted; let us employ them well or ill, we shall not increase their number, for it is fixed, and lessens continually. An hour ago we had so much more time to work out our salvation, an hour hence we shall have so much less.
Though we live holily after the example of St. Paul, and do not lose one moment of what is left, yet it is most certain that a moment once gone will return no more; and that if it be employ ill 'tis lost. If we employ the rest of our time well, we may escape the dangers into which our abuse of the past has brought us, but we cannot undo what we have done; we have still lost so many precious hours, and with them all the graces which God would have bestowed on us and all the good we might have done in them.
My God, what a loss is this? So many moments lost since we had first the use of reason, and with them so many graces beyond recovery.
When we spend hours and days in vanity, we call it passing the time, a phrase very unfit for a Christian's mouth: We pass away the time, time itself passes away; the time so passed is lost, and neither it, nor the graces we could have merited in it, will return any more.
The grace of predestination is in some manner annexed to some certain moments; what will become of us if God has fixed ours to some of those moments, that are past and lost! The fear of having lost it is indeed a sure and sensible mark that I am not yet deprived of it; but what must expect if I let slip this opportunity, and to not grow better by this fear?
We know time is precious and short, and yet we complain it passes slowly; we are continually wishing for some time to some; whence proceeds this uneasiness? Are we weary of living? No, but we make ill use of our time; and that loss which we see and feel disturbs our quiet, and makes us think the time long: All our pleasures and diversions cannot free us from this uneasiness, which never quits those who lose their time. But they who improve it well for their salvation are not object to this uneasiness; nothing is so easy, so full of peace as they. Many saints have, with St. Paul, desired to be delivered from their exile, that they might perfectly enjoy their God, and be out of anger of losing him; but we never find that they were uneasy in the discharge of their duties, in doing the Will of God. So true it is, that to be entirely satisfied and contented, we need only make a good use of time, by yielding obedience to the Divine Will.
But here let us examine what use we made of our time; it's passed, and it be lost too, how great is our loss? How shall we repair it? If we had improved those many moments, hours, and days, as a Christian ought to do, we should reap the fruit in spiritual consolations; instead of which we feel nothing but regret for having lost so much time, and terrible apprehensions for the exact account we must give of it.
Let us therefore at least make good use of what is left, for the period of our lives is fixed; and we draw nearer it every moment; a time will come when we can improve time no longer, because it will be followed by eternity. Let us for the future improve the little that remains, and not lose one single moment.
Highlighted version:
Of the good Use of Time
by Fr. Jean Croiset, S.J.
FIRST POINT. That Time is very precious.
SECOND POINT. That the Loss of Time can never be repaired.
FIRST POINT.
Consider that nothing is so precious as time, every moment is worth an eternity; that the glory of the saints, the eternal joys of Heaven, which Christ has purchased for us by his blood, are the reward of the good use we make of our time.
Time is so precious, that the smallest part of it is worth more than all the honours and riches in the world; and though we employ but one moment to get all those honours and riches, if that be all we gain by it, God, who judges righteously, will look upon that moment as lost. If a damned soul were master of all the kingdoms of the earth, he would give them all and all its treasures, for one of those precious minutes which he formerly spent in folly, and which we lose every day.
Comprehend if you can what grace the possession of God is; this grace, this God, are the price of our time, which is given us only to obtain more grace, and by its assistance to merit the enjoyment of God; and it is certain that by every moment we spend for anything else, we lose more than the whole world can repay.
The saints in heaven, by reiterated, perfect acts of virtue to eternity, cannot merit a greater degree of glory; yet this I can merit every moment if I will, by one true act of love to God: Reprobates will not be able to satisfy the Divine Justice, not to obtain the pardon of one sin, by all their regrets and tears, nor by an eternity of dreadful sufferings; but I may do it every moment by one sigh, or one tear; by one act of contrition I may appease the wrath of God.
Eternal happiness or misery will be the consequence of my use or abuse of time; I can work out my salvation only while time lasts; how then can men be so much at a loss how to employ their time? How can they amuse themselves, and be taken up with trifles, only to pass away the time? You do not know how to spend the time. Have you never offended God? Are you not obliged to him? Have you received no favours from Him? Ought not you to adore and serve him? The glorious saints do not think eternity too long to love, to praise, to bless and honour him, and shall we think an hour or a day too long?
You don't know what to do; have you no sins to grieve for? Don't you know that Jesus Christ is in person on the altar, where he expects to be adored, and is adored but by few? And can you want employment for your time? We are never at a loss how to spend our time, but when we have most time to serve and love God: For we can spend whole days in business and vain pleasures, in offending God, and destroying our souls, without being uneasy, or thinking the time long.
Let us consider that we can secure our salvation only while time lasts, and that all the time of our lives is given us only for this end; how careful ought we then to be of improving it? Every moment is precious; we lose all if we lose our time.
But do we much value this loss? Do we think that there is such a thing as the loss of time? We improve every moment some things of no consequence, we are cast down at disappointments, and with all our care and diligence we are continually afraid that we shall want time.
But alas! A time will come when we shall think otherwise, because we shall have juster thoughts; a time will come when we would give all the world to recall some of those precious moment which we now throw away, and willfully lose; when we shall be torn with despair to find that they are all lost, and that time is past.
Then will you cry out, Oh! That I were now in the condition I was in such a day of my life, when I was meditating upon the improvement of my time: Oh! That I had now the same health and strength, my God, what would I not do? But wretched that I am, I foresaw this despair, which torments me now, for having lost my time, why did I make no use of that foresight nor of that time.
Time is short, it ends with our lives we have already passed the greatest part of them, and to what purpose? What use have I made of this last year? How much time have I lost in doing what ought not, or in omitting what I ought to have done? And how little of it have I spent in doing my duty? My God, what a terrible account have I to give of my time, and of these present reflections?
How can I expect mercy from God, if I make no better use of what is left, if I defer my conversion any longer? How many are dead who were in better health than I some months ago? How many seem now in their full vigour who will be in the grave before the year is past? And how do I know that I shall not be one of them?
Let us then work while we have time; we cannot expect it should be long, and therefore let us not defer our conversion one moment.
SECOND POINT
Consider that you can never repair the loss of time; that all you can do will never recall one moment; and if you be capable of reflection, and be seriously desirous of salvation, this will be sufficient to convince you of the importance of redeeming time.
It is certain that all the moments of our lives are counted; let us employ them well or ill, we shall not increase their number, for it is fixed, and lessens continually. An hour ago we had so much more time to work out our salvation, an hour hence we shall have so much less.
Though we live holily after the example of St. Paul, and do not lose one moment of what is left, yet it is most certain that a moment once gone will return no more; and that if it be employ ill 'tis lost. If we employ the rest of our time well, we may escape the dangers into which our abuse of the past has brought us, but we cannot undo what we have done; we have still lost so many precious hours, and with them all the graces which God would have bestowed on us and all the good we might have done in them.
My God, what a loss is this? So many moments lost since we had first the use of reason, and with them so many graces beyond recovery.
When we spend hours and days in vanity, we call it passing the time, a phrase very unfit for a Christian's mouth: We pass away the time, time itself passes away; the time so passed is lost, and neither it, nor the graces we could have merited in it, will return any more.
The grace of predestination is in some manner annexed to some certain moments; what will become of us if God has fixed ours to some of those moments, that are past and lost! The fear of having lost it is indeed a sure and sensible mark that I am not yet deprived of it; but what must expect if I let slip this opportunity, and to not grow better by this fear?
We know time is precious and short, and yet we complain it passes slowly; we are continually wishing for some time to some; whence proceeds this uneasiness? Are we weary of living? No, but we make ill use of our time; and that loss which we see and feel disturbs our quiet, and makes us think the time long: All our pleasures and diversions cannot free us from this uneasiness, which never quits those who lose their time. But they who improve it well for their salvation are not object to this uneasiness; nothing is so easy, so full of peace as they. Many saints have, with St. Paul, desired to be delivered from their exile, that they might perfectly enjoy their God, and be out of anger of losing him; but we never find that they were uneasy in the discharge of their duties, in doing the Will of God. So true it is, that to be entirely satisfied and contented, we need only make a good use of time, by yielding obedience to the Divine Will.
But here let us examine what use we made of our time; it's passed, and it be lost too, how great is our loss? How shall we repair it? If we had improved those many moments, hours, and days, as a Christian ought to do, we should reap the fruit in spiritual consolations; instead of which we feel nothing but regret for having lost so much time, and terrible apprehensions for the exact account we must give of it.
Let us therefore at least make good use of what is left, for the period of our lives is fixed; and we draw nearer it every moment; a time will come when we can improve time no longer, because it will be followed by eternity. Let us for the future improve the little that remains, and not lose one single moment.
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