There is one thing we all need more deeply and truly to learn, and live in a consciousness and a serious, though by any means not mournful remembrance, of: that all created and visible things are but shadows, passing shadows; and that God only, known and rested on in Christ, is the true, eternal, satisfactory, existing reality and substance. To live through the day, in this great truth, is to dwell on the borders of Heaven; it is to begin even now in this life, to pass from time into eternity, from mortality to immortality. In order to this, we must not be very anxious about what may be regarded as the husks of things, but seek to get to the kernel of that Divine life which Jesus is to all that seek to God by Him. This is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Be thankful to God if, from age or bodily feebleness, or sickness, or any circumstances, even very trying ones, you are at all removed out of the hurry of the world. The ball of life goes rapidly down the steep hill of time. Let us be wise, to embrace Jesus and His great salvation with our whole hearts; to trim our lamps, and to give ourselves daily afresh to Him, who gives himself to us, poor sinful dust and ashes, in His Son, and in His Holy Spirit, and in His appointed means of grace.
- text taken from Daily Bread - Bring a Few Morning Meditations for the Use of Catholic Christians by Father Richard Waldo Sibthorp