Speculum amatorum mundi

is held back by sins, who does not correct himself at the voice of the Lord. They hear the voice of secret inspiration, but they do not correct their life, saying: "Tomorrow, tomorrow." Therefore, the door is suddenly closed, and the sinner remains outside, before the chest of the heavenly homeland, with the voice of a crow referring to the Latin "cras" (tomorrow), which sounds like the cawing of a crow. Because he did not wish to groan for his sins at the time when he could and ought to, he remains instead with the voice of a dove referring to the mournful cooing of a dove, a traditional symbol of penance. This is Augustine. Whence a certain likeness of a dying man said: "O tomorrow, tomorrow, what a long rope you have made, and by procrastinating you have dragged me into the abyss of death; you have deceived me, and I have been deceived." Is this not misery above every misery of this world? Is it not for these things that my heart is deservedly afflicted and my soul wounded? Alas, all my days have passed by without the fruit of good works, which I should have spent without delay in the praise of God and in procuring the salvation of my soul. Thirty years of my life have slipped away and are set down, and they have miserably perished. They have passed so negligently that I do not know if I have ever spent a day out of all of them in the will of God and in the exercise of all virtues as laudably and perfectly as I perhaps should have and could have. Or if I ever showed a pleasant service to my Creator, as grateful and acceptable as my status required; woe to me, for the great pain. This, therefore, is why all my interior is wounded. O eternal God, how shamefully I will stand before You and all the saints for judgment when I am forced to give an account of what I have committed. And what more shall I say? My tribulation is near, so that I may depart from this world. Attend, I beseech you, all you lovers of this world, diligently. Behold, in this hour I would rejoice more in a short little prayer, for instance the Lord’s Prayer or the Angelic Salutation the Hail Mary devoutly said for me, than over thousands of gold and silver. O my God, how great