Speculum amatorum mundi

goods I have neglected, which I could have done well. Because it has happened poorly for me that I did not foresee these things when I could have foreseen them well. O how many hours that will never return have I lost, because, dealing with trivial deeds and useless exterior business, I neglected so many and precious meritorious goods necessary to me. I weep that I entangled myself with unnecessary things and dismissed the necessary ones. Truly I have now recognized that, for the multitude of heavenly rewards, a retreat from the vanities of the world and a careful custody of my heart and my senses, together with purity of mind, would have contributed more to me. With these things neglected, or through an inordinate affection, thirty years have sat by, during which any other person, through their own prostrations before God, might seem to have obtained rewards for me. Alas, what good things I could have done in such a long time with a healthy body, which I would now desire above all the riches, delights, and honors of this world; and alas, I did not do them. Because I could have gathered immense spiritual riches and heavenly treasures, and I neglected them. O my God, and how now the least works of satisfaction would be grateful and acceptable to me, desiring to be refreshed by the crumbs that fall from the table of the masters, and no one gives to me. O you all, sympathize with me and have mercy on me, and as long as your strengths are sufficient and time helps you, do good and gather heavenly treasures into heavenly storehouses, so that when you fail, they may receive you into eternal tabernacles, and you may not be left empty in such an hour always coming to you. But alas, many do not even attend to these things, foreseeing death just as all lovers of the world and of their own will do. To whom Saint John speaks in his canonical epistle: "Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him."