If i am lost, i shall not be lost alone

What do you say? If you are lost, and are damned you will not be alone! But what consolation will the company of the wicked be to you in hell? O accursed sin, how it can blind men gifted with reason!

I. What do you say? If you are lost, and are damned, you will not be alone! But what consolation will the company of the wicked be to you in hell? Every condemned soul in hell weeps and laments, saying: Although I am condemned to suffer forever, oh, would that I might suffer alone! The wretched company which you will meet with there will increase your torments by their despairing groans and moanings. What a torment to hear even a dog howling all night long, or a child crying for hours, and not to be able to sleep! And what will it be to hear the yells and howlings of so many wretched souls in despair, who will continually torment one another with their dismal noises, and this, not for one night, nor for many nights only, but for all Eternity!

Again, your companions will but increase the torments of hell by the stench of their burning carcasses. Out of their carcases says the Prophet Isaias, shall a stench arise (Is. xxxiv. 3). They are called carcasses, not because they are dead, for they are alive to pain, but because of the stench they will give forth. Your companions will also increase the torments of hell by their numbers; they will be in that pit as grapes in the winepress of the anger of God: He treadeth, said St. John, the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of God the Almighty (Apoc. xix. 15). They will be straitened on every side, so as to be unable to move hand or foot so long as God shall be God.

II. O accursed sin, how it can blind men who are gifted with reason! Sinners who affect to despise damnation, are yet very careful to preserve their goods, their situations, and their health; they do not say: "If I lose my property, my place, my health, I shall not be the only one who will lose such things." Yet when the soul is at stake, they say, "If I be lost, I shall not be lost alone!" He who loses the good things of this world and saves his soul will find a recompense for all he has lost; but he who loses his soul, what indemnity will he find? What exchange shall a man give for his soul? (Matt. xvi. 26).

O my God, enlighten me and do not forsake me. How often have I sold my soul to the devil, and exchanged Thy grace and favour for a wretched transitory indulgence of sense! I am sorry, O God, for having thus dishonoured Thy infinite majesty. My God, I love Thee! Suffer me not to lose Thee any more. O Mary, Mother of God, deliver me from hell, and from the guilt of sin, by thy holy intercession.