Flower of Devotion

The Lord once said to St. Bridget:

“The separation of the soul from the body is, among the righteous, seems only a dream, for through it they awaken from this life to eternal life. On the other hand, it is to be called death, when the soul separated from the body lives in eternal death. Many, who are not concerned about the future, wish to die a Christian death.
But what is Christian death if not to die as I died: innocently, willingly, and patiently? Or am I contemptible because My death was shameful and severe? Or are My chosen ones mad perhaps because they were despised, or is it a happy accident or the course of the stars? Not at all! That is why we have suffered, I and My chosen ones, very hard, in order to show by word and example that the road to Heaven is a hard one, and that man should always remember what purity evil people need, if the chosen and the innocent have to suffer so hard.
Know, therefore, how ignominiously and badly he dies who lives in licentiousness and dies with the will to continue sinning. Whoever experiences the glory of the world and wishes to live longer does not think of thanking God. But if anyone loves God with all his heart and innocently, he will suffer sorrow through an ignominious death; or he is afflicted with a long illness, he lives and dies happily. For a grievous death diminishes both the sin itself and the penalty of sin, and increases the glory of heaven.
Therefore the friends of God should not grieve if they are scourged in mortality or die a bitter death. For it is the greatest happiness when a man mourns for an hour and suffers affliction in the world, lest afterwards he should go to a heavier purgatory, where there is no escape, no means of relief and help.