and fear she covered her face with her veil, began to weep bitterly, and after the sermon made a most contrite confession of all the sins of her life. Pelagia! she said to herself; Pelagia! away with you! this is no place for you! away from the company of men, into the desert! And putting on a penitential garb she went to Mount Olivet, where she built herself a small hut from which she could see the valley of Josaphat. The meditation of the last judgment, said she, has converted me from my sinful life, and brought me back to God; the meditation of the last judgment shall also help me to lead a pious life with God in future. To that end she used to spend the greater part of the day at the window of her hut, looking down into the valley. There, she would say, is the place of judgment, where I and all the people of the world shall one day meet, and await our Judge; in that valley the great account-book shall be opened in which my sins are written; in that valley I shall be either on the left or on the right hand of the Judge; in that valley shall be thundered forth the sentence on the damned: “Depart, you cursed;” in that valley shall be heard the joyful words of the Judge to the elect: “Come, ye blessed.” Pelagia, what do you think of this? Will you not serve your God faithfully that you too may hear those joyful words? And whenever the enemy tried to bring her back to her former sinful life by exciting in her unlawful desires, she fled for refuge to the window. Listen, Pelagia, she would say: “Depart, you cursed!” How do you like that? Are you still inclined to sin? And if her fasting, prayer, or mortification seemed too hard to her, she would again run to the window and looking out on the valley of Josaphat, exclaim: “Come, ye blessed!” hear that, Pelagia! Is it not well worth your while to suffer a little for a short time?
Conclusion to serve God zealously, that we may one day recieve that invitation.
Let us often renew those thoughts, my dear brethren, and make this earnest resolution: I too will serve my God truly to the end! Away, deceitful world, with all your vanities! Begone from me all you who have hitherto tried to lead me into sin; I will listen to your invitations no more: I will not follow your treacherous customs and fashions: I wish to be in the number of the elect who shall on that day hear the joyful words from the lips of their Judge: “Come, ye blessed!” Therefore I will spend the short time that remains to me in Christian humility, meekness, patience, and charity; therefore from this moment forward I give over, O my God! to Thy fatherly providence, myself
