Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (16th century). Clever title, in that the ‘Art of Dying Well’ is really a treatise on living well. As he says over and over again, you can’t expect to die well if you don’t live well.
Living well is living a life of devotion to Christ. I was surprised to read of his disapproval of many Catholics who, though baptized as infants, had proven by their actions to have rejected the faith, ?”scarcely before reaching the age of reason”. What good is it, he asks, to recite the Apostles Creed if there is no desire to live out the faith it proclaims?
He warns against concupiscence, advising men especially to ‘bounce their eyes?’. He doesn’t use that phrase, but his point is the same as Steve Arterburn in his book, ‘Every Man’s Battle’.
