GE luckig is hy die leert sterven,
The Art of Dying Well
True happiness is found in detaching from earthly goods to focus on eternal life.
Happy is the person who learns to die while still living, and who early on commits themselves to God, our shared inheritance of life.✦1 He does not count earthly goods, however sweet they are, as anything beside the eternal heavenly good, and he keeps himself from evil.✦
The Reward of the Faithful
Those who walk in the ways of the Lord are promised a heavenly crown despite temporary struggles.
Those who always walk in the Lord's ways will receive a great blessing from the Lord in return: heaven's crown is their reward, even if they faced every kind of struggle here for a little while.✦✦
The Two Paths
Christ is the narrow way to life, contrasted with the broad path that leads to death.
The Lord is the truth, the way, and the life—the heavenly bread. Read that way!2 Beside it lies death. The path that leads to the treasure of heaven is narrow, while the other is wide and broad.
Read the original Latin
GE luckig is hy die leert sterven, D'wyl hy leeft, End'sich tot God, ons aller leven erven,, Vroeg begeeft. 'tAerdsche goet, Oock hoe soet,, Voor het Hemelsch eeuwig niet en acht, End'van't quaet sich wacht.
Die daer steets gaen in 'sHeeren wegen, Sullen weer Daer voor verkrygen grooten segen Van den Heer: 'sHemels kroon Is haer loon, Of sy schoon Hier hadden al wat stryt, Voor een kleyne tyt.
De Heer is waerheyt, weg, en leven, 'tHemelsch' broot. De weg die laes! daer leyt beneven, Is de doot. Smal ist pat, 'tGene dat Naer den schat Des Hemels henen treed, 'tAnder ruym en breet.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Phil.1.21 — For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
- ↩Matt.6.19-Matt.6.21;Col.3.1-Col.3.2 — Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. Matt.6.20 — But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal. Matt.6.21 — For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Col.3.1 — If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Col.3.2 — Set your minds on the things above, not on the things on the earth.
- ↩1Cor.9.25;2Tim.4.8;Jas.1.12;Rev.2.10 — Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. 2Tim.4.8 — From now on, there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day — and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. Jas.1.12 — Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Rev.2.10 — Do not fear at all the things you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, so that you may be tested, and you will have affliction for ten days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
- ↩1Pet.1.6 — In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,
Notes
- 1 ↩Dutch "ons aller leven erven" is read as an appositive of God: God as the common inheritance of life. Less likely: "to inherit life for us all" as purpose of the commitment.
- 2 ↩Early Modern Dutch laes is taken as imperative lees ('read'), common ae/ee spelling; less likely as a relative clause fragment.
Nederlandtsche Gedenck-clanck (Netherlands Memorial Songs) companion
Never lose the rhythm again
Chosen Portion delivers your morning, midday and night office to your phone — the Hours, without the bells.
Chosen Portion is a modern Book of Hours: it turns the fixed-hour structure this collection preserves into scheduled, tappable daily prayer on your phone.
- Three daily prayer moments scheduled around your real calendar, not a monastery's
- Psalms and historic prayers sequenced for you — no page-flipping or decision fatigue
- A visible streak of completed offices, so the rhythm compounds instead of collapsing