By St. Nikolai Velimirovich
Every device of which man boasts as an invention of his mind is revealed by Divine Providence and every invented device has its two-fold significance one physical, the other spiritual. Even the clock is a wonderful device but it was not invented merely to tell us the time of day and night but also to remind us of death. This is its spiritual significance. When the small hand completes its rounds of seconds and minutes then the large hand arrives at the ordered hour and the clock strikes. So will the clock of our life strike when the days, months and years of our life are numbered. That is why St. Tikhon of Zadonsk counsels every Christian to reflect:
1. How the time of our life continually passes;
2. How it is impossible to bring back time that is past;
3. How the past and future times are not in our control but only that time in which we are now living;
4. How the end of our life is unknown;
5. How we must be prepared for death every day, every hour and every minute;
6. How because of that we must always be in the state of continual repentance;
7. How we must be repentant in every hour and spiritually disposed as we would wish to be at the hour of our death.