Once, when she was quite a young girl, St. Elizabeth of Hungary was playing with her companions - other girls around her age, girls of the nobility and the royal court. As one would expect, they were all dressed in the finest clothes that money could buy, and the girls were quite pleased with that fact. It quickly became the focus of their conversation, with each one showing off her beautiful clothes and jewelry to Princess Elizabeth.

But Elizabeth did not comment on their outfits. Instead, the princess quietly took the girls to a nearby cemetery. Pointing to the tombs, Elizabeth said:

"The people who are buried there, beneath the ground, were once beautiful and young like we are. But what are they like now? And what has become of all the fine things they wore? All of it is gone! Everything is over for them - and one day, it will be the same with us. What’s the use of being proud, and thinking so much of what we wear, when one day it will be nothing but dust? Let’s try to think of God, and speak of those things which we can take with us when we leave this world."

Living in this world, it is so easy to be distracted by what we can see, and hear, and touch. We are surrounded by a reality that one day, as St. Elizabeth pointed out, will be gone. And it so often causes us to forget that there is another life, another world waiting for us after this one - and it will never end. We are made for happiness, and so often people make the mistake of looking for it on this poor earth. But if, as St. Elizabeth said, we spend our time focused on the world to come, we cannot imagine the incredible happiness we will have forever.