It is our lot to journey to heaven backwards, so to speak, with our face to the enemy. It is not an easy journey. There is not a little danger that, while we drive off successfully many violent attacks, we may be brought to earth by obstacles that crop up in our path unseen….Heavenwards brings out for us many of these dangers, diagnoses them, and shows us a way out of the difficulty; it puts into words many a source of disquiet that we feel but cannot quite express….There is about it a certain air of cheerfulness and encouragement that is very helpful. We feel driven to strive after holiness, and to trust what is past to God’s Providence.

-from a review of Heavenwards in The Tablet, October 1910
Never was there a period when young Catholics in their journey heavenward could count less upon public opinion and the force of good example to keep them in the right path, says Father Herbert Thurston in his preface to this book. Thus while Mother Loyola teaches us how to find ‘ladders’ to scale Heaven, she lets us see that the most arduous part of the task lies in the simple resolution to fix our eyes steadily upon the welcome that awaits us. These 52 meditations–one for each week of the year–are intended to do just that.