Saturday, June 28, 2008

What do You Think?

Is this prayer a pious devotional, or piously over-devotional?

I found this prayer in an old prayer book that I have and really liked it. But as I typed it up for a project I am doing, I got the feeling that it was a little over-the-top. That may be because as I typed it word for word, each word sunk in one by one instead of taken as a whole. So after you read it, please tell me your opinion.

Prayers or Litany for a Happy Death

O Lord Jesus, God of goodness, and Father of mercies, I draw nigh to Thee with a contrite and humble heart; to Thee do I recommend the last hour of my life, and that judgement which awaits me afterwards.
Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When my feet, benumbed with death, shall admonish me that my course in this life is drawing to an end,
Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When my hands, cold and trembling, shall no longer be able to clasp the crucifix, and shall let it fall against my will on my bed of suffering,
Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When my eyes, dim with rouble at the approach of death, shall fix themselves on Thee, my last and only support,
Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When my lips, cold and trembling, shall pronounce for the last time Thy adorable name,
Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When my face, pale and livid, shall inspire the beholders with pity and dismay; when my hair, bathed in the sweat of death and stiffening on my head, shall foreboded my approaching end,
Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When my ears, soon to be forever shut to the discourse of men, shall be opened to that irrevocable decree which is to fix my doom for all eternity,
Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When my imagination, agitated by dreadful specters, shall be sunk in an abyss of anguish; when my soul, affrighted with the sight of my iniquities and the terrors of Thy judgment, shall have to fight against the angel of darkness, who will endeavor to conceal from my eyes Thy mercies and to plunge me into despair,
Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When my poor heart, oppressed with suffering and exhausted by its continual struggles with the enemies of its salvation shall feel the pangs of death,
Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When the last tear, the forerunner of my dissolution, shall drop from my eyes, receive it as a sacrifice of expiation for my sins; grant that I may expire the victim of penance; and then in that dreadful moment,
Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When my friends and relations, encircling my bed, shall be moved with compassion for me, and invoke Thy clemency in my behalf,
Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When I shall have lost the use of my senses, when the world shall have vanished from my sight, when my agonizing soul shall feel the sorrows of death,
Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When my last sighs shall force my soul to issue from my body, accept them as the children of a loving impatience come to Thee,
Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When my soul, trembling on my lips, shall bid adieu to the world and leave my body lifeless, pale and cold, receive this separation as a homage which I willingly pay to Thy Divine Majesty, and in that last moment of my mortal life,
Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When at length my soul, admitted to Thy presence, shall first behold the splendor of Thy Majesty, reject me not, but receive me into Thy bosom, where I may forever sing Thy praises, and in that moment when eternity shall begin to me,
Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.

Let us pray. O God, who has doomed all men to die, but hast concealed from all the hour of their death, grant that I may pass my days in the practice of holiness and justice, and that I may be made worthy to quit this world in the peace of a good conscience, and in the embrace of Thy love; support me in that my last hour, in the strong arms of Thy sacraments and by the fresh fragrance of Thy consolations.
Let Thy absolving words be said over me, and the holy oil sign and seal me, and let Thine own Body be my food, and Thy Blood my sprinkling; and let sweet Mary breathe on me, and my angel whisper peace to me, and Thy glorious saints and my own dear patron, smile on me, that in them all and through them all I may die, as I desire to live, in Thy faith, in Thy Church, and in Thy love. Amen. My Jesus, mercy!

2 comments:

Charlotte (WaltzingM) said...

Can you send me an email? I have a question for you. Thanks! :)

Tom said...

I appreciate your comment on RandomClicks. But I object to your theft of my photo posted June 21, 2007 as your profile photo. If you gave me credit for the photo I would have let you use it gratis. But when you roll your cursor over it the words "My Photo" appear. It is not YOURS it is MINE. Also, you incorrectly identified it as Newport. It is actually Newburyport, MA. Please credit me in your profile OR remove it from your site.