LITANY for a HAPPY DEATH LORD have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. God the Father, who for our sake didst deliver up the beloved Son to death, Have mercy on us. God, the Son, who didst mercifully submit to the law of death, that we may thereby gain eternal life, Have mercy on us. Holy Spirit, the great comforter of dying Christians, Have mercy on us. O divine Jesus! when I shall be seized with my last illness, and warned to prepare for the approach of my Judge, Then, merciful Jesus, have mercy on me. When my eyes, darkened with the mist of death, shall fix their last dying looks on thy crucified image, When my pale and ghastly countenance shall fill others with compassion and terror, When my ears, about to close for ever to all human discourse, shall await the dreadful sound of thy irrevocable sentence, When my feet, unable to move, shall remind me that my earthly course is drawing to an end, When my imagination, disturbed with gloomy and frightful phantoms, shall fill my heart with deadly horror, When my soul, terrified at the view of my sins, and agonized with fear of thy rigorous justice, shall struggle with the angel of darkness, When my heart, weakened and overwhelmed with the pains of sickness, shall be seized with the last agonies of death, and violently assailed with the last efforts of Satan, When my friends, assembled round me, shall compassionate my sufferings, and weep for my approaching dissolution, Then, merciful Jesus, have merɛz on me. When all my senses shall fail, and this world forever vanish from my view, When the symptoms of death shall appear, and the last tears shall trickle down my cheeks, When, tortured by the pangs of death, and oppressed with lengthened agony, When the last heavy sighs of my heart shall press my soul to leave my body, When my soul, fluttering at my lips, shall be on the point of beholding her Almighty Judge, When my soul shall at length depart from this valley of tears, and leave my body pale, cold, and hideous, When I shall stand all alone before my Judge, and behold at one glance all the sins of my life, and all thy claims, O my God, on my love, Then, merciful Jesus, have mercy on me. When thou shalt pronounce that awful sentence, 3 which no human power can revoke, and no human art elude, V. Through thy painful agony and precious death, R. Deliver us, O Jesus! Let us pray. O God, who hast condemned our bodies to death, but hast given us immortal souls to enjoy thee eter nally, and hast concealed from us the day and hour of our death, that we may always expect and prepare for our last hour; grant that a holy and penitential life may ensure for us the happiness of a tranquil death. O divine Jesus! whose precious death should lighten our sorrows, I fervently conjure thee, by the bitterness thou didst endure on the cross, when thy blessed soul was separated from thy adorable body, to be propitious to me and to all sinners in our last awful passage from time to eternity. Amen. A short Prayer, which may be said daily for the Grace of a happy Deain. O MCST dear and adorable Jesus! who wast cruci fied for the redemption of mankind, I beseech thee, by thy dolorous passion, by thy dreadful agony, by thy countless wounds, by the effusion of thy precious blood, by the recommendation of thy sacred soul into the hands of thy Eternal Father, and by thy ignominious death on the altar of the cross, that thou wilt graciously vouchsafe at my last hour to receive my spirit into the bosom of thy mercy. Amen. THE THIRTY DAYS' PRAYER To the B. V. Mary, in honour of the Sacred Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the devout Recital of which, for the above Space of Time, we may hope to obtain any lawful Request. It is particularly recommended as a suitable Devotion for Lert, and all Fridays throughout the Year. EVER glorious and blessed Mary, Queen of Virgins Mother of Mercy, hope and comfort of dejected and desolate souls, through that sword of sorrow which pierced thy heart whilst thine only Son Jesus Christ our Lord suffered death and ignominy on the cross; through that filial tenderness and pure love he had for thee, grieving in thy grief, whilst from his cross he recommended thee to the care and protection of his beloved disciple St. John, take pity, I beseech thee, on my poverty and necessities; have compassion on my anxieties and cares, assist and comfort me in all my infirmities and miseries. Thou art the Mother of Mercy, the sweet consolatrix and refuge of the needy and the orphan, of the desolate and the afflictted. Look, therefore, with pity on a miserable forlorn child of Eve, and hear my prayer; for since, in just punishment of my sins, I am encompassed with evils, and oppressed with anguish of spirit, whither can I flee for more secure shelter, O amiable Mother of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, than to thy materna protection. Attend, therefore, I beseech thee, with pity and compassion, to my humble and earnest request. I ask it, through the infinite mercy of thy dear Son; through that love and condescension wherewith he embraced our nature, when, in compli ance with the divine will, thou gavest thy consent, and whom, after the expiration of nine months, thou didst bring forth from the chaste enclosure of thy womb, to visit this world, and bless it with his presence. I ask it, through that anguish of mind wherewith thy beloved Son, our dear Saviour, was overwhelmed on Mount Olivet, when he besought his Eternal Father to remove from him, if possible, the bitter chalice of his future passion. I ask it, through the three-fold repetition of his prayer in the Garden, from whence afterwards, with dolorous steps and mournful tears, thou didst accompany him to the doleful theatre of his sufferings and death. I ask it, through the welts and sores of his virginal flesh, occasioned by the cords and whips wherewith he was bound and scourged, when stripped of his seamless garment, for which his executioners afterwards cast lots. I ask it, through the scoffs and ignominies by which he was insulted, the false accusations and unjust sentence by which he was condemned to death, and which he bore with heavenly patience. I ask it, through his bitter tears and bloody sweat; his silence and resignation; his sadness and grief of heart. I ask it, through the blood which trickled from his royal and sacred head, when struck with his sceptre of a reed, and pierced with his crown of thorns. I ask it, through the excruciating torments he suffered, when his hands and feet were fastened with huge nails to the tree of the cross. I ask it, through his vehement thirst, and bitter potion of vinegar and gall. I ask it, through his dereliction on the cross, when he ex claimed, My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me? I ask it, through his mercy cxtended to the to us. good thief, and through his recommending his precious soul and spirit into the hands of his Eternal Father before he expired, saying, ALL IS CONSUMMATED. I ask it, through the blood mixed with water, which issued from his sacred side when pierced with a lance, and whence a flood of grace and mercy hath flowed I ask it, through his immaculate life, bitter passion, and ignominious death on the cross, at which nature itself was thrown into convulsions, by the bursting of rocks, rending of the veil of the temple, the earthquake, and darkness of the sun and moon. I ask it, through his descent into hell, where he comforted the saints of the old law with his presence, and led captivity captive. I ask it, through his glorious victory over death, when he arose again to life on the third day, and through the joy which his appearance for forty days after gave thee, his blessed Mother, his apostles, and the rest of his disciples, when in thine and their presence he miraculously ascended into heaven. I ask it, through the grace of the Holy Ghost, infused into the hearts of the disciples, when he descended upon them in the form of fiery tongues, and by which they were inspired with zeal in the conversion of the world when they went to preach the gospel. I ask it, through the awful appearance of thy Son at the last dreadful day, when he shall come to judge the living and the dead, and the world by fire. I ask it, through the compassion he bore thee in this life, and the ineffable joy thou didst feel at thine assumption into heaven, where thou art eternally absorbed in the sweet contemplation of his adorable perfections. O glorious and ever blessed Virgin! comfort the heart of thy supplicant, by obtaining for ine. * And as I am persuaded my divine Saviour honours thee as his beloved Mother, to whom he can refuse nothing, let me speedily experience the efficacy of thy powerful intercession, according to the ten * Here mention or reflect on your lawful request, under the re servation of its being agreeable to the will of God |