Prayer for the Whole State of Christ's Church upon Earth

O eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Creator of all things visible and invisible, Source of all our good; infinitely good in thyself, and infinitely gracious, bountiful, and good to us; behold we, thy poor servants, the work of thy hands, redeemed by the blood of thine only Son, come [in answer to his summons by his Vicegerent], to present ourselves, as humble petitioners, before the throne of thy mercy. We come in communion with all thy Church in heaven, hoping to be assisted by their prayers and merits; and with Jesus Christ at our head, our High Priest and Mediator, in whose precious blood we put all our trust.

We prostrate ourselves here before thee, and most humbly beseech thee to sanctify thy own most holy name, by sanctifying and exalting thy holy Catholic Church throughout the whole world. O eternal King, who hast sent down thine only Son from thy throne above into this earth of ours, to establish a kingdom here amongst us, from whence we might hereafter be translated to thy eternal kingdom; look down, we beseech thee, upon this kingdom of thy Son, and propagate it through all nations, and through all hearts. Sanctify it in all truth; maintain it in peace, unity, and holiness. Give to it saints for its rulers, its chief pastor, and all its other prelates; enlighten them with all heavenly wisdom; make them all men according to thy own heart.

Give thy grace and blessing to all the clergy; and send amongst them that heavenly fire which thy Son came to cast on the earth, and which he so earnestly desired should be enkindled. Assist and protect all apostolic missionaries, that they may zealously and effectually promote thy glory, and the salvation of souls redeemed by the blood of thy Son. Sanctify all religious men and women of all orders; give them the grace to serve thee with all perfection, according to the spirit of their institute, and to shine like lights to the rest of the faithful.

Have mercy on all Christian princes; grant them those lights and graces that are necessary for the perfect discharge of their duty to thee and to their subjects: that they may be true servants to thee, the King of kings, true fathers to their people, and nursing fathers to thy Church. Have mercy on all magistrates and men in power; that they may all fear thee, love thee, and serve thee; and ever remember that they are thy deputies, and ministers of thy justice.

Have mercy on all thy people throughout the world: and give thy blessing to thine inheritance; remember thy congregation, which thou hast possessed from the beginning; and give such grace to all thy children here upon earth, that they may do thy holy will in all things, even as the blessed do in heaven.

Extend thy mercy also to all poor infidels, who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death; to all those nations that know not thee, and that have not yet received the faith and law of thy Son; to all Pagans, Mahometans, and Jews. Remember, O Lord, that all these poor souls are made after thine own image and likeness, and redeemed by the blood of thy Son. Oh, let not Satan any longer exercise his tyranny over these thy creatures, to the great dishonor of thy name. Let not the precious blood of thy Son be shed for them in vain. Send among them zealous preachers and apostolic laborers, endued with the like graces and gifts as thine Apostles were, and bless them with the like success, for the glory of thy name; that all these poor souls may be brought to know thee, love thee, and serve thee here in thy Church, and bless thee hereafter for all eternity.

Look down also with an eye of pity and compassion on all those deluded souls, who, under the name of Christians, have gone away from the paths of truth and unity, and from the one fold of the one Shepherd, Jesus Christ, into the by-paths of error and schism. Oh, bring them back to thee and to thy Church. Dispel their darkness by thy heavenly light; take off the veil from before their eyes, with which the common enemy hath blindfolded them. Remove the prejudices of their education; take away from them the spirit of obstinacy, pride, and self-conceit. Give them an humble and docile heart. Give them a strong desire of finding out thy truth, and a strong grace to enable them to embrace it, in spite of all the opposition of the world, the flesh, and the devil. For why should these poor souls perish, for which Christ died? Why should Satan any longer possess these souls, which, by their baptism, were dedicated to thee, to be thine eternal temple?

O Father of lights, and God of all truth, purge the whole world from all errors, abuses, corruptions, and vices. Beat down the standard of Satan, and set up everywhere the standard of Christ. Abolish the reign of sin, and establish the kingdom of grace in all hearts. Let humility triumph over pride and ambition; charity over hatred, envy, and malice; purity and temperance over lust and excess; meekness over passion; and disinterestedness and poverty of spirit over covetousness and the love of this perishable world. Let the gospel of Christ, both in its belief and practice, prevail throughout the world.

Grant us thy peace, O Lord, in the days of our mortality, even that peace which thy Son bequeathed as a legacy to his disciples; a perpetual peace with thee, a perpetual peace with one another, and a perpetual peace within themselves. Grant that all Christian princes and states may love, cherish, and maintain an inviolable peace among themselves. Give them a right sense of the dreadful evils that attend on wars. Give them an everlasting horror of the bloodshed, the devastation, and ruin of so many territories, the innumerable sacrileges, and the eternal loss of so many thousand souls, which are the dismal consequences of war. Turn their hearts to another kind of warfare, and teach them to fight for a heavenly kingdom.

Remove, O Lord, thy wrath, which we have reason to apprehend actually hanging over our heads for our sins. Deliver all Christian people from the dreadful evil of mortal sin; make all sinners sensible of their misery; give them the grace of a sincere conversion to thee, and a truly penitential spirit, and discharge them from all their bonds. Preserve all Christendom, and, in particular, this nation, from all the evils that threaten impenitent sinners, such as plagues, famines, earthquakes, fires, inundations, mortality of cattle, sudden and unprovided death, and thy many other judgments here, and eternal damnation hereafter. Comfort all that are under any affliction, sickness, or violence of pain; support all that are under temptation; reconcile all that are at variance; deliver all that are in slavery or captivity; defend all that are in danger; grant a relief to all in their respective necessities; give a happy passage to all that are in their agony. Grant thy blessing to our friends and benefactors, and to all those for whom we are particularly bound to pray; and have mercy on all our enemies. Give eternal rest to all the faithful departed; and bring us all to everlasting life, through Jesus Christ thy Son. Amen.