Act of Resignation in Sickness

A sick or dying person can do nothing better than to commit himself wholly and unreservedly to the divine will, and to profess his perfect readiness to accept from his hand all suffering, and even death itself. And whoever does this with his whole heart may be sure that he shall enter heaven without passing through purgatory, even though he have committed innumerable sins. So we are taught by Thauler, Blosius, Suso, and others. Wherefore the sick person should often recite the following prayer, or have it recited for him.

BEHOLD, O almighty and most merciful God, I thy unworthy servant offer and resign myself to thee wholly and unreservedly, for thine everlasting praise and glory, that thou mayest do in me, both in body and in soul, all thine adorable will; and I make this offering in union with that love wherewith thy Son offered himself to thee while hanging on the cross. And I profess from my heart my readiness to endure with patience, and for the sake of thy love and thy glory, all the pains and anguish of this my sickness, and even death itself, and all the evils and the chastisement which the severity of thy divine justice may lay upon me in time or in eternity. Wherefore, in thy presence and in presence of all thy saints, I declare and protest, that were it in my power to live a thousand years amidst all the pleasures and delights the heart of man can conceive or desire, I would nevertheless choose rather for thy love and thy glory to die at this time, if it be thy holy will. And with the fullest resignation of myself into thy hands, I say and repeat a thousand times with heart and mouth: Not my will, but thine be done, O most loving Jesus, in me, by me, in all that concerns me, in time and in eternity. Amen.