Prayers for a Good Death
The New Raccolta, 1903, no. 15Source and notes
Source
| Printed in | THE NEW RACCOLTA, OR, COLLECTION OF PRAYERS AND GOOD WORKS. TO WHICH THE SOVEREIGN PONTIFFS HAVE ATTACHED HOLY INDULGENCES. TO WHICH IS ADDED AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING PRAYERS FOR MASS, AND VESPERS FOR SUNDAYS. |
|---|---|
| Imprint | PHILADELPHIA, PETER F. CUNNINGHAM & SON, 1903 |
| Number | 15 |
| Pages | pp. 539–542 |
| Scan | leaf 548, leaf 549, leaf 550, leaf 551 of the Internet Archive copy |
| Approval | FROM THE THIRD ITALIAN EDITION AUTHORIZED AND APPROVED BY THE SACRED CONGREGATION OF HOLY INDULGENCES. Imprimatur: ✠ JACOBUS, CARD. GIBBONS, ARCHIEP. BALTIMORENSIS. BALTIMORE, July 20, 1887. Imprimatur: ✠ PATRICK JOHN, ARCHBISHOP OF PHILADELPHIA. PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 8, 1900. Moreover, Our Holy Father, Leo XIII., by virtue of his apostolic authority, has approved this Collection issued from the press of the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda, and, therefore, it must be regarded by all as the correct and authorized collection of indulgences hitherto granted for all the faithful and for such as are in communities specially designated. Wherefore, if by chance any doubt should arise either as to sense of the grant or the conditions requisite for gaining the indulgences, it must be determined solely by this Raccolta which His Holiness has directed to be considered the complete guide. On this account he has ordered the present decree to be prepared and prefixed to the present edition. Given at Rome, at the office of the Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences and Holy Relics, on the 23d day of July, 1898. FR. H. M. CARD. GOTTI, Prefect. L. ✠ S. † A. SABATUCCI, Archiep. Antinoen. Secretary. The Sacred Congregation of Indulgences and Holy Relics has approved of, as authentic, and permitted to be printed and published, this English translation of the Italian Raccolta, a book containing various prayers and pious exercises, to which the Roman Pontiffs have attached indulgences. This approbation was given after the work had been duly examined by two professors of theology of Woodstock College, who testified that they found this translation to be entirely faithful and in full accord with the Italian original, published in the year 1886 by the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. Given at Rome, at the Office of the Secretary of this same Sacred Congregation, April 28, 1887. FR. THOMAS MARIA CARD. ZIGLIARA, Prefect. [L. ✠ S.] ALEXANDER, BISHOP OENSIS, Secretary. DECRETUM ANNI 1886. |
| Indulgence | The Sovereign Pontiff, Leo XII., by a rescript of the S. Congr. of Indulgences, Aug. 11, 1824, granted to all the faithful who, with at least contrite heart and devotion, shall say these prayers, and pray, for some time, for the intention of his Holiness: AN INDULGENCE OF ONE HUNDRED DAYS, once a day. A PLENARY INDULGENCE, once a month, to all those who shall have said them every day for a month, on any day, when truly contrite, after confession and communion, they shall visit a church or public oratory, and offer up devout prayer to God for the intention of the Sovereign Pontiff. |
| Rights | Public domain in the United States. |
- Prayers for
- a happy death, mercy, salvation
Master of the Brussels Initials and Associates, Office of the Dead, Hours of Charles the Noble, about 1405. Cleveland Museum of Art.
I.
To our Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord Jesus, God of goodness, Father of mercies, I stand before thee with a heart humbled, contrite and full of compunction; to thee I commend my last hour, and all that awaits me after it.
When my feet, unable to move, shall warn me that my course is well-nigh run,
Merciful Jesus, have pity upon me.
When my hands, trembling and benumbed, shall no more be able to clasp thee crucified, and I am forced, in spite of myself, to let thee fall upon my bed of pain,
Merciful Jesus, have pity upon me.
When my eyes, dim and distorted through dread of approaching death, shall fix on thee their languid, dying gaze,
Merciful Jesus, have pity upon me.
When my lips, cold and quivering, shall utter for the last time thy most adorable name,
Merciful Jesus, have pity upon me.
When my cheeks, pale and livid, inspire the bystanders with compassion and awe, and my hair, bathed in the sweat of death, stands erect on my head and declares that my hour is come,
Merciful Jesus, have pity upon me.
When my ears, soon to be shut forever to the words of men, shall be opened to hear thy voice pronouncing the sentence by which my lot is to be irrevocably fixed for all eternity,
Merciful Jesus, have pity upon me.
When my imagination, preyed upon by horrible and fearful spectres, shall be plunged in mortal woe, and my spirit, stricken with the sight of my ill-doings and the fear of thy justice, shall wrestle with the powers of darkness, striving to take from me the consoling sight of thy mercies and to cast me down headlong into the pit of despair,
Merciful Jesus, have pity upon me.
When my weak heart, borne down with the pain of my disease, shall be overtaken with the horror of death, and be exhausted by the efforts it has made against the enemies of my salvation,
Merciful Jesus, have pity upon me.
When I shed my last tears, the sign of my dissolution, do thou receive them as an expiatory sacrifice, that thus I may expire a victim of penance: in that dread moment,
Merciful Jesus, have pity upon me.
When relatives and friends, standing around me, melt into tears at my sad state, and invoke thee in my behalf,
Merciful Jesus, have pity upon me.
When my senses are gone, and the whole world has vanished from my sight, and when, in the anguish of my last agony, and in the fear of death, I groan,
Merciful Jesus, have pity upon me.
When my heart’s last sobs shall force my soul to depart from my body, do thou accept these sobs as the offspring of a holy impatience to come to thee; and then do thou,
Merciful Jesus, have pity upon me.
When my soul shall issue forth from my lips forever out of this world, and leave my body pale, cold and lifeless, O do thou accept the dissolution of my being as the homage which I render thy divine majesty; and then do thou,
Merciful Jesus, have pity upon me.
Last of all, when my soul shall appear before thee, and shall see for the first time the immortal brightness of thy majesty, O cast it not away from thy presence, but vouchsafe to receive me into the loving bosom of thy mercy, there forever to sing thy praises.
Merciful Jesus, have pity upon me.
II.
To the eternal Father.
O God, who, while condemning all men once to die, hast yet concealed from them the moment and the hour of their death: grant that, spending all the days of my life in justice and in holiness, I may be made worthy to depart out of this world in thy holy love. Through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
The Sovereign Pontiff, Leo XII., by a rescript of the S. Congr. of Indulgences, Aug. 11, 1824, granted to all the faithful who, with at least contrite heart and devotion, shall say these prayers, and pray, for some time, for the intention of his Holiness:
AN INDULGENCE OF ONE HUNDRED DAYS, once a day.
A PLENARY INDULGENCE, once a month, to all those who shall have said them every day for a month, on any day, when truly contrite, after confession and communion, they shall visit a church or public oratory, and offer up devout prayer to God for the intention of the Sovereign Pontiff.