O Lord, my God, I now, at this moment, readily and willingly accept at Thy hand whatever kind of death it may please Thee to send me, with all its pains, penalties, and sorrows.
O Lord Jesus, God of goodness and Father of mercies, I approach Thee with a contrite and humble heart; to Thee I recommend my last hour, and that which then awaits me.
When my feet, now motionless, shall admonish me that my mortal course is drawing to and end;
R. Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When my hands, trembling and benumbed, no longer able to hold Thy crucified Image, shall let It fall from their feeble grasp upon my bed of pain;
R. Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When my eyes, dim and troubled at the horror of approaching death, shall fix on Thee their languish and expiring looks;
R. Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When my cheeks, pale and vivid, shall inspire the beholders with pity and dismay; and my hair, bathed in the sweat of death, and stiffening on my head, shall forbode my approaching end;
R. Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When my ears, soon to be for ever shut to the discourse of men, shall open to hear Thy voice pronounce the irrevocable decree, which shall decide my lot for eternity;
R. Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When my imagination, agitated by horrid and terrifying phantoms, shall be sunk in mortal anguish; when my soul, affrighted at 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 Thy mercies from my eyes, and plunge me into despair;
R. Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When my poor heart, oppressed with the pains of sickness, and exhausted by its struggles against the enemies of its salvation, shall be seized with the pangs of death;
R. Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When the last tears, forerunners of my dissolution, shall drop from my eyes, receive them as a sacrifice of expiation for my sins, that I may die the victim of penance, and in that dreadful moment;
R. Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When my friends and relations, encircling my bed, shall shed the tear of pity over me, and invoke Thy clemency in my behalf;
R. Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When I shall have lost the use of my senses, and the world shall have vanished from my sight; when I shall groan with anguish in my last agony and in the sorrows of death;
R. Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When my last sighs shall summon my soul to go forth from my body, receive them as the effects of a holy impatienceto fly to Thee; and in that moment;
R. 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 the Divine Majesty; and in that last moment of my mortal life;
R. Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
When at length my soul, admitted to Thy presence, shall first behold first behold with terror Thy awful Majesty, reject me not, but receive me into Thy bosom, where I may for ever sing Thy praises, and in that moment when eternity shall begin for me;
R. Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me.
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