# The paradise of the Christian soul/Chap. XV. Prayers and Memorable Words of Saints in their dying moments.

CHAPTER XV.
Prayers and Memorable Words.
OF SAINTS IN THEIR DYING MOMENTS.
When Saint Eligius, Bishop
of Noyon, had embraced his friends with tears, and bid them farewell, he prayed for ​some time in silence, and then at length burst forth into these words:
Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word, in peace! Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight no man living shall be justified! Remember me, thou who only art without sin, Christ, the Saviour of the world; bring me out of the death of this body, and translate me to thy kingdom! I know that I merit not to behold thee, yet thou knowest that my hope has been ever in thy mercy!
And now, too, in dying, O Christ, will I breathe out my last breath in the confession of thy holy Name. Uphold me, therefore, according to thy great mercy, and let me not be disappointed of my expectation. As I speed on my way, open to me the gate of life; and let me not be met by the princes of darkness. Let thy hand lead me into a place of refreshment, even though it be the last of the mansions which thou hast prepared for thy servants who fear thee!
At these words he expired.
Of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, — who, in an illness which it was thought would be his last, with weighty and undoubtedly golden words confounded the accusations of the enemy,— the author of his Life, who was himself present at the time, thus speaks:
And now when he seemed to be on the point of breathing his last, he seemed to himself to be brought before the Lord’s judgment-seat. There, too, stood Satan over against him, attacking him with wicked accusations. But when he had made an end of all his charges, and the man of God was to speak for himself, nothing terrified or disturbed, he said:
“ I own I am not worthy, nor can I, by my own merits, obtain the Kingdom of Heaven. But my Lord, who holds it of double right, that is to say, by his Father’s inheritance and by the merit of his Passion, contents himself with one, and gives to me the other. By his gift I claim it rightfully and I am not confounded. ’ At these words the enemy was put to shame, &c.
Oh, beautiful words! how deeply to be impressed on all dying persons.
SAINT LAURENCE JUSTINIAN, Patriarch of Venice,
When at the point of death, prayed thus:
Thou knowest, O Lord, that my life when I reflect upon it, must be called, not so much a life as a period of confusion. But in the spirit of humility, and with a contrite ​heart, receive me, O good Jesus, the life and salvation of my soul! For not in my own justification, but in the multitude of thy mercies, I cast my prayers before thy face.
I, the lost sheep, return to thee, my Shepherd. I know thine, but not the stranger’s voice. Lead me, O Lord, I pray thee, back to thy fold. Can it be that thou wilt despise the voice of thy poor sheep that runs bleating to thee for refuge? Is it not thou who hast said, Come to me all, &c.; and again, He shall cry to me, and I will hear him; I am with him in tribulation.
Behold, O Lord, I cry with my heart more than with my lips. Behold, tribulation is close at hand, and there is none to help me; not one is there, O good Jesus, to deliver and save me but thou!
Not that I dare aspire to the mansions of those blessed spirits who gaze upon the beauty of the most holy Trinity. I am but a little mite of thy creation, that craves some crumbs of thy most sweet table. Oh, that I might merit to be thought an abject in the house of the Lord, rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners!
PRAYER OF S. JEROME.
To be said by dying persons in their agony, or read in their presence.
O loving Jesus,my strength, my refuge, my upholder, my deliverer, in whom I have hoped, whom I have believed, whom I have loved! My sovereign sweetness, my tower of strength, and my hope from my youth! Call me, O Captain of my life, and I will answer thee. Stretch forth the right hand of thy mercy to the work of thy hands, which thou, the Creator of all things, hast formed of the slime of the earth, which thou hast framed with bones and sinews, and on which, by dying, thou hast bestowed life!
It is time that dust be turned again to dust, and the spirit return to thee the Saviour, who hast sent it hither. Open to it, O Lord, the gate of life; for it is for me that thou hast hung like a thief upon the Wood of the Cross; receive me, O merciful God, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. When thou wert dying on the Cross thou receivedst the thief who fled to thee. I am sick, my strength is weakened through poverty, and therefore I fly to thee, O Lord, my Physician!
Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; I trust in thee, therefore I shall not be put to shame. In thee, O Lord, have I hoped; oh, let me not be confounded for ever? ​But who, most loving God, am I, that I should speak to thee thus boldly? I am a sinner, and nursed in sins: a putrid carcass, a fetid vessel, food for worms. Spare me, O Lord; for what a victory will it be, if thou fight with me and overcome me, who in thy sight am less than stubble before the wind? Forgive me all my sins, and lift up the poor out of the dunghill!
Arise, O Lord, and help me; arise, and cast me not off for ever! Let my request, O Lord, come in before thee, and let thy hand be with me to save me. Behold one who, in going down to Jericho, has been captured by robbers, and wounded, and left half dead. Thou loving Samaritan, receive me. I have sinned exceedingly in my life, and have done evil before thee: from the sole of my foot to the top of my head, there is no soundness in me.
Assuredly, hadst thou not aided me by dying on the wood of the Cross, my soul had been worthy to sojourn in hell. Of that so precious purchase I, O loving Jesus, am part: thou hast shed for me thy most precious Blood; do not cast me from thee! I am a sheep that has gone astray; seek it, O good Shepherd, and bring it back to thy fold, that thou mayest be justified in thy words; for thou hast promised me, that in what hour soever a sinner shall cry to thee, he shall be saved. I am sorrowful: I know my iniquities, and my sins are before me.
True it is, I am not worthy to be called thy son, for I have sinned against heaven and before thee. But to my hearing thou shalt give joy and gladness. Turn away thy face from my sins, and, according to thy great mercy, blot out my iniquities. Cast me not away from thy face, and deal not with me according to my sins, nor reward me according to my iniquities; but help me, O God my Saviour, and deliver me for the honour of thy Name. Deal bountifully with me, in thy good will, that I may dwell in thy house all the days of my life, and praise thee for ever with them that dwell therein.
PRAYER
To be said for the dying by those present.
O crucified Christ Jesus, in union with the most burning love, which compelled thee, the Life of all that live, to die upon the Cross, we knock at the inmost chamber of thy most bountiful heart, and beseech thee to forgive the soul of thy servant, our brother N., all his sins; supply his omissions by thy most holy conversation and the merit of thy most bitter Passion; and let him experience the most ​superabundant multitude of thy tender mercies. Prepare us all in the way that thou pleaseat, and especially this our brother N.,whom it is thy appointment to call the soonest; and grant him happily to breathe out his soul with true patience, perfect resignation, full remission of his sins, the strongest faith, firm hope, and entire charity, in the most perfect state, into thy most sweet embrace and most loving kiss, to thy everlasting praise.
Ah! most sweet Redeemer, Lord Jesus, by those mournful words which thou utteredst when dying on the Cross, and exhausted by the sorrows of thy Passion: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? remove not, I beseech thee, from thy servant, our brother N., the help of thy mercy, for in this hour and moment of extreme affliction he is, from faintness of soul and exhaustion of spirit, unable to invoke thee.
By the triumph of thy holy Cross, and by the infinite merit of thy Death and Passion, think towards him, O Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of affliction, — thoughts of mercy and consolation. Deliver him out of all his anguish, and by thy own most holy Hands, which, O good Jesus and most loving Father, thou hast, for him and for us all, permitted to be fastened with nails upon the Cross, deliver him from the torments that are due to him, and bring him safe to everlasting rest. Amen.
To the same effect are the Prayers for a happy death, above, chap. xi.
TO THE GOOD READER.
Here, good reader, we now close the Paradise, which I entreat and exhort thee so to use, as that it may prepare for thee the way to another, and that, when on the point of departure hence, thou too mayest merit to hear: This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.
The author and translators will be well repaid by one ejaculation for them offered to God from thy heart.
Sequence.
Day of Wrath!— that dreadful day
Shall the earth in ashes lay,
David and the Sibyl say.
Oh, the trembling that shall be.
When the world its Judge shall see
Come for strictest scrutiny!
Then the trump, with thrilling tone,
From the tombs of ages gone,
All shall cite before the throne.
Death and Time it shall appal.
When shall rise dead creatures all,
Answ’ring to the Judge’s call
Then the Volume shall be spread,
And the writing from it read
Try the living and the dead.
There th’ all-seeing Judge’s ken
Shall review dark deeds of men,
Nought shall go unpunish’d then.
What shall I then, wretched, plead?
Who for me shall intercede,
When the just shall succour need?
King of dreadful majesty,
Who dost save with ransom free:
Fount of Pity, save thou me!
Gracious Jesu, call to mind:
Hast thou Heaven for me resign’d,
Thus to woe to be consign’d?
Thou wert weary seeking me,
Suff’redst for me on the Tree;
Let thy toil not fruitless be!
Judge of justice, spare, I pray;
Cleanse my stains of guilt away,
Ere the awful reck’ning day!
Sighs and groans my sin bespeak,
Guilt is blushing on my cheek;
Thy forgiveness, Lord, I seek.
Thou from sin didst Mary free,
Heardst the robber on the tree,
Hope hast likewise giv’n to me.
Worthless are my prayers, I know;
Yet be gracious, Lord, that so
I may ’scape th’ eternal woe.
Make me with thy sheep to stand,
Of the goats not in the band,
Placing me on thy right hand.
When th’ accurst in anguish flee
Into flames of misery,
With the Blessed call thou me. ​Suppliant in the dust I lie, My bruised heart, like ashes, dry;
Care thou for me ere I die.
Guilty man, to judgment giv’n;
Spare him, therefore, God of heav’n!
Loving Lord, and Saviour That shall be a day of sighs, blest,
When from ashes shall arise Give to them eternal rest!
Amen.
* ↑ Ps. xxx. 12.
* ↑ Isa. i. 6.