Page:The Catholic prayer book.djvu/78

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PRAYERS AT MASS
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souls we commemorate this day, and let them pass from death to life. Which thou promisedst of old to Abraham and his posterity.

AT THE OBLATION AND SUBSEQUENT PRAYERS.

O GOD! what victim can better appease thy justice, than that which we are going to offer in this unbloody renewal of the sacrifice of the cross? As that divine oblation disarmed thy wrath, and induced thee to revoke the sentence of condemnation pronounced against mankind, so mercifully grant, that this adorable sacrifice may atone for the sins and imperfections of those souls for whom it is offered: that being released from the flames by which they are surrounded, they may be received into thy kingdom, and through the passion and death of our divine Redeemer, pass into eternal joys.

O all-bountiful Jesus! who art the propitiation for the living and the dead, what thanks are due to thee for having left us this divine sacrifice, and for having thus rendered it available to the souls of the faithful departed; mercifully grant that they for whom it is offered this day, being released from suffering, may soon prove powerful advocates for us in heaven, who now intercede for them on earth. Amen.

PSALM cxxix. paraphrased.

Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord, Lord hear my voice.—Sensible of my own nothingness and unworthiness, I raise my voice to thee, O King of glory, and entreat thee to listen favourably to the prayer of thy servant.

Let thine ears he attentive to the voice of my petition.—Despise not the work of thy hands, reject not the humle efforts of thy unworthy servant on behalf of