The Catholic Prayer Book and Manual of Meditations/Method of Assisting at Mass as a Preparation for Death
a method of assisting at
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass,
when we offer it
AS A PREPARATION BEFORE DEATH.
——
THERE is no better safeguard of virtue than the salutary thought of death. “In all thy works,” says the Wise Man, “remember thy last end. and thou shalt never sin.” (Ecclesiastic vii. 40.) Though we all are made subject to death by original sin, we do not know when death shall come: this only we know, that it shall come when we least expect it. It is, therefore, a pious exercise to offer up the holy Sacrifice of the Mass that we may be at all times prepared for death, and that God may grant us the grace of a happy death. The Imitation of Christ teaches that there is no more fruitful method of hearing Mass, than to make the offering of ourselves in union with the infinite holocaust offered by our Divine Redeemer upon Calvary, and perpetuated through love for us on our altars. We thus in a most perfect manner acknowledge God’s supreme power over us, and our total dependence on him, and we may hope that in return, through his mercy, our death may be pleasing in his sight.
From the beginning of Mass to the Offertory.
CONSIDERATION.
REFLECT, that in consequence of Adam’s sin, God ordained that he and his posterity should die. If this evil is due to us on account of original sin, how much more do we deserve the punishment no account of our own sins.
AFFECTIONS.
SINCE death, my God, is the punishment thou hast ordained for sin, I submit in the spirit of penance to the decrees of thy justice. I accept, with an humble and submissive heart, all the pains, humiliations, and privations which accompany it, in satisfaction for my sins, for which I am truly sorry. O pardon me, my God, I beseech thee. How great is my ingratitude to thy divine Majesty, who didst draw me out of nothing, and give me all that I have; after all thy blessings I have disowned thy sovereignty over me, by refusing to subject myself to thy law. I have slighted thy justice, and offended thee deliberately, though thou couldst at each moment have punished me: I have dishonored thy sanctity by the sinfulness of my life, and have slighted thy goodness which adopted me as thy child, by refusing to honour and obey thee as my Father. Thou didst proffer me a share in thy happiness, and in the eternal enjoyment of thy glory, if I would be faithful to thee; and the least difficulty has made me prevaricate. Had I but once displeased thee, it were still too much; but, alas! I have multiplied my sins above the hairs of my head; they are countless. I have sinned in every place though surrounded by thy gifts; no hour of my life has been unstained with guilt, and this after thy repeated pardon. But besides my own sins, how many have I not caused others to commit! Forgive, merciful God, these crimes; I am truly sorry for them, and I detest them with my whole heart. Would I could, shed tears of an infinite sorrow to cancel every trace of such sinful ingratitude. To supply for what is wanting in me, accept, my God! of the sorrow with which Jesus, my Saviour, was overwhelmed in the Garden of Olives, and on the cross, for the sins of the whole world, and for mine in particular. Purify me from my secret sins, and pardon those I have occasioned in others. Despise not, O God, a contrite heart, which has no hope but in thy infinite mercy, and in the promise thou hast made, that when a sinner grieves for his sins, thou wilt no longer remember his iniquities. If, dear Lord, I have ceased to be thy dutiful child, thou hast not ceased to be my loving Father. I have nothing to offer in satisfaction for my sins and ingratitude, but my life; and that I give with my whole heart as a victim of propitiation, and with it I sacrifice all that I loved or enjoyed when I had the misfortune to stray from the path of virtue. At this very instant, if it should please thee to deprive me of all, I am resigned, and would think myself most happy if my death could be caused by the intensity of my sorrow, for having ever abandoned thy service.
At the Offertory.
CONSIDERATION.
REFLECT that Christ, your model and example, having offered himself to the Eternal Father to die for the expiation of sin, it is but just you should offer to do the same.
AFFECTIONS.
O ETERNAL Father! behold thy dear Son, who out of his abundant charity offered himself to die for my sins and offences: is it not just that I should imitate this divine model? I offer thee then my heart, my soul, my liberty, and my life, united to those of my dear Saviour, that so they may find favour in thy sight. Like a criminal guilty of treason, condemned by thy divine Majesty to death, I submit, and rejoice that my body will be reduced to dust, that thereby the faults which my proud mind has committed for its sake may be punished. But, oh! let my soul return to thy hands from whence it came. I resign myself to all the bitterness, temptations, pains, and anguish, which may accompany my death, begging thy support under them. This being all I can offer to thy divine Majesty in atonement for my sins, I beseech thee to accept of it, to forget my iniquities, and to remember that I am the work of thy hands, the price of thy blood, the conquest of thy cross. “I am thine, save me: for I have sought thy justifications .” ( Psalm cxviii. 94.)
I protest before thee, my God, that I will never admit any thoughts but such as are conformable to what faith teaches; that I will hope in thy mercy, and love thy goodness: and if any sentiments contrary to these present themselves to my mind, I reject and disavow them. I recommend my soul, divine Lord, into thy hands, since it was bought with no less a price than that of thy precious blood. Remember all the miracles thou hast worked for its sake, and forget what has been the depth of my ingratitude. Thou hast been pleased to declare that thou wiliest not the death of a sinner (that is, his eternal death), but rather that he be converted and live: this act of mercy I petition for, for the sake of thy most precious passion and death, trusting that the sentence which will decide my lot may be such as to ensure my happiness. It is true, my God, that notwithstanding all this I would despair when reflecting on the terror of thy judgments, did not thy frequent assurance of compassion and mercy give consolation to my afflicted soul: “ For the Lord is sweet to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works." (Psalm cxliv. 9.) “ Therefore the Lord waiteth that he may have mercy on us, therefore shall he he exalted sparing you." (Is. xxx. 18.) “ The Lord is my rock , and my strength , and my Saviour. God is my strong one , in him will I trust." (2 Kings xxii. 2, 3.) I cast myself then into the abyss of thy mercies, full of sorrow for having so often offended thee; but “ remember not former things , and look not on things of old" (Is. xliii. 18); be thou “ my refuge from the trouble which hath encompassed me." (Psalm xxxi. 7.)
From the Preface to the Elevation.
CONSIDERATION.
REFLECT that we must necessarily pass through the gate of death, before we can enter into the mansions of eternal bliss. All good Christians ought then, with St. Paul, to desire to be dissolved, that they may be with Christ, for it is a neglect of eternal bliss not to desire it so ardently as to be willing to resign our life for its attainment. We should also be prepared to make the exchange soon, for what we really desire we are anxious to possess.
AFFECTIONS.
MY God, I firmly believe all that thou hast revealed concerning that blissful eternity where thy servants enter into thy joys, and possess the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. Hasten the happy day when the joyful tidings shall be brought to me, that I must go into the house of the Lord, where God dwells, and where I shall possess the liberty and freedom of his children. Welcome be the hour which will unite me to my heavenly Father’s embraces. What have I to fear under the shelter of that mercy which has been ensured to me by a Saviour’s blood, first poured out upon the cross, and now again mystically shed for me on this altar. O Lord! do with me according to thy will, and command my spirit to be received in peace: “ For it is better for me to die, than to live” (Tob. iii. 6.)
At the Elevation.
CONSIDERATION.
ADORE, with the greatest respect, Jesus Christ elevated in the sacred host. Reflect that it is only through the all-atoning merits of his death that you can hope for and lay claim to eternal life. Look on him elevated on the cross where he negociates your salvation. Beg that he will model your death on his by making you partake of his interior dispositions.
AFFECTIONS.
O ETERNAL Father! behold here thy beloved Son, who is pleased to offer himself and his sacred merits to purchase for me eternal life. I therefore claim it as my inheritance; I ardently desire it, and firmly hope for it, and thy unerring word has assured me that those who trust in thee shall never be confounded. My dear Saviour, who wouldst not only die for me, but didst also suffer a most cruel agony for my sake, I adore each of thy interior motions even to the last moment of thy life; I adore thy last thoughts, words, and sufferings; I adore the last sentiments of thy sacred humanity, the last application of the powers of thy soul. I offer thee the last moments of my life in honor of thy most holy death. Dear Jesus, bless my death, and sanctify it by thine; unite it, Lord, to thine; make me partaker of those divine dispositions which animated thy soul when thou didst resign it into the hands of thy eternal Father, and grant that my last sigh may be an act of pure love of thee. As thou didst accept of death from the first moment of thy incarnation, and didst remain in the same dispositions all the days of thy life; so in like manner I from this moment accept of whatever kind of death thou shalt be pleased to ordain for me, and will, with thy grace, continue in the same resolution of dying for thee and according to thy will, in the spirit of perfect obedience. I heartily desire that the last act of my liberty may be one of submission to thy divine will, in honour of that which thou didst make upon the cross, when bowing down thy sacred head in obedience to the decrees of thy Father, thou didst render thy blessed soul into his hands. I also accept of death in the spirit of love. As thine was the most pregnant testimony of thy Jove for my soul, so I desire to give my life (which according to nature is most dear to me) as the greatest proof I can give that I love thee, and sincerely desire to be where I shall ever love and never more offend thee.
At the Agnus Dei.
CONSIDERATION.
BEHOLD Christ in the Blessed Sacrament as your strength, hope, and support, as the pledge of your salvation and of a happy eternity.
AFFECTIONS.
COME, sweet Saviour! come and take possession of my heart; it is thine by many titles: sustain, comfort, and encourage it against the terrors of death and fears of my salvation. Say to my poor soul at the hour of my death, as thou didst say to thy apostles, “ Peace be to you , it is I; fear not.” ( Luke xxiv. 86.) No attempt of the enemy could then hurt me. Say but these consoling words and my soul shall be saved. Who am I, dear Lord! that thou shouldst vouchsafe to visit me? How should I dare to approach thee, unless by reminding thee of thy comforting assurance of encouragement to sinners? "They that are whole, need not the physician but they that are sick. I came not to call the just, but sinners, to repentance .” (Luke v. 31, 32.) I have great cause to fear when I reflect on what my sins have deserved, but I have yet more reason to hope, when I remember what thou hast done for my salvation. I acknowledge thee for my God and my Saviour, and as such I confide in thee. It is in thy merits that I place all my hopes; fortify me in my passage from this world to eternity. Since thou hast been pleased to visit me, leave me some token of thy presence; enable me to overcome my passions, particularly that from which I may fear the worst consequences at the hour of my death. Do not refuse me, since it is for thy glory that I beg it. I am conscious that my continued offences deserve that thou shouldst let me die in them, but the blood which thou hast shed to cleanse me from them, cries to the Eternal Father for mercy. “ What shall I render to the Lord for all things that he hath rendered to me? I will take the chalice of salvation , and call upon the name of the Lord.” ( Psalm cxv. 12, 13.) What shall I return thee for thyself, which thou hast been pleased to give me? I will give thee my life, which is all that have. I really desire then to die, if such be thy will. Unite my death to thine, and if thou canst not say to me, as thou didst to Magdalen, “ Many sins are forgiven her because she hath loved much” ( Luke vii. 47), say at least to me, as thou didst by thy prophet to repentant Israel, u I am he that blots out thy iniquities for my own sake , and I will not remember thy sins .” (Is. xliii. 25.) O Eternal Father! thy Son has given himself to me, that I may offer him to thy justice to cancel my debts, and to obtain all I stand in need of. I present him to thee with all the merits of his life and death, begging that I may be discharged from the heavy load of my sins, that I may receive the last sacraments with the necessary dispositions, and be enriched with all that I may require to make my death precious in thy sight. With joy I receive death from thy hands, because it gives me to thee, and because it alone can bestow thee upon me, by a happy exchange. Amen.