July 30
On Prayer For The Agonizing
Preparation. - We shall more easily obtain for ourselves a death precious in the sight of God, if we implore Jesus to grant this boon to those we are in their agony. In order to induce us to do this, let us consider, first, the motives of this devotion, and secondly, how to practice it. And then we shall place ourselves in spirit on our dying-bed, and endeavor to appreciate the favor rendered to the dying by recommending them to the Lord, and especially to the Heart of Jesus, saying: “Heart of Jesus in agony, pity the dying.”
I. Motives For Praying For The Agonizing
Are there any persons more deserving of interest than the dying, who are about to appear before God? Their eternal lot is about to be decided; will they be forever happy or forever unhappy? Their sentence depends perhaps on our prayers. How great an act of charity on our part, if we take their salvation to heart! Often the dying can no longer pray, so overwhelmed are they by their pains! How many of them are in the state of sin and deserving of endless torments! What an urgent motive to assist them in their great distress!
When we bestow considerable alms on the poor who are famished, we rightly consider we have performed a very meritorious act. But how much more meritorious is it to rescue unfortunate souls from a total and irremediable ruin and to procure them a bliss surpassing all earthly happiness! One of our fervent ejaculatory prayers may suffice to preserve them from all evils combined, and enable them to possess all goods forever. If we do this, what prayer has ever been more efficacious, what beneficent act has ever so speedily and easily produced such grand effects? A single interior act of perfect contrition, obtained for so many souls on the brink of perishing, secures for them happiness unmixed and irrevocable.
O how ardently will souls thus save recommend to the Lord the charitable persons who have done them so precious a favor! They will assuredly powerfully assist them at the hour of their death. If we, then, take to heart the salvation of the sinners redeemed by Jesus Christ, let us profit by this precious means of rescuing them from the bondage of Satan. Their conversion, at their last moment, will be at least durable, and their salvation will run no risk, like that of sinners brought to the right path when in good health. Where can we find so encouraging a ministry, which is within every one’ power? Have we not hitherto been more or less indifferent in this matter?
O Jesus, impart to me a most lively compassion for the poor agonizing. I will help them by my prayers, to conquer heaven. Wherefore I am resolved, first, to give them habitually a share in my spiritual exercises, and secondly, daily to recommend them to Thy agonizing Heart in the garden of olives and on the sacred wood of the cross. “Heart of Jesus in agony, pity the dying.”
II. How To Recommend The Agonizing To God.
Over 100,00 souls pass daily from time into eternity, over 4,000 every hour, and seventy every minute. Can we not sometimes say to ourselves: “During this half hour or meditation, over 2,000 persons die on earth; the same number depart this life during one holy Mass? How many are now in their agony, and among them how many are impenitent! For their conversion they would need only a ray of light, of heavenly grace. And cannot I obtain it for them? My God, I offer Thee for this intention this Mass, this meditation, this holy Communion, this Way of the Cross.”
We daily recite a third part of the rosary, or sometimes we have a quarter of an hour’s leisure, of five minutes, let us then say to ourselves: “During this quarter of an hour about 1,000 men will die; during these five minutes about three hundred will depart this life, O Lord, have mercy on those who are in their agony, and especially on those who need conversion. For this object I offer Thee all the prayers, all the rosaries recited this day, all the Masses celebrated throughout the world, and intend to renew this offering every time my heart beats, and at every moment of my life.” Will not such a practice draw down heaven’s blessings upon us?
It is, besides, an excellent means of frequently reminding us of the salutary thought of death, and of the necessity of preparing ourselves for it, or rather of being always ready to meet it. And then how will is our time employed in exercising charity towards those unhappy fellowmen who are threatened with the most frightful catastrophe of eternal damnation! Let us beseech our Saviour’s adorable Heart, and His holy Mother, to assist them. We shall be heart according to the ardor of our desires, the fervor o four request, the firmness of our confidence and the persistent importunity or our supplications.
Most merciful Jesus, Lover of souls, I beseech Thee by the agony of Thy Sacred Heart and the sorrows of Thy immaculate Mother, wash in Thy blood the sinners of the whole world, who are now in their agony and are to die this day. Amen. “Heart of Jesus, once in agony, have mercy on the dying.”
