Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/700

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and finally, all my limbs and all my bones, that they may say: Lord, who is like to thee?

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and let all that is within me bless his holy Name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and never forget all that he has done for thee. All these earthly things I now renounce, for in thee alone I have all things. I renounce myself, because I am thine, and it is now no more I myself that live, but it is thou,

O Christ Jesus, who livest in me; and I love thee with my whole heart and my whole soul, with all my mind, and with all my strength.

Set me, therefore, beside thee, and let any man’s hand fight against me:[1] and if it should perchance happen to me hereafter, through the violence of disease, or through the enemy’s guile, to think or to speak otherwise than I have now spoken, I now revoke the same and renounce it; and I testify before thee, my God, and thee, O Virgin Mary, my most blessed Mother, and thee, my Angel Guardian, and you, my beloved Patrons, N. and N., that I wish to live and die in the Faith of the Catholic and Apostolic Church: and I trust in my God and Lord Jesus Christ only, and in his merits; and I love him above all things, with my whole heart and with my whole soul, and I desire to love him to my latest breath.

Whatever may be suggested by the temptation of the enemy, the infirmity of the flesh, the violence of my disease, or the affliction of my body, in opposition to so holy a determination, made with such earnestness of will, I desire, O God, to be null at thy Tribunal; and I now utterly abominate it, execrate it, and abjure it: and I desire this my last Will only, which I am ready to seal with my blood, to be valid at the day of judgment; and I would, O my God, that I might die for it and for thee a thousand times, to live to thee to whom all things live, and to die for thee, O most dear Jesus, who hast vouchsafed to die for the love of me!

PRAYER

AFTER THE RECEPTION OF THE MOST HOLY EUCHARIST IN SICKNESS.

To Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world.

And which also may be useful at other times after Communion.

Glory to thee, O Christ, who hast in thy sweetness vouchsafed to visit and refresh my poor soul! Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word, in peace!

Now, O sweet Love, I hold

  1. Job xvif. 3.