sudden it may be, may not find us unworthy of admittance into eternal glory. Open likewise the eyes, and soften the hearts of those who have the misfortune of being at variance with thee; inspire them, we humbly beseech thee, with a true sense of their dreadful danger, that by a timely consideration of the uncertainty of life, and the certainty of death, they may be sincerely converted, and obtaining pardon for their sins in this life, be happy with thee for ever in the next. Amen.
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
