Deathbed Prayer of Saint Macrina

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S. Macrina, pray for us.

Saint Macrina's final prayer before dying has come to my attention again and believing I and others need to read and pray it now, I post it at this time. I sincerely pray that through the grace of the Spirit of Holiness that it will be a blessing to those who read it.

Saint Macrina said: 

'O Lord, You have freed us from the fear of death; You have made the end of life here the beginning of a true life for us. 

For a time, You give rest to our bodies in sleep and You awaken us again with the last trumpet. The dust from which You fashioned us with Your hands You give back to the dust of the earth for safekeeping, and You who have relinquished it will recall it after reshaping with incorruptibility and grace our mortal and graceless substance. 

You redeemed us from the curse and from sin, having taken both upon Yourself; You crushed the heads of the serpent who had seized us with his jaws in the abyss of disobedience. Breaking down the gates of hell and overcoming the one who had the empire of death, You opened up for us a path to the resurrection. 

For those who fear You, You gave as a token the sign of the Holy Cross for the destruction of the Adversary and the salvation of our life. 

O God everlasting, towards whom I have directed myself from my mother's womb, whom my soul has loved with all its strength, to whom I have dedicated my body and my soul from my infancy up to now, prepare for me a shining angel to lead me to the place of refreshment where is the water of relaxation near the bosom of the holy Fathers. 

You who broke the flaming sword and compassionately gave Paradise back to the man crucified with You, remember me also in Your kingdom, for I, too, have been crucified with You, having nailed my flesh through fear of You and having feared your judgments. 

Let the terrible abyss not separate me from Your chosen ones; let the Slanderer not stand in my way or my sins be discovered before Your eyes if I have fallen and sinned in word or deed or thought because of the weakness of our nature. 

Do You who have power on earth to forgive sins forgive me so that I may be refreshed and may be found before You once I have put off my body, having no fault in the form of my soul, but blameless and spotless may my soul be taken into Your hands as an offering before Your face.'... 

When she had completed the thanksgiving and indicated that the [later nocturnal] prayer was over by making the sign of the cross, she breathed a deep breath and with the prayer her life came to an end."

Saint Gregory of Nyssa, "The Life of St Macrina." 

In Saint Gregory of Nyssa - Ascetical Works.

(Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1967).

Troparion - Tone 8 

The image of God was truly preserved in you, O Mother, For you took up the Cross and followed Christ. By so doing, you taught us to disregard the flesh, for it passes away, But to care instead for the soul, since it is immortal. Therefore your spirit, O Holy Mother Macrina, rejoices with the Angels! 

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

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A Child's Prayer for Peace

From an old Anglican Children's Prayer Book

Confidence in God

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A Prayer of Saint Claude de la Colombière

My God, I’m so persuaded that You watch over all who hope in You and nothing can be lacking to those who await from You all things, that I have determined to live from now on without any concern, letting go and giving You all of my anxieties. I will sleep and rest in peace because You, O Lord, and only You, have secured my hope.

Men can deprive me of possessions and reputation; illnesses can take away my strength and means to serve You; I myself can lose Your grace because of sin; but I will not lose my hope; I will conserve it until the last instant of my life and all the efforts from demons trying to take it away from me will be useless. I will sleep and rest in peace. 

May others expect happiness in their richness and talents; some may lean on the innocence of their lives, or the rigor of their penitence, or above all on the amount of their good works, or the fervor of their prayers. As for myself Lord, all my confidence is my confidence itself. Because You Lord, only You have secured my hope. 

No one has been deceived by this confidence. No one who has waited in the Lord has been frustrated in their confidence. Therefore, I am sure that I will be eternally happy because I firmly hope to be; and because You, Oh, My God, are in Whom I expect all. In You I hope Lord, and never will I be confused. 

I know very well . . . too well that I am fragile and inconstant, I know well the power of temptations against the most firm virtue; I have seen thestars fall from heaven and columns from the firmament; but none of this can frighten me. As long as I maintain firm my hope, I will be conserved from all calamities; and I am sure to hope always, because I hope the same in this unchanging hope. 

In conclusion, I am sure that I cannot hope in excess in You and that I will receive all that I would have hoped for in You. Therefore, I know You will sustain me on the most rapid and slippery slopes, that You will strengthen me against the assaults and make my weakness triumph over the most tremendous enemies. 

I hope You will always love me and I will love you without interruption; to take once and for all my hope as far as it can reach. I hope in You and only in You! Oh, My Creator! In time and for all eternity.

Amen. 

Saint Claude de la Colombière, pray for us.

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Elgar: Lux æterna

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For those who have died and especially for those who have died in the COVID-19 pandemic. May the Most Holy Trinity be merciful to the souls of all.

Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One, have mercy upon us.

Choir of New College, Oxford

Edward Higginbottom, DPhil (Oxon), BMus (Cantab), FRCO

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Martha's Anxiety (Sr Wendy Beckett)

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Sr. Wendy Beckett writes:

Worry is a canker. And it's self-regarding. Whereas all our real life is in Jesus. The function of anxiety is surely to alert us to our dependence on him and to the fact that he alone matters. It is a most useful feeling. It says: You are fragile, unrealised, not in charge of your life, in danger of... therefore turn wholly to Jesus. The feeling mayor may not diminish but the direction out of self's narrowness into his love has been conquered. We have to go on and on until finally we live out of self, in him....

The great thing to grasp is that to feel "relaxed/happy" or to feel anxious is unimportant. Feelings only matter as an occasion for love. Happy, secure feelings prompt us to praise him; sad, anxious feelings prompt us to express our faith and pray for him to be all in all to us. The feelings themselves tell us nothing about our "state" which is God's secret and God's work. We don't base anything on ourselves but only on him, on his goodness, knowing, as Paul says, in whom we have believed. Why are we anxious? Let's will to have Jesus as our holiness. Gradually even the feeling vanishes, but that is unimportant. 

We can feel that growing in love should make life "easier” – that there is some failure in our fear, temptation, struggle. Not so. In fact the tempest may blow more severely as we near harbour. Jesus could never know a psychic respite, as the Gospels show. But our attitudes change. We cease to be afraid of fear; we open our arms to the will for the Father to give us whatever he will, knowing, in Jesus, that he gives only "good things".

Sister Wendy Beckett

Sister Wendy Beckett is a South African-born British art expert, a consecrated virgin, and contemplative hermit who lives under the protection of a Carmelite monastery in Norfolk, England.

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Christaraksha: Powerful Prayer of the Cross

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I would encourage people to pray this over your children and loved ones before they leave for the day. Pray it for yourself by day or by night. Pray it as part of your family prayers or rosary and simply change the "you" to me or us as is appropriate for your situation.

Although this is my personal opinion, I pray you will make daily use of this prayer or something like it.  I entreat you to take this as seriously as if "when the bridge is out, I told you the bridge is out, so you would not come to frustration or harm."  

So then, let us pray,

May the Cross of the Son of God,

which is mightier than all the hosts of satan

and more glorious than all the hosts of heaven,

abide with you in your going out and your coming in.

By day and night, at morning and at evening, 

at all times and in all places may it protect and defend you.

From the wrath of evildoers,

from the assaults of evil spirits

from foes visible and invisible

from the snares of the devil,

from all passions that beguile the soul and body:

May the Cross of Christ guard, protect and deliver you. 
Amen.

from India

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Segatashya's First Message from Jesus to All of Us

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This is the first message that the Lord Jesus Christ gave to Segatashya to share with the world while he was still a young boy in his native Rwanda in Africa:

“Jesus Christ sent me here today to tell you, 

and all men to renew your hearts. 

The day is coming 

when things will really get hard for humanity. 

You must change your heart while there is still time. 

Soon those who have refused to repent 

will not be able to do so. 

Let those who know that I set foot on earth, 

know that I am on my way back 

to take those who have worked well for Me 

to heaven for their eternal reward.”

Messages from Segatashya:

Jesus Speaks to the Boy from Kibeho

Neither Segatashya nor his parents had ever been in a school or a church. While not yet approved by the Catholic Church, I am a firm believer in the veracity of Emmanuel Segatashya and all that he said and did in his too short life.

Emmanuel Segatashya, pray for us.

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Богородице Дево (Bogoroditse Djevo)

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I am praying fervently for God's mercy for the people of the Earth and the Earth herself.  May the Light of Christ Jesus shine where it is darkest, and may the Holy Protection of the Theotokos be upon all of her children.

Богородице Дево 

(Bogoroditse Djevo) by Kurt Sander

Kurt Sander's setting of Bogoroditse Djevo (Богородице Дево) embedded above comes from a splendid recording of new music by two Orthodox Christian composers entitled "As far as the East is from the West".   

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