Prayers for a Blessed Nap (Part 1)
By Esaias Heidenreich
A Prayer to the Trinity for a Blessed Nap
I recall, O faithful God from eternity, by what things I have been created and ordered by You in this world, namely, as one who must give an account of his household. Your holy Word shows me another and better life. I am, therefore, a pilgrim or a stranger here, who must leave all things temporal when You so desire and depart from here naked and bare. Thus, my heartfelt supplication to You, O God, who are the Father of all comfort, is this: Preserve me from sudden, painful, and eternal death. Grant that I may daily prepare myself for the blessed hour of sleep, so that death does not fall upon me unawares. I rightly commend to You all my goods, my wife, and whatsoever You, O Lord, have given me. You will care for all these things better than I, a poor clod of earth, can. I regard this exchange in the hope that You would allow eternal dwellings to stand open to me, for the sake of the merit of Jesus Christ, Your Son. With fatherly aid come to my soul at its final distress, comfort me in all fear and adversity, preserve me, and help me to joyfully depart from this life. Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, I ask You, for the sake of the great anguish and bitterness that Your innocent soul endured when it departed from Your holy body on the tree of the cross: Have mercy upon my poor little soul when it shall depart from this body. Amen.
O Holy Spirit, sanctify and bless my journey home. Be my rod, comfort, and staff when I depart from here. Accompany me with Your power, lest I sink into death and perish. Amen.
Esaias Heidenreich, Kirchen und Hausgebetlein (1582)
Heinrich Aldegrever, The Creation of Eve (1540)