Prayers for a Blessed Nap (Part 2)
By Esaias Heidenreich
Prayers for a Blessed Nap
Oh what a truly lovely day it must be when a believing soul is called by You, O eternal God and Father, to the heavenly company before Your throne, to the choir and assembly of Your holy angels, and is led out of this vale of misery. For there it beholds Your glory face to face without ceasing and knows Your fatherly heart and will in inexpressible joy. We ask You, in the name of Jesus Christ, Your only begotten Son, let our poor soul also be brought by Your grace to such a place of rest, so that it may praise and worship You with all believers from everlasting to everlasting. Amen.
Help, O merciful God, that we in this life may begin to tread the steep and narrow path to Your kingdom and turn far from the broad way of the world, so that, when the last little hour is at hand in which You call us home, we may be ready to follow according to Your will. Grant that both our body and soul would not be daunted by any tribulation, hindrance, care, or trial, but rather that we would wait for Your will alone and rightly perceive that they remain in Your gracious protection and have no part with the devil or eternal death. Amen.
O Lord God, in the last little hour of my life, let the door of grace to heavenly paradise stand open to my poor soul, for I myself, with all my powers, can achieve no help or succor, but You alone are the rightful comfort of the miserable. O Lord, I come to You in the trust and hope that, as You have never cast away a sinful man or woman who trusted or hoped in You or left them without grace, You will also not despise or reject my poor little soul at the hour of its departure. For this reason, I shall fall asleep in the peace of my dear Father, for my eyes have seen Your Savior. Lord, into Your hands I commend my spirit and soul. Amen.
Esaias Heidenreich, Kirchen und Hausgebetlein (1582)
Jusepe de Ribera, Jacob’s Dream (1639)