How often do you pray for your death?

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michaelArc

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I’m curious about how often everyone prays for their death. I’m not talking about someone in a depressed state of mind that wants to end their life. Rather the opposite, praying for a good, peaceful and holy death.

While I’m more concerned about the state of my soul rather than dying. I do have a fear of a violent, or an unfortunate, avoidable death ( I don’t want to drown in a vat of beer or lose oxygen while floating to the stratosphere with helium balloons tied to my lawn chair.)

A portion of this prayer always resonates with me whenever I recite it.
I humbly come to ask You Lord, that when my time comes to leave this earthly place, do not call me by sudden death, not by accident that tears the body apart, not by illness that leaves the mind confused or the senses impaired; not at the mercy of evil forces; not with a heart filled with hate or a body racked with pain; not abandoned, lonely, without love or care, not by my own hand in a moment of despair. Jesus, let death come as a gentle friend to sit and linger with me until You call my name.
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So how often do you pray for your death?
 
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I do not pray for my death. It will come in God’s time and God’s way. By secular standards, I should have died two times; I do thank the Lord for the time I have and ask what He has in store for me or what I still need to accomplish.
 
Nightly, I pray the Divine Office Night Prayers.

“May the Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful death”
 
Daily. Asking for the grace of a happy death is a line in a St. Therese prayer I have been saying every day for some months. I prefer to just ask for it quickly and not think about it too much. I leave the circumstances of my death up to God as it seems we humans have very little control over such matters, assuming we are not attempting suicide or taking foolish risks.
 
TheLittleLady said:
Nightly, I pray the Divine Office Night Prayers.

“May the Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful death”
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Same here, although I usually use a monastic conclusion that is different: “May the almighty and merciful Lord bless us and keep us, Father, Son and Holy Spirit”. Sometimes though I do use the one you do.

However, at evening prayer, the last intercession is always for the dead and often there is an intercession for our own death. For instance, for today, the last intercession (translated from French) is:
Receive into eternity those who die, and allow us to welcome our own death as a passage towards life
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My own take on praying for death: “May the Lord, grant us a restful night and a peaceful death… but not now please!”

Everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die 😛
 
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OraLabora said:
My own take on praying for death: “May the Lord, grant us a restful night and a peaceful death… but not now please!”

Everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die 😛
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Spoken like a very young person. After decades of a life of suffering, one begins to yearn for heaven.
 
I pray for my death constantly–every Hail Mary. Also, I pray to St. Joseph, patron of a Happy Death, every day.
 
TheLittleLady said:
Spoken like a very young person. After decades of a life of suffering, one begins to yearn for heaven.
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I’m 60, I’m diabetic, and I have arthritis. I’ve done plenty of suffering but I’m grateful that it hasn’t been worse.

On the other hand I’m still able to cycle 4000+ km every season, in the mountains, which actually helps reduce the pain from arthritis. So it isn’t all bad.

I still find plenty of beauty in life and want to stick around for a bit longer.
 
That’s a great prayer in your OP, @michaelArc. And it sums up my own wishes for death, if I had my rathers. That said, I’ve often prayed this traditional prayer, “Lord, I accept, with a joyful and resigned heart, the death it pleases you to send me, with all its pains and sufferings.” Except I add, at the beginning, “HELP me to accept,” because let’s face it, if it’s painful, I’m not strong enough to accept if yet. But I want to be able to accept it, if for some reason God knows it will make me holier for my eternity with Him. Still, there are noble and selfless reasons to plead with God to give you a long life and a peaceful death. I have family and friends who love and value me, and I know from imagining how I would feel, and how I have felt about losing my parents while still a young man, that if I die young or badly then it would be worse for them, not just hard for me. So when I do pray for God to spare me a young or painful death, yes it’s because I’m not strong enough yet to be at peace with the alternative, but it’s also for everybody who cares about me.
 
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OraLabora said:
My own take on praying for death: “May the Lord, grant us a restful night and a peaceful death… but not now please!”

Everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die 😛
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au contraire!

For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.
If I go on living in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. And I do not know which I shall choose.
I am caught between the two. I long to depart this life and be with Christ; that is far better.
Yet that I remain in the flesh is more necessary for your benefit. Phil 1:21-24

Note that St. Paul does not express a “death wish” but an “eternal life wish.”
 
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TrenchantWretch said:
Often, but every morning I still wake up.
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SInce the Lord is pleased to give us one more day to serve, it is up to us to ask for the grace to do so with a good will. Some suffer very greatly, though, and are denied the consolations that we need to keep up good spirits on the natural plane, being left to grace alone to keep them going. It is easy to see why they hope their service will be up sooner rather than later.
 
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MichaelArc that is a beautiful prayer. Going to copy that and use it. Thanks!
 
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