THE DAILY PRACTICE OF ADOPTING AN UNKNOWN DYING SOUL
This daily practice, so simple, so helpful should appeal to every Catholic. One soul saved each day means 365 each year. What a rich harvest of souls to present unto God. St. James says: "He who causeth a sinner to be converted....shall save his own soul from death."
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"If every night, before we went to sleep," says Father Faber, "we begged our dear Lady to offer up to God the Precious Blood of her Divine Son for grace to hinder one mortal sin somewhere in the world, during that night, and then renewed the same offering in the morning of the hours of daylight, surely such an offering, and by such hands, could not fail to win the grace desired, and then each one of us might hinder numbers of mortal sins every year."
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A PRAYER FOR THE DYING AND A SPECIAL SOUL
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O MOST MERCIFUL JESUS, lover of souls, I beseech Thee, by the agony of Thy most Sacred Heart, and by the sorrows of Thine Immaculate Mother, wash clean in the Thy Blood the sinners of the whole world who are to die this day. Remember most especially the soul I spiritually adopt with the intention of entrusting him or her to Thy Shepherd's care:
I beseech Thee for the grace to move this sinner, who is in danger of going to Hell, to repent. I ask this because of my trust in Thy great mercy.
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If it should please Thy Majesty to send me a suffering this day in exchange for the grace I ask for this soul, then, it, too, shall please me very much, and I thank Thee, Most Sweet Jesus, Shepherd and Lover of Souls; I thank Thee for this opportunity to give mercy in thanksgiving for all the mercies Thou hast shown me. Amen.
Heart of Jesus, once in agony, have mercy on the dying.
(1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary, 1 Glory Be)