Page:ThePathToHeaven.djvu/581



The end  of  this  devotion  is:

1st. To pay  a  tribute  of  homage  to  the  sufferings  which the Heart  of  Jesus  endured  for  the  salvation  of  souls throughout the  whole  course  of  his  life,  and  especially during his  sacred  Passion.

2dly. To obtain,  through  the  merits  of  this  long  agony, the grace  of  a  happy  death  for  those  who,  in  number about 80,000,  die  each  day  throughout  the  world  4  a  number in  nothing  exaggerated — it  is  an  ascertained  fact.

O most merciful Jesus, fond lover of souls, purify, I implore thee by the agony of thine own most sacred Heart, and by the grief of thy immaculate Mother,— purify in the laver of thy blood all sinners who are in their agony, and who are this day to die, Amen.

Agonising Heart of Jesus, have pity on the dying!

Offer up  together  with  this  prayer  some  of  your  daily actions to  the  agonising  Heart  of  Jesus,  in  behalf  of  those who are  that  day  in  their  agony.

To-day eighty  thousand  souls  are  falling  in  the  harvest of death;  they  are  standing  before  the  awful  judgment-seat  of  God;  they  are  entering  on  an  eternity  either  of weal  or  woe;  and,  oh,  of  that  number  thousands  perhaps  are  in  the  state  of  mortal  sin!