Page:The Catholic prayer book.djvu/79

61 those suffering souls, who now burn with the most inﬂamed desire of being united to thee.

If thou wilt observe iniquities, O Lord, Lord, who will sustain it?—If thou wilt consider the multitude of my offences; if thou wilt view me in the terror of thy justice, I must ﬂee from this altar, and, instead of trying to plead the cause of others, endeavour to hide myself from thy wrath.

For with thee there is merciful forgiveness: and by reason of thy law I have waited for thee, O Lord.—Let thy mercy, O God, interpose now between me and thy justice, and having puriﬁed my soul in the blood of the spotless victim now offered for the living and the dead, may my prayers ﬁnd a gracious acceptance in thy sight.

My soul hath relied on his word: my soul hath hoped in the Lord.—Covered with the precious merits of my divine Saviour, and sheltering myself under the standard of the cross, the source of all our hope, I claim the release of those suffering souls who know that their Redeemer liveth, and whose only hope rests on his sacred passion and death.

From the morning watch even until night, let Israel hope in the Lord.—Night and day shall I continue my supplications, O God of Israel; be not deaf to my cries, and reject not the voice of my mourning.

Because with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him plentiful redemption.—Let that mercy, O my God, which thou delightest to exercise, be applied to those whose greatest torment is the absence of thy sweet and adorable presence. Jesus Christ, a willing victim on this new Calvary, pleads powerfully for the pertect remission of every stain that now separates them from thee.

And he will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.—