Most holy Virgin Immaculate, my Mother Mary, to thee who art the Mother of my Lord, the queen of the universe, the advocate, the hope, the refuge of sinners, I who am the most miserable of all sinners, have recourse this day. I venerate thee, great queen, and I thank thee for the many graces thou hast bestowed upon me even unto this day; in particular for having delivered me from the hell which I have so often deserved by my sins. I love thee, most dear Lady; and for the love I bear thee, I promise to serve thee willingly for ever and to do what I can to make thee loved by others also. I place in thee all my hopes for salvation; accept me as thy servant and shelter me under thy mantle, thou who art the Mother of mercy. And since thou art so powerful with God, deliver me from all temptations, or at least obtain for me the strength to overcome them until death. From thee I implore a true love for Jesus Christ. Through thee I hope to die a holy death. My dear Mother, by the love thou bearest to Almighty God, I pray thee to assist me always, but most of all at the last moment of my life. Forsake me not then, until thou shalt see me safe in heaven, there to bless thee and sing of thy mercies through all eternity. Such is my hope. Amen

O Jesus, my Saviour and Redeemer, Son of the living God, behold we kneel before Thee and offer Thee our reparation; we would make amends for all the blasphemies uttered against Thy holy Name, for all the injuries done to Thee in the Blessed Sacrament, for all the irreverence shown toward Thine immaculate Virgin Mother, for all the calumnies and slanders spoken against Thy spouse, the Holy Catholic and Roman Church. O Jesus, who hast said: "If you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it you", we pray and beseech Thee for all our brethren who are in danger of sin; sheld them from every temptation to fall away from the true faith; save those who are even now standing on the brink of the abyss; to all of them give light and knowledge of the truth, courage and strength for the conflict with evil, perseverance in faith and active charity! For this do we pray, most merciful Jesus, in Thy Name, unto God the Father, with whom Thou livest and reignest in the unity of the Holy Ghost world without end. Amen.

Jesus Christ my God, I adore Thee and thank Thee for all the graces Thou hast given me this day. I offer Thee my sleep and all the moments of this night, and I beseech Thee to keep me without sin. Wherefore I put myself within Thy sacred Side and under the mantle of our Lady, my Mother. Let Thy holy Angels stand about me and keep me in peace; and let Thy blessing be upon me. Amen

My God, prostrate in Thy presence, I adore Thee; and I intend to make the following protestation, as if I were on the point of passing from this life into eternity.

My Lord, because Thou art the infallible Truth, and hast revealed it to the holy Church, I believe in the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Three Persons, but only one God; Who for all eternity rewards the just in heaven, and punishes the wicked in hell. I believe that the Second Person, that is the Son of God, became man and died for the salvation of mankind; and I believe all that the holy Church believes. I thank Thee for having made me a Christian, and I protest that I will live and die in this holy faith.

My God, my hope, trusting in Thy promises I hope from Thy mercy, not through my own merits, but through the merits of Jesus Christ, for the pardon of my sins, perseverance, and after this miserable life, the glory of paradise. And should the devil at death tempt me to despair at the sight of my sins, I protest that I will always hope in Thee, O Lord, and that I desire to die in the loving arms of Thy goodness. O God, worthy of infinite love, I love Thee with my whole heart, more than I love myself; and I protest that I desire to die making an act of love, that I may thus continue to love Thee eternally in heaven, which for this end I desire and ask of Thee.

And if hitherto, O Lord, instead of loving Thee, I have despised Thy infinite goodness, I repent of it with all my heart, and I protest that I wish to die always weeping over, and detesting, the offences I have committed against Thee. I purpose for the future rather to die than ever to sin again; and for the love of Thee, I pardon all who have offended me. O God, I accept of death, and of all the suffering which will accompany it; I unite it with the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, and offer it in acknowledgment of Thy supreme dominion, and in satisfaction for my sins. Do Thou, O Lord, accept of this sacrifice, which I make of my life, for the love of that great sacrifice which Thy divine Son made of Himself upon the altar of the cross. I resign myself entirely to Thy divine will, as though I were now on my death-bed, and protest that I wish to die, saying: "O Lord, always Thy will be done!"

Most holy Virgin, my advocate and my Mother, Mary, thou art and wilt always be, after God, my hope and my consolation at the hour of death. From this moment I have recourse to thee, and beg of thee to assist me in that passage. O my dear Queen, do not abandon me in that last moment; come then to take my soul and present it to thy Son. Henceforward I shall expect thee; and I hope to die under thy mantle and clinging to thy feet. My protector St. Joseph, St. Michael archangel, my angel guardian, my holy patrons, do you all assist me in that last combat with hell. And Thou, my crucified Love, Thou my Jesus, Who wert pleased to choose for Thyself so bitter a death to obtain for me a good death, remember at that hour, that I am one of those dear sheep Thou didst purchase with Thy blood. Thou Who, when all the world shall have forsaken me, and not one shall be able to assist me, canst alone console me and save me. Do Thou make me worthy then to receive Thee in the Viaticum, and suffer me not to lose Thee forever and to be banished forever to a distance from Thee. No, my beloved Saviour, receive me then into Thy sacred wounds, for I now embrace Thee. At my last breath I intend to breathe forth my soul into the loving wound in Thy side, saying now for that moment, "Jesus and Mary, I give you my heart and my soul!"

R. Jesus and Mary, I give you my heart and my soul.

O happy suffering, to suffer for God! Happy death, to die in the Lord! I embrace Thee now, my good Redeemer, that I may die in Thy embraces. If, O my soul, Mary assists thee at thy departure, and Jesus receives thy last breath, it will not be death, but a sweet repose. O My Jesus, I offer Thee my life and am ready to die when it pleases Thee. "Thy will be done."
Lord, if it pleases Thee to leave me still for a time on this earth, may Thy name be praised. Yet I would not wish to live longer, if my life were not wholly to be employed in loving and glorifying Thee. If it be Thy will that I die of this or of some other illness, may Thy holy name be equally praised. I receive death in order to fulfil Thy will; all I ask of Thee is to assist me in my last hour." Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy."

If it is Thy will that I should leave this earth, I protest not that I will die, because so it is Thy will.

I will also die in order that, by the anguish and bitterness of my death, I may offer satisfaction to the divine justice for the many sins by which I have offended it and have thereby deserved hell.

I will also die that I may no longer be able to offend Thee or cause Thee any displeasure.

I will die to show Thee my gratitude for the numerous benefits and favors which, in spite of my unworthiness, I have received at Thy hands.

I will die to show that I love Thy will more than my life.

I wish, if it so pleases Thee, to die now while I hope to be in Thy grace, in order to be sure of praising and extolling Thee forever.

But above all, I will die in order to love Thee with all my strength and forever in heaven, where through Thy precious blood, O my Saviour, I hope to arrive some day, and where I shall be certain to love Thee unceasingly.

My Jesus, through love of me Thou didst will to suffer death on the cross; behold, I also through love of Thee accept death with all the sufferings which await me in my last hour, saying with St. Francis: "Let me die, O Lord, through love of Thee, Who didst die through love of me."

O my Redeemer, my Love, my only Good, I beseech Thee through Thy sacred wounds and painful death, let me die in Thy grace and love.

O Jesus, my Saviour, I beseech Thee most particularly through the pains Thou didst endure when Thy most holy soul was separated from Thy adorable body, graciously to receive my soul on its leaving my body.

O Mother of God, most blessed Virgin Mary, intercede with Jesus for me at the hour of my death, when in a most special manner I shall be in need of thy assistance.

O Mary, Mother of grace, Mother of mercy, shield us from the enemy and receive us in the hour of death. To thy protection we fly, O holy Mother of God! Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners.

O holy Joseph, my loving Father, assist me in that decisive moment.

St. Michael, the archangel, deliver me from the evil spirits who lay snares for my soul.

My holy patron, and all ye saints of heaven, pray to God for me. Amen. Mother of God, most holy Mary, how often by my sins have I merited hell! Ere now the judgment had gone forth against my first mortal sin, hadst not in thy tender pity, stayed awhile God's justice, and then, softening my hard heart, drawn me on to take confidence in thee! And oh! how often, in dangers which beset my steps, had I fallen, hadst not thou, loving mother that thou art, preserved me by thy graces which thou didst obtain for me. My queen, what will thy pity and thy favor have availed me, if I perish in the flame of hell? If ever I have not loved thee, now, after God, I love thee above all things. Ah! suffer not that I turn away from thee and from God, Who through thee had granted me so many mercies.

Lady most worthy of all love, suffer not that I be doomed to hate and curse thee forever in hell. Couldest thou bear to see a servant whom thou lovest lost forever? O Mary! say not so. Say not that I shall be among the lost! yet lost am I assuredly, if I abandon thee. But who can have the heart to leave thee? How can I ever forget the love which thou hast borne me? No, it is impossible for him to perish who hath recourse to thee, and who with loyal heart confides in thee. Leave me not to myself, my mother, or I am lost. Let me ever have recourse to thee! Save me, my hope! save me from hell, and first from sin, which alone can cause my eternal ruin.


Yesterday we admired, in Peter and the Machabees, the substructure of the palace built by Wisdom in time to endure for eternity. Today, in conformity with the divine ways of that Wisdom, who in her playing reaches from end to end, we are suffered to contemplate the progress of the glorious building, to behold the summit of the work, the last row of stones actually laid. Now, summit and foundation, the work is all one; the materials are all priceless: witness the diamond of fine water which displays its luster today.

To this great Saint, great both in works and in doctrine, are directly applied these words of the Holy Ghost: they that instruct many to justice shall shine as stars for all eternity (Dan. xii. 3). At the time he appeared, an odious sect was denying the mercy and the sweetness of our heavenly Father; it triumphed in the practical conduct of even those who were shocked by its Calvinistic theories. Under pretext of a reaction against an imaginary school of laxity, and denouncing with much ado some erroneous propositions made by obscure persons, the new Pharisees had set themselves up as zealous for the law. Stretching the commandments, and exaggerating the sanction, they loaded the conscience with the same unbearable burdens which the Man-God reproached the ancient Pharisees with laying on the shoulders of men; but the cry of alarm they had raised in the name of endangered morals, had none the less deceived the simple, and ended by misleading even the best.

Thanks to the show of austerity displayed by its adherents, Jansenism, so clever in veiling its teachings, had too well succeeded in its designs of forcing itself upon the Church in spite of the Church. Unsuspecting allies within the holy city gave up to its mercy the sources of salvation. Soon in too many places, the sacred Keys were used but to open hell; the Holy Table, spread for the preservation and increase of life in all, became accessible only to the perfect; and these latter were esteemed such, according as, by a strange reversion of the Apostle's words, they subjected the spirit of adoption of sons to the spirit of servitude and fear. As to the faithful who did not rise to the height of this new asceticism, "finding in the tribunal of penance, instead of fathers and physicians, only exactors and executioners (Supplices litterae Episopatus pro concessioine tituli Doctoris S. Alphonso Mariae)," they had but to choose between despair and indifference. Everywhere legislatures and parliaments lent a hand to the so-called reformers, without heeding the flood of odious unbelief that was rising around them, without seeing the gathering storm-clouds.

Wo to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men, for you yourselves do not enter in; and those that are going in, you suffer not to enter. . . . Wo to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: because you go round about the sea and the land to make one proselyte; and when he is made, you make him the child of hell twofold more than yourselves (St. Matth. xxiii. 13, 15). Not of your conventicles was it said that the sons of Wisdom are the Church of the just, for it was added: Their generation is obedience and love (Eccli. iii. 1). Not of the fear which you preached did the Psalmist sing: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom (Ps. cs. 10); for even under the law of Sinai the Holy Spirit said: Ye that fear the Lord, believe him: and your reward shall not be made void. Ye that fear the Lord, hope in him: and mercy shall come to you for your delight. Ye that fear the Lord, love him: and your hearts shall be enlightened (Eccli. ii. 8-10). Every deviation, whether towards rigour or weakness, offends the rectitude of justice; but, especially since Bethlehem and Calvary, no sin so wounds the divine Heart as distrust; no fault is unpardonable except in the despair of a Judas, saying like Cain: My iniquity is greater than that I may deserve pardon (Gen. iv. 13).

Who then, in the sombre quietism into which the teachers then in vogue had led even the strongest minds, could find once more the key of knowledge? But Wisdom, says the Holy Ghost, kept in her treasures the signification of discipline (Eccli i. 31). Just as in other times she had raised up new avengers for every dogma that had been attacked: so now, against a heresy which, in spite of the speculative pretensions of its beginning, had only in its moral bearing any sort of duration, she brought forth Alphonsus Liguori as the avenger of the violated law and the Doctor by excellence of Christian morality. A stranger alike to fatal rigorism and baneful indulgence, he knew how to restore to the justices of the Lord their rectitude, and at the same time their power of rejoicing hearts, to his commandments their luminous brightness, whereby they are justified in themselves, to his testimonies the purity which attracts souls and faithfully guides the simple and the little ones from the beginnings of Wisdom to its summits (Ps. xviii. 8-10). It was not only in the sphere of casuistry that Alphonsus succeeded, in his Moral Theology, in counteracting the poison which threatened to infect the whole Christian life. Whilst on the one hand he never left unanswered any attack made at the time against revealed truth, his ascetic and mystical works brought back piety to its traditional sources, the frequentation of the Sacraments, and the love of our Lord and His Blessed Mother.

The Sacred Congregation of Rites, after examining in the name of the Holy See the works of our Saint, and declaring that nothing deserving of censure was to be found therein (Decretum, 14 and 18 Maii. 1803), arranged his innumerable writings under forty separate titles. Alphonsus, however, resolved only late in life to give to the public, through the press, the lights which flooded his soul; his first work, the golden book of Visits to the Most Holy Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin, did not appear till the author was nearly fifty years of age. Though God prolonged his life beyond the usual limits, he spared him neither the double burden of the episcopate and the government of the Congregation he had founded, nor the most painful infirmities, nor still more grievous moral sufferings.





"I have not hid thy justice within my heart: I have declared thy truth and thy salvation (Gradual of the Mass, fr. Ps. xxxix. 11)." Thus sings the Church in thy name today, in gratitude for the great service thou didst render her in the days of sinners, when godliness seemed to be lost. Exposed to the attacks of an extravagant pharisaism, and watched by a sceptical and mocking philosophy, even the good wavered as to which was the way of the Lord. While the moralists of the day could but forge fetters for consciences, the enemy had a good chance of crying: Let us break their bonds asunder: and let us cast away their yoke from us. The ancient wisdom revered by their fathers, now that it was compromised by these foolish teachers, seemed but a ruined edifice to people eager for emancipation. In this unprecedented extremity, thou, O Alphonsus, wast the prudent man whom the Church needed, whose mouth uttered words to strengthen men's hearts.

Long before thy birth, a great Pope had said that it belongs to Doctors to enlighten the Church, to adorn her with virtues, to form her manners; by them, he added, she shines in the midst of darkness as a morning star; their word, made fruitful from on high, solves the enigmas of the Scriptures, unravels difficulties, clears obscurities, interprets what is doubtful; their profound works, beautified by eloquence of speech, are so many priceless pearls which ennoble no less than adorn the House of God. Thus did Boniface VIII. speak in the thirteenth century, when he was raising to the rank of doubles the feasts of the Apostles and Evangelists, and of the four then recognised Doctors, St Gregory, St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, and St. Jerome. But is it not a description, striking as a prophecy, faithful as a portrait, of all that that thou wert?

Glory then be to thee, who in our days of decadence renewest the youth of the Church, and through whom justice and peace once more embrace one another at the meeting of mercy and truth. For this object thou didst literally give unreservedly thy time and thy strength. "The love of God," says St. Gregory, "is never idle: where it exists it does great things: if it refuses to act, it is not love (Greg. in Ev., Hom. xxx)." What fidelity was thine in accomplishing that awful vow, whereby thou didst deny thyself the possibility of even a moment's relaxation. When suffering intolerable pain, which would appear to anyone else to justify, if not to command, some rest, thou wouldst hold to thy forehead with one hand a piece of marble, which seemed to give some slight relief, and with the other wouldst continue thy precious writings.

But still greater was the example God set before the world, when, in thine old age, he suffered thee, through the treason of one of thine own sons, to be disgraced by that Apostolic See, for which thou hadst worn away thy life, and which in return withdrew thee, as unworthy, from the very institute thou hadst founded! Then hell was permitted to join its stripes with those of heaven; and thou, the Doctor of peace, didst endure terrible temptations against faith and holy hope. Thus was thy work made perfect in that weakness which is stronger than strength; and thus didst thou merit for troubled souls the support of the virtue of Christ. Nevertheless, having become a child once more in the blind obedience required under such painful trials, thou wast near at once to the kingdom of heaven and to the Crib, which thou didst celebrate in such sweet accents. And the virtue which the Man-God felt going out from Him during his mortal life escaped from thee, too, in such abundance that the little sick children presented by their mothers for thy blessing were all healed.

Now that thy tears and thy toils are over, watch over us evermore; Preserve in the Church the fruits of thy labours. The religious family begotten by thee has not degenerated; more than once, in the persecutions of last century, the enemy has honoured it with special tokens of his hatred; already, too, has the aureola of the blessed passed from the father to his sons; may they ever cherish these noble traditions! May the Eternal Father, Who in Baptism made us all worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light, lead us all happily by thy example and teachings in the footsteps of our Most Holy Redeemer into the kingdom of this Son of His love (Col. i. 12, 13).