John Henry Newman · 1 of 7

First Phase

GERONTIUS:

JESU, MARIA - I am near to death,

And Thou art calling me; I know it now.

Not by the token of this faltering breath,

This chill at heart,, this dampness on my

brow,— (Jesu, have mercy! Mary, pray for me!)

'tis this new feeling, never felt before,

(Be with me, Lord, in my extremity!)

That I am going, that I am no more.

‘Tis this strange innermost abandonment,

(Lover of souls! great God! I look to Thee,)

This emptying out of each constituent

And natural force, by which I come to be.

Pray for me, my friends; a visitant

Is knocking his dire summons at my door,

The like of whom, to scare me and to daunt,

Has never, never come to me before;

‘us death,—O loving friends, your prayers!— ‘tis he!

As though my very being had given way,

As though I was no more a substance now,

And could fall back on nought to be my stay,

(Help, loving Lord! Thou my sole Refuge,

Thou,)

And turn no whither, but must needs decay

And drop from out the universal frame

Into that shapeless, scopeless, blank abyss,

That utter nothingness, of which I came:

This is it that has come to pass in me;

O horror! this it is, my dearest, this;

So pray for me, my friends, who have not strength to pray.

ASSISTANTS

KYRIE eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison.

Holy Mary, pray for him.

All holy Angels, pray for him.

Choirs of the righteous, pray for him.

Holy Abraham, pray for him.

St John Baptist, St Joseph, pray for him.

St Peter, St Paul, St Andrew, St John,

All Apostles, all Evangelists, pray for him.

All holy Disciples of the Lord, pray for him.

All holy Innocents, pray for him.

All holy Martyrs, all holy Confessors,

All holy Hermits, all holy Virgins,

All ye Saints of God, pray for him.

GERONTIUS:

ROUSE thee, my fainting soul, and play the man;

And through such waning span Of life and thought as still has to be trod,

Prepare to meet thy God.

And while the storm of that bewilderment Is for a season spent,

And, ere afresh the ruin on thee fall, Use well the interval.

ASSISTANTS:

BE merciful, be gracious; spare him, Lord.

Be merciful, be gracious; Lord, deliver him.

From the sins that are past;

From Thy frown and Thine ire;

From the perils of dying;

From any complying

With sin, or denying

His God, or relying, On self, at the last;

From the nethermost fire;

From all that is evil;

From power of the devil;

Thy servant deliver,

For once and for ever.

By Thy birth, and by Thy Cross,

Rescue him from endless loss;

By Thy death and burial,

Save him from a final fall;

By Thy rising from the tomb, By Thy mounting up above,

By the Spirit’s gracious love,

Save him in the day of doom.

GERONTIUS:

SANCTUS fortis, Sanctus Deus

De Profundis oro te,

Miserere, Judex meus

Parce mihi Domine.

Firmly I believe and truly God is Three, and God is One;

And I next acknowledge duly Manhood taken by the Son.

And I trust and hope most fully In that Manhood crucified;

And each thought and deed unruly Do to death, as He has died.

Simply to His grace and wholly Light and life and strength belong,

And I love, supremely, solely, Him the holy, Him the strong.

Sanctus fortis Sanctus Deus,

De Profundis oro te

Miserere, Judex meus

Parce mihi Domine.

And I hold in veneration,

For the love of Him alone,

Holy Church, as His creation, And her teachings, as His own.

And I take with joy whatever Now besets me, pain or fear,

And with a strong will I sever All the ties which bind me here.