Last year, New Liturgical Movement wrote a short post on the Dominican Office of the Dead, as it is prayed on the Feast of All Souls. In particular, the last responsory at Matins.
I find this venerable Dominican tradition to be quite poignant. Its anxious pleas for mercy and forgiveness stand in stark contrast to the implicit universal salvation that seems to infect most modern liturgical settings for the dead. This is a wonderful way pray for the Church Suffering, and a true memento mori for those of us who are still members of the Church Militant.
Here is the full text in Latin and English:
R.
Líbera me, Dómine, de morte aeterna in die illa tremenda, * Quando caeli
movendi sunt et terra, * Dum véneris judicáre
sáeculum per ignem.
V. j.
Dies illa, dies irae, calamitátis et miseriæ, dies magna et amára valde. Dum.
V. ij.
Tremens factus sum ego et tímeo, dum discussio vénerit atque ventúra ira. Quando.
V. iij.
Quid ego misérrimus, quid dicam, vel quid faciam, cum nil boni pérferam ante
tantum júdicem? Quando.
V. iv.
Nunc, Christe, te pétimus, miserére, quæsumus; qui venisti redímere pérditos,
noli damnáre redemptos. Dum.
V. v.
Creátor omnium rerum Deus, qui me de limo terrae formasti, et mirabíliter
proprio sánguine redemisti, corpusque meum, licet modo putrescat, de
sepulchro facies in die judicii resuscitári: exaudi, exaudi me, ut ánimam
meam in sinu Abrahae, Patriarchae tui, júbeas collocári.
Repetitur
R. Líbera me.
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R.
Deliver me, Lord, from eternal death on that dread da, * when the heavens and
the earth shall be shaken, as you come to judge the world by fire.
V. j. That
day is a day of wrath, a day of ruin and devastation, the great day; and a very
bitter one, - When.
V. jj.
I am seized with trembling and I rear as the judgement draws near and the
wrath to come. – As.
V. jjj.
I am most miserable, what shall I say, or what shall I do, when I have
nothing good that I may say in front of such a Judge? – When.
V. iv.
Therefore, Christ, we ask of you, we beg you, to have mercy; you come to
redeem the lost, do not condemn the redeemed. – As.
V. v.
O God, creator of all things, you formed me from the dust of the earth, and wondrously
redeemed me with your own blood.
Although my body may now decay, you will raise it up again from the
tomb on the day of judgement. Hear me;
hear me and decree that my soul be gathered into the bosom of your patriarch Abraham.
Repeat R.
Deliver me.
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