Litany for the Dying

As a Christian’s life draws to its close, the Church summons the whole household of heaven to the bedside. The Litany for the Dying is part of the commendation of the departing soul: it is the ancient Litany of the Saints — the oldest litany of the Church — here turned to a single, urgent purpose, calling every choir of the blessed to "pray for him" as he goes to meet God.

In ordinary times the Litany of the Saints asks the holy ones to "pray for us"; over the dying it becomes "pray for him," or "for her" — a whole life gathered up and placed under the protection of Our Lady, the Angels, the Patriarchs, St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph (patron of a holy death), the Apostles, the Martyrs, and all the Saints. The soul about to appear before its Judge is not sent alone but with the friendship and intercession of heaven itself.

The litany then turns to plead directly with the Lord. "Be merciful, spare him, O Lord"; "From Thy wrath, deliver him"; and, most movingly, "By Thy death and burial, deliver him" — for the dying Christian is saved not by his own merits but by the death of Christ, into which he was baptized and which he now enters. The Church prays these words slowly, in rhythm with failing breath, so that the last sounds a soul hears are the names of its heavenly friends and the plea of Christ’s own Passion. (The Latin and English here give a representative selection of the litany’s invocations and petitions, drawn from the Litany of the Saints, not its complete text.)