The Sweetness of the Name of Mary during Life and Death.
STORY
St Camilla de Lellis urged the members of his community to remind the dying often to utter the holy names of Jesus and Mary. Such was his custom when assisting people in their last hour. When he himself came to die he gave an edifying example of confidence in the holy names. His biographer relates that when death was approaching, the saint invoked the sweet names of Jesus and Mary with such tender devotion that all present were inflamed with love for the sacred names. With his eyes fixed on the images of Jesus and Mary, and his arms crossed on his breast, an expression of heavenly peace rested on his face when his soul took its flight. His last words were the sacred names of Jesus and Mary.
PRAYER
O great Mother of God and my Mother Mary, it is true that I am unworthy to name you; but you, love me and desire my salvation, must, notwithstanding the impurity of my tongue, grant that I may always invoke your most holy and powerful name in my aid, for your name is the succor of the living, and the salvation of the dying. Ah, most pure Mary, most sweet Mary, grant that henceforth your name may be the breath of my life. O Lady, delay not to help me when I invoke you, for in all the temptations which assail me, and in all my wants, I will never cease calling upon you, and repeating again and again, Mary, Mary. Thus it is that I hope to act during my life, and more particularly at death, that after that last struggle I may eternally praise your beloved name in heaven, O clement, O pious, O sweet Virgin Mary. Ah, Mary, most amiable Mary, with what consolation, what sweetness, what confidence, what tenderness, is my soul penetrated in only naming, in only thinking of you! I thank my Lord and God, who for my good, has given you a name so sweet and deserving of love, and at the same time so powerful. But, my sovereign Lady, I am not satisfied with only naming you, I wish to name you with love: I desire that my love may every hour remind me to call on you, so that I may be able to exclaim with St Bonaventure, “O name of the Mother of God, you are my love.” My own dear Mary, O my beloved Jesus, may your most sweet names reign in my heart, and in all hearts. Grant that I may forget all others to remember, and always invoke, your adorable names alone. Ah! Jesus my Redeemer, and my Mother Mary, when the moment of death comes when I must breathe forth my soul and leave this world, deign, through your merits, to grant that I may then pronounce my last words, and that they may be, “I love You, O Jesus; I love you, O Mary; to you do I give my heart and my soul.”
