Prayer to the Saints

I like this prayer to the saints for intercession. It’s from St. Ephraim the Syrian:

Come to my aid, O saints and righteous ones, who have performed good deeds unto salvation, and lament for me as for one deceased, or take pity on me as one who is among the living but half-dead. For I am full of shame and lack boldness because of the sins I have knowingly committed.

Pour out on me your kindness as you would for a prisoner or for one covered with festering sores. Be kind to me, O initiates of the merciful God, our Savior, and pray that He might freely convert me, and that in the hour of His coming I might not be found unworthy and not hear the terrible condemnation: “get away from Me, O worker of deceit. I tell you that I know you not.”

This is from a book called A Spiritual Psalter or Reflections on God, and is “excerpted by Bishop Theophan the Recluse. I have read some excellent words from Theophan, as well.

Why do we not hear these kinds of prayers in our Novus Ordo Church these days? That’s a rhetorical question, actually. The point is, so many Catholics no longer think about death in this way; they simply have not been taught to do so. That makes me very sad. Souls are being lost, I’m afraid.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.