Prayer to Remember Mortality in Sickness

My God! It has pleased Thee, in accordance with Thy counsel and purpose, to lay me upon this bed of sickness, and thus, drawing me aside from my occupation and from my sins and evil habits, not only to admonish me truly to repent, but also to remind me of my death, and to impress upon me the fact that I am mortal. Behold, Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before Thee: verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity.

My God, since sickness is a monitor of death, I realize thoroughly that I am a human being, and mortal. I am but dust, and to dust I shall return. I look upon my open grave as my mother’s lap, in which my body shall calmly rest and sleep. I know that it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment; and I have often prayed in my days of health: Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may Know how frail I am. I know that I must leave everything behind me, my property, my honors, my earthly happiness, and all that I possess in this world. For here I have no continuing city, but I seek one to come.

Dost Thou seek, O Lord, by means of this sickness to remind me of my end as Thou didst Hezekiah, and to say to me as to him: Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live? O then grant me grace gladly to meditate upon my mortality and my approaching end, and to reflect that I shall, perhaps, never rise from this bed, and that I have perhaps spent my last year on earth, and completed the number of my days which Thou hast written in Thy book: in order that I may, by prayer, repentance, and faith, and by an honest examination into my past life, prepare myself for a happy departure from this world. Let me realize, my God, that I shall not die any sooner because I prepare myself for a happy end, but that I shall, by such preparation, be drawn away from the world and from sin, and be hallowed to Thee; yea, that Thou hast sent this sickness upon me for the very purpose of having me thus prove, examine, and prepare myself, die to the world, and live in Thee. Behold, O God, here am I: call my soul hence whenever it pleases Thee. But first prepare me thoroughly, that, when I die, I may be found in Thy grace, and may depart in peace. Amen.