King Richard III Plantagenet's Personal Prayer *
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Most Merciful Lord Jesus Christ: as Thou didst wish to
relieve those burdened with sore afflications, to redeem the captives, to free
the imprisoned, to bring together those who are scattered, to restore the
contrite in heart, to comfort the wretched, and to console those who grieve and
mourn, deign to release me from the afflication, temptation, grief, infirmity,
poverty and peril in which I am held, and give me aid. Extend Thine arm to me;
pour Thy grace over me, and free me from all the distresses and griefs by which
I find myself troubled.
Free me, O Lord, by Thy most holy merits, by Thine
incarnation, by Thy nativity, by Thy fasting, by Thy labour and suffering, by
the blows and by the nailes, by the crown of thorns, by Thy most cruel and
unworthy death on the cross.
Thou saidst, O Lord, "It is finished," showing
that the labours and griefs which Thou hadst undertaken for us wretches were
now completed.
I ask Thee, O most gentle Christ Jesus, to keep me and to
defend me from all evil and from my evil enemy, and from all danger, present,
past, and to come, and deign to console me by Thy descent into hell, by Thy
resurrection, by Thy grace of the Holy Spirit, and by Thy coming in the day of
Judgement.
O Lord hear me, by all Thy benefits for which I give and
return Thee thanks, because Thou didst make me from nothing, and hast redeemed
me by Thy most wonderful love and mercy from damnation to everylasting life. I
ask Thee, O Most gentle Jesus Christ to save me from all perils of body and
soul, and after the course of this life to bring me to Thee, the living and
true God, who livest and reignest, O God, through Jesus Christ the living and
true Lord, AMEN.
* From his Book of Hours
The Richard III
Foundation, Inc.