An Evening Visit

Be with us,
Lord, tonight.
Stay to adore and praise,
and give thanks for us while we sleep;
to draw down mercy and grace upon the world;
to give strength to the suffering souls
in purgatory in their long night of waiting.
Stay with us,
to ward off the anger of God
from our crowded cities with their dens of vice,
their crimes that call to Heaven for vengeance.
Stay with us,
to guard the innocent,
to sustain the tempted,
to raise the fallen,
to curb the power of the evil one,
to prevent sin.
Stay with us,
to comfort the sorrowing,
to bless the death-beds,
to grant contrition to the dying,
to receive into the arms of Your mercy
the thousands that this night
must come before You for judgment.
O Good Shepherd,
stay with Your sheep,
Secure them against the perils that beset them.
Stay, above all,
with the suffering and dying.
Grant us a quiet night and a perfect end.
Be our merciful Shepherd to the last,
that without fear we may appear before You as our Judge.