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A collection of prayers, (Joana drc. 04/ 02/ 2014)

Tteme: On sensing approching death.
Source: the Gospel according to spiritism: XXVIII: 40 e 41.

ON SENSING APPROACHING DEATH
40. PREFACE During our lifetime to have faith in the future, together with the elevation of our thoughts
towards our future destiny helps in the process of rapid liberation of the Spirit because this weakens the links
which tie it to the material body. So much so that quite frequently, even before the physical body has expired,
the soul being impatient to be free, has already launched itself into the great immensity. The contrary being the
case of the person who, having concentrated on all that is material, finds these ties more difficult to break and
the separation more painful and difficult, to be followed by an awakening full of anxiety and perturbation in the
after-life.
Dear God, I believe in you and your infinite kindness. Therefore, I cannot believe that You have given
Man intelligence which allows him to gain knowledge of You and an aspiration for the future, so as to plunge
him into nothingness.
I believe that my body is only a perishable covering for my soul and that when I cease to live, I will
awaken in the world of the Spirits.
Almighty God, I feel that the ties which hold my soul to my body are breaking and that in a short while I
will have to account for the use to which I have put the life that is now slipping away from me.
I know that I will experience the consequences of the good and the bad that I have practised.
There will be no possibility of illusions, no subterfuge. My past will unfold before me and I will be judged
according to my works.
I will take nothing with me of earthly possessions such as honours, riches, satisfactions of vanity or pride;
in short, everything which belongs to the body will remain in this world. Not even the minutest particle of these
things will accompany me, nor would they be of use to me in the spiritual world. I will take with me only what
belongs to my soul, that is to say, the good and bad qualities I possess, which will be weighed on the balance of
strict justice. I know that the judgement will be even more severe according to the number of times I refused the
opportunities that were given to me to practise good due to the position I held on Earth (See chapter 1(3, item9).
Merciful God, may the depth of the sincerity of my repentance enable it to reach out to You!
May You see fit to cast over me Your cloak of indulgence!
If You see fit to prolong my present existence, may I utilize that time to make good, as far as I am able, all
the evil that I have done. But if my hour has come, I take with me the consoling thought that I will be permitted to
redeem myself by means of new tests, so that one day I may deserve the happiness of the elected ones.
If it is not given to me to enjoy such perfect happiness immediately, which is known only to those who are
pre-eminently just, I know nevertheless that I am not denied hope for ever. Sooner or later I will reach my goal,
according to the amount of effort I put into working towards that objective.
I know that good Spirits and my Guardian Angel are near to receive me and that soon I shall see them,
just as they see me now. I know too, that if l deserve it, I will meet again all those I have loved here on Earth,
and that those I leave behind will later come to meet me. One day we shall all be united for ever, and until that
time arrives I will be able to come and visit them. I know too, that I will re-encounter those I have offended; may
they forgive me for whatever they have to reproach me for, such as my pride, my hardness and my injustices,
so that their presence will not overwhelm me with shame!
I forgive all those who have either done or tried to do me harm; I hold no rancour against them and beg
You, dear God, to forgive them.
Lord, give me strength to leave all the material pleasures of this world without regret, which are as
nothing compared to the healthy and pure delights of the world into which I am about to enter, and where for
those who are just, there are no more torments, or miseries, and where only the guilty are subject to suffering.
But even they always have the consolation of hope.

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Good Spirits and you who are my Guardian Angel, I implore you not to allow me to fail at this supreme
moment. If my faith should waver, then cause the Divine Light to shine in my eyes, so that it may be reanimated.
NOTE - See further on, paragraph 5: "Prayers for the sick and obsessed."
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As suggested let us appretiate the reading of the item 9 of the chapter XVI:
INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE SPIRITS.
TRUE PROPERTY
9. The only true property that Man can own is that which may be taken with him on leaving this world. What is
found on arrival on Earth and that which is left behind on parting, is enjoyed only while living here. Therefore, as
humanity is forced to abandon all worldly possessions, it can be inferred that it has no real ownership of riches,
only their temporary usage. What then constitutes true property? Nothing which is for the use of the body, but
everything which is for the use of the soul, such as intelligence, knowledge and moral qualities. This is what
man brings and takes with him, which no one can take away and which will be far more use in the next world
than in the present one. It is up to him to be richer on departure than he was on arrival in this world, seeing that
his future position will depend solely on what qualities have been gained in the present life. When someone
travels to a distant country they take as part of their luggage only those things which will be useful to them in
that place; they do not worry about those things which will be of no use. Proceed in a like manner in relation to
your future life and provide yourselves with all that can be of use to you there.
The traveller who arrives at a hostel is only given a good room if he is able to pay for it. Those who have sparse
resources are forced to make do with something less agreeable. When they have nothing which belongs to
them, they must sleep on a pallet bed. The same applies to Man on his arrival in the world of the spirits, for it will
depend entirely on what he owns as to where he will go. Nor will payment be made in terms of gold. No one will
be asked what it was they had had on Earth, or what position they had occupied, nor even if they were a pauper
or a prince. Instead, they will be asked what they have brought with them. Neither worldly goods nor titles will be
valuated, only the total sum of virtues acquired. Well now, looked at from this aspect, it is possible that the
simple worker be far richer than the prince. In vain may the latter allege that before leaving the Earth his
entrance into the next world was paid for in gold. The only reply he would receive is that no one may buy a
place here; it must be conquered by each person by means of doing good to others. Earthly money may buy
land, houses or palaces, but in our world everything is paid for by means of the qualities of the soul. Are you rich
in these qualities? Then you are welcome and may go to one of the high places where all kinds of happinesses
await you. But if you are poor in these qualities then you must go to the low places, where you will be treated
according to that which you possess. - PASCAL (Geneva, 1860).
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CONSIDERATIONS:
Life continues after death or as the spiritist expression after disincarnating, there was time for many
doubts and denials by those who wanted to live right or wrong according to their ignorant desire to do what they
want selfish and ambitiously manner violating any rule or commandment with respect to esponsibilities to the
next so as to materially acquire everything the world could offer them.
Nowadays there are no more excuses or denials of that knowledge, nor does science reproaches,
because science proves the continuation of life, not only by deduction, but by conclusive evidence about it;
many scientists have often confirmed the existence of the PERISPIRIT, for example, and the PERISPIRIT is the
etheric body of the spirit, or soul, so the spirit is the soul of the person who passed away, that is, after death; of
that body there has been given thousands of testimonies by people especially in hospitals who had the
experience of being dying and to see their own body floating or walking the halls or going to visit relatives or
frightened to find themselves out of the body and back, leaves no doubt that this etherial body is the one of the
spirit that is coupled to the body of flesh temporarily which the spiritist calls PERISPIRIT .
So the whole conclusion is based on confirmations that life goes on and on this general belief the spirits
advise us a prayer on feeling the time of death approaching or departure as a preparation for the future of our
soul whose we ought to face with respect and sincerity.
Howbeit as we know that God sees the intentions and reads a person's heart as well as scours the
thoughts a prayer can take many forms of expression and feeling, can be long or short, can be confessions of
regrets, may be of jubilant to be about to meet with the Lord and the afterlife, can be of a distressing and

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terrified fear as if asking for help in their last moments of ones passing over, may finally be wily prayers as
suggested by the spirits , or as the case of each one.
Of short prayers from the heart and sincerity we have the one of the good thief who dyeing together with
Jesus called: 'Lord , remember me in thy kingdom " ( Luke 23:42) we have the one of Jesus: Father forgive
them for they know not what they do and Father into thy hands I commend my spirit ' (Luke 23:34 , 46 ) we have
the one of Stephen who asked pardon for those who stoned him and asks: Lord do not impose them this sin and
Lord Jesus receive my spirit ' ( Acts 60- 59 ) .
Somehow life is a preparation for death considering that this life is temporary and death comes to us all
as a natural law, but death is not the same for everyone, as the passing can be as simple as he who falls in
sleep and sleeps, as may be suffering for those who were unworthy and with a heavy conscious bringing them
moral pain, others see these moments with fear trucidant surprizingly and petrified by the unexpected.
Hence, those who live by law should die well, may even have ones physical sufferings, but his soul sees
the end of his suffering with joy on feeing his soul freeing oneself from the matter.
Prayers are according to people at the time, there are those who die praying, there are those who move
their lips with a word, there are those who are thoughtful to meditate and we note that is between them and
God, and we must respect these hours not interfering, our sympathies and our love may be in communion by
wishing them a good thought on passing and a good encounter with God or His Agents, guardian angel, family
or friends who awaits him.
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Taking the opportunity let us see in the book heaven & Hell, why spiritists do not fear death:
FEAR OF DEATH
Causes of the fear of death Why Spiritists are not afraid of death
Causes of the Fear of Death
1. Man, to whatever degree of the scale he belongs, from the savage state upwards, has an innate presentiment of a future
life; he has an intuitive persuasion that death is not the end of existence, and that those whose decease he regrets are not lost
to him for ever. This spontaneous belief in a future state is vastly more general than the belief in annihilation. How is it,
then, that we find, among those who do believe in the immortality of the soul, so strong an attachment to the earthly life
and so great a dread of death?

2. The fear of death is at once a proof of the wisdom of Providence and a consequence of the instinct of self-preservation
that is common to all living creatures. It is, moreover, essential to the well being of the human race, so long as men are
insufficiently enlightened in regard to the conditions of their future life, as a counterpoise to the discouragement which, but
for this apprehension, would too often lead them to make a voluntary renunciation of their terrestrial existence, and to shirk
the labors of this lower sphere, which are necessary to their advancement.
We accordingly see that, among the primitive peoples, the intuition of a future life is exceedingly vague, and that it is only
in proportion as a people advances that this intuition gradually becomes, first, a mere hope, and, at length, a certainty, but
still counter balanced by an instinctive attachment to corporeal life.

3. In proportion as man arrives at a true comprehension of the future state, his fear of death diminishes; but as, at the same
time, he also comprehends more clearly the uses of the earthly life, he awaits its ending calmly, without impatience or
regret. The certainty of a future life gives another direction to his thoughts, another aim to his activities. Before acquiring
this certainty, he labored only for the things of the present life; having acquired this certainty, he labors for the life to come,
yet without neglecting the duties and interests of his present life, because he knows that the character of his future life will
be decided by the use he will have made of his present existence. The certainty of again meeting the friends whom he has
lost by death, of preserving the relationships he has formed upon the earth, of not losing the fruit of any effort, of
continuing, for ever, to grow in intelligence and in goodness, gives him patience to await the appointed term of his earthly
sojourn, and courage to bear, unmurmuring, the momentary fatigues and disappointments of terrestrial life. The solidarity
which he sees to exist between spirits and men show him the union which ought to exist between all people of the earth;
thus, he perceives the true basis of human fraternity and the true aim of charity in the present and in the future.

4. To free ourselves from the fear of death, we must be able to look at it from the right point of view; that is to say, we must
have penetrated, in thought, into the spirit-world, and we must have formed to ourselves an idea of that world as exact as is
obtainable at the present time: a power of penetration denoting, on the part of an incarnated spirit, a certain amount of
intellectual and moral development, and a certain aptitude for disengaging himself from materiality. Among those who are
not sufficiently advanced for the acquisition of this knowledge, the physical life takes precedence of the spiritual life.
Mans real life is in the soul; but, while he remains attached to externals, he sees life only in the body; and, therefore, when
the body is deprived of life, he fancies that all is over, and abandons himself to despair. If, instead of concentrating his

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thought on the outer garment of life, he directed his thought to the source of life, to the soul which is the real being, and
which survives the change of its outer clothing, he would feel less regret at the idea of losing his body, instrument of so
much annoyance and suffering; but, for this, man needs a moral strength which is only acquired by him gradually, and in
proportion as his spirit advances towards maturity.
The fear of death, therefore, results from insufficient knowledge of the future life; but also denotes aspiration after a
continuance of existence and anxiety lest the destruction of the body should be the end of our career; it is, therefore,
evidently due to a secret desire for survival that is really existing in the soul, although partially hidden under the veil of
uncertainty.
The fear of death diminishes in proportion as we obtain a clearer anticipation of the future life; it disappears entirely when
that anticipation has become a certainty.
The wisdom of Providence is seen in this progressive march of human convictions in regard to the continuance of our
existence beyond the grave. If the certainty of a future life had been permitted to man before his mental vision was prepared
for such a prospect, he would have been dazzled thereby, and the seductions of such a certainty, too clearly seen, would
have led him to neglect the present life, his diligent use of which is the condition of his physical and moral advancement.

5. The fear of death is also kept up by merely human causes, which will disappear with the progress of the race. The first of
these is the aspect under which the idea of the future life has hitherto been presented; an aspect which sufficed for minds of
slight advancement, but which could not satisfy the mental requirements of intellects that had learned to reason on the
subject. The presentation, as absolute truth, of statements that are both irrational in themselves and opposed to the data of
physical science, has necessarily led reflecting minds to the conclusion that such a presentation must be unfounded and
erroneous. Hence have resulted, in the minds of many, utter skepticism in relation to the reality of a future existence that
has been presented under an unacceptable aspect, and, in the minds of a yet greater number, a half-belief, so strongly
tinctured with doubt, as to differ but slightly from unbelief. For the latter, the idea of a future life is, at best, but a vague
hypothesis, a probability, rather than a certainty; they wish that it may be so, and yet, notwithstanding that desire, they say
to themselves, But what if, after all, there should be nothing beyond the grave! We are sure of the present; let us busy
ourselves with that. It will be time enough to take thought for a future life when we have found out whether that future life
really exists!
And besides, say the doubters, what, in fact, is the soul? Is it a mathematical point, an atom, a spark, a flame? How does
the soul feel? How does it see? How, and what, does it perceive? The soul, for most people, is not a positive and active
reality, but a mere abstraction. Those whom they have loved, but from whom they have been separated by death, being
reduced, in their thought, to the state of atoms, of a spark, or of gas, seem to be separated from them forever, and to have
lost all the qualities for which they formerly loved them.
Most people find it difficult to consider an atom, a spark, or a gas as an object of affection; they fail to derive
satisfaction from the prospect of being themselves converted into monads, and seek to escape from contemplations so
vague and cheerless, by restricting their thoughts to the interests, pursuits, and enjoyments of terrestrial life, which offers
them, at least, the appearance of something real and substantial. The number of those who are swayed by considerations of
this kind is very great.

6. Attachment to the things of the earthly life is also kept up, even in the minds of many of those who believe most firmly
in the reality of a future life, by the impressions they have retained of the teachings to which they were subjected in their
childhood.
The pictures of the future life presented by the Church are not, it must be confessed, either attractive or consoling. On the
one hand, we are shown the contortions of the damned, who expiate, in endless tortures and unquenchable flames, their
momentary errors; ages after ages passing over them without hope of deliverance or pity, and (what is even more
incredible,) repentance itself being of no avail in their case; on the other hand, we see the sufferings of the souls who are
languishing in purgatory, and who are awaiting their deliverance, not from their own efforts for their own improvement, but
from the compassionate efforts of the living who pray for them or have them prayed for by others. These two classes are
represented as constituting the immense majority of the population of the other world; and above them hovers the very
small minority of the elect, absorbed, throughout eternity, in contemplative beatitude; an eternal uselessness which
though undoubtedly preferable to annihilationis, nevertheless, only wearisome monotony, and accordingly, in the
paintings which represent the blessedness of the elect, the face of the latter usually wear an expression much more
suggestive of dullness than of felicity.
Such a view of the future life corresponds neither to our aspirations nor to the idea of progressiveness that we instinctively
regard as a necessary element of happiness. It is difficult to imagine that the ignorant savage, whose moral sense is as yet
undeveloped, should find himself, simply because he has received baptism, on a level with him who, through long years of
effort, has raised himself to a high degree of knowledge and of practical morality. Still less conceivable is it that the child
who has died in infancy, before acquiring the consciousness of itself and of its actions, should enjoy the same privileges,
simply as the result of its having undergone a ceremony in which its will took no part. Considerations of this nature cause
uneasiness in the minds even of fervent believers, whenever they reflect seriously on the doctrines which, as children, they
were drilled into accepting.

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7. The progress which man so laboriously accomplish in the earthly life, having nothing to do, with their future happiness,
the belief that they can easily secure that happiness by means of ceremonies and outward observancesand that they can
even purchase their future felicity with money, without any thorough reformation of their character and habitstends to
attach them still more strongly to worldly enjoyments. Many a man who believes in a future life, after the fashion we are
now considering, says to himself in his secret heart, that, since his future welfare can be secured by observing certain forms
or by making bequests that entail upon him no privation during his life time. It would be superfluous to impose upon
himself any sacrifice for the sake of others, and that the true plan is for each, while thus ensuring his own salvation, to
secure for himself, at the same time, the largest possible share of the good things of the present life.
Assuredly, such is not the thought of all men, for there are many grand and noble exceptions to the common rule; but it
cannot be denied that such is the thought of the majority of mankind, especially among the unenlightened masses, and that
the idea commonly entertained, in regard to the conditions of happiness in the other world, tends to keep up the attachment
to the things of the present one, and, consequently, acts as a powerful stimulus to selfishness.

8. It is to be remarked, yet further, that all our social usages concur to make man cling to the earthly life, and to shrink from
the passage which leads from this world to the other one. Death is surrounded by lugubrious ceremonies, far more
suggestive of sorrow than of hope; it is always portrayed under a repulsive aspect, never as a sleep of transition; all the
emblems employed to indicate it allude to the destruction of the body, and show it as a hideous fleshless specter; none of
the symbols employed for this purpose represent death as the deliverance of the soul, joyous and radiant, from terrestrial
bondage. The departure for happier state of existence is accompanied only by the lamentations of the survivors, as though
the greatest possible misfortune had befallen those who are gone before us; their weeping friends bid them an eternal
farewell, as though they were never again able to behold them, and grieve to think of their being deprived of the joys of this
lower sphere, as though the other life did not offer enjoyments far greater than those of earth. What a misfortune, it
often said, to die, when he who is taken is young, rich, happy, and with a brilliant future before him! The idea that such a
one can be gainer by the change scarcely crosses the mind of any of those whom he has quitted, so vague, misty, gloomy,
and void of hopefulness is the idea generally entertained in regard to the world of souls.
Men will doubtless be slow in getting rid of their prejudice concerning death; but they will succeed in doing so as their
knowledge of the spirit-life becomes clearer, firmer, and more enlightened.

9. The common belief, moreover locates souls in imaginary regions, scarcely accessible to human thought, where they
become strangers for those whom they have left behind them upon the earth; the Church itself places an impassable barrier
between them and the latter, for it declares that all connections between them is at an end, and that all communication
between them is impossible. If they are in Hell, all hope of seeing them again is lost to their friends forever, unless, indeed,
for those among the latter who incur the same doom; if they are among the elect, they are entirely absorbed in their own
contemplative beatitude. All these suppositions make so wide a separation between the dead and the living that the
severance between them seems to be entire and forever; and people would therefore prefer to keep those whom they love
beside them upon the earth, even though in a state of suffering, rather than see them go away, even though to Heaven!
Besides, is it conceivable that one can be really happy even in Heaven, if he has to see his child, his father, his mother,
his friend, burning forever in unquenchable fire?

Why Spiritists are not afraid of Death
10. The Spiritist Doctrine of life changes entirely our views of the future. The life to come is no longer a hypothesis, but a
fact; the state of the soul, after death, is no longer a matter of theory, but a result of observation. The veil is lifted, and the
spirit-world appears to us in all its activity and reality. It is not men who have discovered that world, through some
ingenious conception of their imagination,; it is the inhabitants of that world who come, in their own persons, to describe to
us the state of being in which they find themselves! We see them at every degree of spirit-life, in every phase of happiness
or of unhappiness; we contemplate all the incidents of the life beyond the grave. It is this knowledge of the nature and
details of life in the spirit-world that enables the spiritists to contemplate death with calmness and gives serenity to his last
moments upon the earth.
What sustains him is not a mere hope, but a certainty; he knows that the future life is only a continuation of his present life,
but under more favorable conditions, and he looks forward to it with as much confidence as that with which he looks
forward to a new sunrise after a dark and stormy night. This confidence of the spiritist is a
result of the facts that he has witnessed, and of the accordance of those facts with reason, with the justice and goodness of
God, and with the deepest inspirations of the human mind.
For the spiritist, the soul is not an abstraction for he knows, that it possesses an ethereal body which makes of it a real and
definite being, susceptible of being conceived of as such by our thought; and this knowledge suffices, of itself, to fix our
ideas in regard to its individuality, aptitudes and perceptions. Our remembrance of those who are dear to us repose,
henceforth, on something real; we no longer represent them to ourselves as so many fugitive flames, offering nothing of
their former personality to our thought; on the contrary, we see them under a concrete form which shows them to belong to
the category of living beings.

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Moreover, instead of regarding them as being lost to view, as formerly, in the depths of space, the spiritist knows that they
are beside us and around us; for he has learned that the corporeal world and the spiritual world are in close and perpetual
connection. Doubt, in relation to the future life, being no longer possible to him, he has no longer any reason to be afraid of
death; he beholds its approach with perfect equanimity; for he knows that the dissolution of his fleshly body will be for him
a deliverance, the opening of a door through which he will pass, not into the yawning abyss of annihilation, but into a
higher and happier state of existence.
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PONDERING:
In the ultimate hour when death is usually announced the family gathers close to the dying in sympathy,
fraternity and solidarity talking to each other with brotherly affection and understanding support, for sure those
who have more faith and trust in God although with the heart squeezed between the sadness of seeing a loved
one departing and the joy of knowing that there is no death, for the spirit, which is progressive and goes on to a
better world and improvement, do accept this time confident in God by knowing the nature of the natural law of
disembodiment necessary to the immortal spirit, all being in the same agreement there will be calmness and
peace in favor of the dying, but if there is ignorance, anxiety, despair, screaming, imbalance among them the
dying one will be in a terrifying death crisis, suffering and resisting death with fears that rises up in his thinking
mind and heart, they should all have faith in God and that together or individually do some praying or thought
wishing blessings in favor of the one who is passing into the beyond - spiritual world.
However, there is a saying, that there is the experience that when family members are in despair
disturbing the departure of the spirit for whom sounded the hour of hisr freedom and that somehow the affinities
and despair of the family retain him by the strength of their affinities and magnetism, the tutelary spirits after
giving the tolerance time allowed by God, they give a considerable betterment to the moribund and everyone
goes away relieved so as it were, however the work of disimbodiment have to pursue and the spirit goes off the
body, after that there are those who say, oh, it was improvement of death.
Somehow there is a comparison between those who say goodbye and those who leave in a calm
comparison of immigrants, in times not far removed Europe provided immigrants to the new world, in then days
there were people who went to the pier to say goodbye to those who were immigrating, there were ships waiting
for them to ship and beeping their last call, people involved in mourners saying goodbye between joy to see
them leave for better and sadness of letting go, but everyone knew that it was necessary and there was faith in
the future, there was hope that the betterment were good for everyone and in that faith they were saying: go
with God and waved handkerchiefs up to the ship disappearing in the distances. Could we see death with the
same joy of being necessary the departure for the good of all and those who stay to accept it with faith and
confidence and say go with God!
Yes, death is a serious event, there is no acceptable comparison, but knowing that the spirits do not die
and that on the disincarnating continue living in another dimension clearly one lives on "Oh death where is thy
sting", who better can help us than the knowledge of who we are and where we are going and also the
knowledge of moral laws and causes and effects, hence the faith and hope in God and the future of our souls
and the effort to us demanded to overcome our inferiority , there is a large number of churches that help, but we
also have the Doctrine of the Spirits which does not leave us without answers, being advisory, comforting with
insightful knowledge about spiritual life acceptable by many people who by the use of reason sincerely seek the
Doctrine and find appropriate and that the doctrine pleases their heart and gives them faith and hope in God
and in the future objectively.
Hence the gospel of the Lord prevails because the Spiritist moral is the one of Jesus, though Spiritism
advises that 'without charity there is no salvation', explaining that in everything we ought to have love for God
and for our neighbor, according as Jesus advised that in Love: 'is the whole law and the prophets', and in our
living certainly includes a prayer at the hour of our death or of our neighbor. So, may it be so.

Well, may God be with us, as formerly, today and forever.