Commending The Soul

Ecce nunc commendo animam meam fidelissimo Deo meo, pro quo legatione fungor in ignobilitate mea. Sed quia personam non accipt, et elegit me ad hoc officium, ut unus essem de suis minimus minister: Unde autem retribuam illi pro omnibus quae retribuit mihi. Seu quid dicam, vel quid promittam Domino meo? Quia nihil valeo, nisi ipse mihi dederit; sed scrutatur corda et renes, quia satis et nimis cupio, et paratus eram ut donaret mihi bibere calicem ejus, sicut indulsit caeteris amantibus se. Quapropter non contingat mihi a Deo meo, ut unquam amittam plebem suam quam acquisivi in ultimis terrae. Oro Deum ut det mihi perserverantiam, et dignetur ut reddam illi testem fidelem usque ad transitum meum propter Deum meum. Et si aliquid boni unquam imitatus sum propter Deum meum quem diligo, peto illum det mihi ut cum illis proselytis et captivis pro nomine suo effundam sanguinem meum, etsi ipse etiam caream sepultura aut miserrime cadaver per singula membra dividatur canibus aut bestiis asperis, aut volucres coeli comederint illud. Certissime reor, si mihi hoc incurrisset, lucratus sum animam cum corpore meo: quia sine ulla dubitatione in die lilla resurgemus in claritate solis, hoc est, in gloria Christi Jesu redemptoris nostri, Filii Dei vivi, et cohaeredes Christi, et conformes futurae imaginis ipsius: quoniam ex ipso, et per ipsum, et in ipso, regnaturi sumus. Sanctus Patricius Hibernorum Apostolus, Confessio, Cap XXIV Source: Migne PL 53.813b-814a

Behold, now I commend my soul to my most faithful God, for whom I act as a representative in my ignobility. But because He does not stand in awe of persons, 1 He even chose me for this office, that I might be the least of his servants: 'What shall I return for all the things He has given to me?' 2 Or what shall I say, or what promise to my Lord? Because I can do nothing, unless He shall give it to me, 3 but as He searches the heart and the soul 4 so I desired enough and indeed excessively, being prepared that He give to me to drink from His cup, as He granted to others who loved Him. Whence it does not grieve me that by my God I may lose any of His people whom I have gathered at the ends of the earth. I pray to God that He gives me perserverance and that I may give the return of being a faithful witness to Him, even at my passing, because of my God. And if I have imitated some good because of the God whom I love, I entreat that He give to me that I pour out my blood for those converts and captives, in His name, even if I should lack a tomb, or be a wretched corpse with each limb torn asunder by the dogs and wild beasts, or that the birds of the air devour it. Most certainly I think, if this should happen to me, that I will have enriched my soul, because without any doubt on that day we shall rise in the light of the sun, that is, in the glory of Jesus Christ our Redeemer, Son of the Living God, even coheirs of Christ and conformed to His future image, 5 because from Him, and through Him, and in Him, we shall reign. Saint Patrick Apostle of the Irish, The Confession, Chap 24 1 Rom 2.11 2 Ps 115.12 3 Jn 15.5 4 Ps 7.10 5 Rom 8.17, 8.29