When I was growing up before the Second Vatican Council, one of the prayers I heard regularly in church was the prayer “For a Good Death.” I remember saying it, myself, when I was in grade school. That seems a century ago.

Now, the prayer I say regularly is this: “Lord, grant that I may sleep peacefully and wake up dead.”  I  think the Lord understands that I mean “wake up at Your side” and gazing at Your face and those of Your mother and my many Jesuit mentors and friends. I hope it isn’t too much to ask of our blessed Redeemer.