What Do You Fear Most?
Fear of death is a deeply human experience—one that can grip the heart with anxiety, uncertainty, and sorrow. Whether you’re facing a personal health crisis, grieving a loss, or simply overwhelmed by the unknown, God offers peace that surpasses all understanding. In moments of fear, prayer becomes our most powerful refuge. These 5 heartfelt prayers are designed to help you surrender your fear, trust God’s eternal promises, and find comfort in His presence. As Psalm 23:4 reminds us, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.” This guide is for every Catholic and Christian seeking spiritual strength, peace, and hope when confronted with the fear of dying.
How Is Death Gain?
If that’s true, why does God count precious the death of his saints (Psalm 116:15)? And why do his saints even call death gain (Philippians 1:21)? Because in that most horrible, most evil moment of the death of the Son of God himself, death as we fear it — the extinguishing of our life and the seeming loss of our soul and joy — was killed! Jesus conquered our great enemy when he rose from the dead (Romans 4:25; Revelation 1:18), and will ultimately destroy death forever (1 Corinthians 15:26).
In fact, so powerful, so complete is Jesus’s defeat of death that he speaks of it as if Christians no longer even experience it:
“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25–26)
It isn’t death itself that is precious or gain to us. It is the Resurrection and the Life, who has removed death’s sting and swallowed it up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54–55), in whom we are receiving an eternal inheritance beyond our wildest dreams (Ephesians 1:11), and in whose glorious presence we will experience unsurpassed joy forevermore (Psalm 16:11). He is precious to us. He is our great gain in death.
Prepare Through Prayer
When our earthly assignment from Jesus is done (Acts 20:24), he will call us to be with him to enjoy most what we are made to most enjoy: him. This will make death gain for us on that day (Philippians 1:21).
Jesus is eager to give us this great gain, and he wants us to grow in our eagerness to receive it. How do we do that? Like he does. We ask the Father for it! We join Jesus in praying for the time we will finally see him in all his glory, ask him to decrease the hold that the fear of death has on us due to unbelief in our hearts. And we ask him to give us such faith and longing to be with Christ that we no longer wish to live as long as possible here, but only long enough to faithfully finish our course (Acts 20:24). Because to finally be with our Savior will be so much better (Philippians 1:23).
Whatever It Takes, Lord
Someday Jesus’s prayer for us to be with him will overrule our prayer to be spared physical death. And when it does, we will know such joy and pleasures that we will wonder why we ever felt any reluctance to pass through the valley of its shadow (Psalm 23:4).
Whatever it takes, Lord, increase my faith and joy in the truth that death is gain for me, so that I can “let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also.” Do not let the fear of death cause me to resist your will for me, and let me die in a way that declares that Christ is gain.
Death. The darkening days of winter bring to mind the end of life, even as we prepare to celebrate the Birth of the One who brings an end to death.
Even for Catholics, death can be a fearful thing, because we are human. We know about loss and grief, we understand pain and suffering. Our society does not support the contemplation of our own death – whether as a future abstraction or, depending on the state of our age and health, a more-or-less imminent prospect. Yet we also recognize that we live in a world where, as Jesus reminds us in the Advent Gospels, our own ending will most likely come as a thief in the night.
It’s a blessing, then, that the Church’s treasury of prayer offers us words of comfort and preparation for those times when we run up against the fearfulness of death. Here are five such prayers, and a few additional suggestions from familiar prayer and Scripture.
1. Turn to St. Joseph
Tradition tells us that Joseph died peacefully in the arms of his beloved wife and foster son. Who better to turn to for intercession that we might make so blessed (which means “happy”) an end?
Prayer to St. Joseph for a Happy Death (traditional)
O Blessed Joseph, you gave your last breath in the loving embrace of Jesus and Mary. When the seal of death shall close my life, come with Jesus and Mary to aid me. Obtain for me this solace for that hour – to die with their holy arms around me. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I commend my soul, living and dying, into your sacred arms. Amen.
2. Ask for grace to overcome the enemy
The fear of death is one of the Devil’s greatest deceptions. Praying for the grace to resist the enemy’s lies throughout our lives can strengthen us for the final battle.
Prayer to Christ for Grace (from iBreviary)
O Lord Jesus,
pour into me the spirit of your love,
that in the hour of my death
I may be worthy to vanquish the enemy
and receive the heavenly crown. Amen.
3. Place yourself within Christ himself
If we die with Christ (as we have in Baptism), we are assured that we will rise with him. When the fear of death haunts us, this beautiful litany reminds us of our refuge.
Anima Christi (traditional)
Soul of Christ, sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me.
Passion of Christ, strengthen me.
O good Jesus, hear me.
Within Your wounds, hide me.
Never permit me to be separated from You.
From the wicked enemy, defend me.
At the hour of my death call me, and bid me to come to Your side,
that with Your Angels and Your Saints, I may praise You for all eternity, Amen.
4. Make friends with Sister Death
St. Francis of Assisi closes his beautiful praise of God’s creation with a prayer addressed through Sister Death. When we meet her and recognize her as our sister, we can prepare ourselves to be ready when she welcomes us home.
From Canticle of the Creatures (St. Francis of Assisi)
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Death,
From whose embrace no mortal can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin!
Happy those she finds doing your will!
The second death can do them no harm.
Praise and bless my Lord, and give him thanks.
And serve him with great humility.
5. Rest in the surety that “all shall be well”
The medieval English anchoress known as Julian of Norwich came through the gates of death – experienced as a dreadful illness and depression – with a vision of the true reality of God’s everlasting love. Repeating this prayer based on her writings can be a means of comfort in any fear or anxiety.
Prayer for Comfort (based on the writings of St Julian of Norwich)
God, you are my help and comfort; you shelter and surround me in love so tender that I may know your presence with me, now and always. Amen.
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