Prayer

O my God, I love you above all things with my whole heart and soul, because you are all good and worthy of all my love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of you. I forgive all who have injured me and I ask pardon of those whom I have injured. Amen.

The old Act of Charity from the 1884 Baltimore Catechism is easy to learn. It is a beautiful prayer to gain the grace necessary to love God and our neighbor. It is usually assigned with the Act of Faith and the Act of Hope.

Making this Act disposes us to keep the greatest Commandment, "Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40)

This one prayer alone expresses most of what is necessary to die as a martyr, just add praying for the conversion of one's persecutor!

Many people who are studying to receive the Holy Eucharist and Confirmation are asked to learn the several Acts in preparation for receiving the sacraments. These prayers have the very sentiments that we must have if we are to live as a strong soldier of Jesus Christ and die well. These prayers cover the virtues that the Catholic Church looks for in determining if one has died as a martyr.

Watch teaching very little ones these different Acts until the Act of Contrition is well learned for receiving the sacrament of Penance. They can confuse these prayers easily since they all start with the phrase, "O my God!..." This Act in particular has a phrase that might cause the recitation to end with the ending to the Act of Contrition.

If your students are especially bright or say their Act of Contrition each night, the Acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity make excellent morning and evening prayers since they dispose us to love God all day and to trust Him through the night.

Of course, you can make a personal act of faith without the formal words any time of the day or night.