Prayer

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart, in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in thanksgiving for your favours, in reparation for my sins, for the intentions of all my relatives and friends, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father. Amen.

Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And you shall renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray.

O God, who has taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant that by the gift of the same Spirit we may be always truly wise and ever rejoice in his consolation. Through Christ our Lord.

Amen

God is waiting for you here. He has been very patient, and now that you have accepted his invitation, don’t keep him waiting any longer. Go to him, and in the silence before the Tabernacle keep your tryst with the beloved, who’s Sacred Heart was pierced for love of you.

“To please me, my dear child, it is not necessary to know much: all that is required is to love me much, to be deeply sorry for ever having offended me and desirous of being ever faithful to me in the future.

Speak to me now as you would to your dearest friend. Tell me all that now fills your mind and heart. Are there any you wish to commend to me? Tell me their names, and tell me what you wish me to do for them. Do not fear; ask for much; I love generous hearts which, forgetting themselves, wish well to others.

Speak to me of the poor you wish to comfort; tell me of the sick that you wish to see relieved. Ask of me something for those who have been unkind to you, or who have crossed you. Ask much for them all; commend them with all your heart to me.

Ask me many graces for yourself. Are there not many you would wish to name that would make you happier to yourself, more useful and pleasing to others, more worthy of the love of me? Tell me the whole list of the favours you want of me. Tell me them with humility, knowing how poor you are without them, how unable to gain them by yourself; ask for them with much love, and that they may make you more pleasing to me.

With all a child’s simplicity, tell me how self-seeking you are, how proud, vain, irritable, how cowardly in sacrifice, how lazy in work, uncertain in your good resolutions, and then ask me to bless and crown your efforts. Poor child, fear not, blush not at the sight of so many failings; there are saints in heaven who had the faults you have; they came to me lovingly, they prayed earnestly to me, and my grace has made them good and holy in my sight.

You should be mind, body and soul; fear not, therefore, to ask of me gifts of body and mind, health, judgment, memory and success-ask for them for my sake; that God may be glorified in all things. I can grant everything, and never refuse to give what may make a soul dearer to me and better able to fulfil the will of God.

Have you no plans for the future which occupy, perhaps distress, your mind? Tell me your hopes, your fears.

Is it about:

• Your future state?
• Your position among my creatures?
• Some good you wish to bring to others?
• In what shall I help and bless your good will?

And for me you must have—have you not—some zeal, some wish to do good to the souls of others. Some, perhaps, who love and care for you, have ceased almost to know or care for me. Shall I give you strength, wisdom and tact, to bring these poor ones close to my heart again? Have you failed in the past? Tell me how you acted. I will help you and will guide you to lead others to me.

And what crosses have you, my child? Have they been many and heavy ones?

Has someone:

• Caused you pain?
• Wounded your self-love?
• Slighted you?
• Injured you?

Lay your head upon my breast, and tell me how you suffered. Have you felt that some have been ungrateful to you and unfeeling toward you? Tell me all, and in the warmth of my heart you will find strength to forgive and even to forget that they have ever wished you pain.

And what fears have you? My providence shall comfort you; my love sustain you. I am never away from you, never can abandon you. Are some growing cold in the interest and love they had for you? Pray to me for them; I will restore them to you if it be better for you and your sanctification.

Have you not some happiness to make known to me? What has happened since you came to me last, to console you, to gladden and give you joy?

What was it, a:

• Mark of true friendship you received?
• Success unexpected and almost un-hoped for?
• Feat suddenly taken away from you?

And did you not remember the while, that in all it was my will, my love that brought all that your heart has been so glad to have? It was my hand, my dear child, that guided and prepared all for you. Look to me now, my child, and say, “Dear Jesus, I thank you.”

You will soon leave me now; what promises can you make me? Let them be sincere ones, humble ones, full of love and desire to please me. Tell me how carefully you will avoid the occasions of sin, drive from you all that leads to harm, and shun the world-the great deceiver of souls.

Promise me to be kind to the poor; loving for my sake to friends; forgiving to your enemies, and charitable to all, not in word alone and actions, but in your very thoughts. When you have little love for your neighbours, whom you see, you are forgetting me who am hidden from you.

Love all my saints; seek the help of your holy patrons. I love to glorify them by giving you much through them. Love, above all, my own sweet glorious Mother-she is your Mother; O, love her, speak to her often, and she will bring you to me, and for her sake I will love and bless you more each day.

Return soon to me again, but come with your heart empty of the world, for I have more favours to give, more than you can know of; bring you heart so that I may fill it with many gifts of my love.

May peace be with you.”

Now, Master, you let your servant go in peace.
You have fulfilled your promise.
My own eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all peoples.
A light to bring the Gentiles from darkness; the glory of your people Israel.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.

Amen.

Save us, Lord, while we are awake; protect us while we sleep; that we may keep watch with Christ and rest with him in peace.