Part six (5): Prayer to Jesus for the Renewal of the Three Vows of Religion

Xix. Prayer to Jesus for the Renewal of the Three Vows of Religion

0 Jesus, my Lord, I adore, love and glorify Thee in Thy holy poverty, Thy divine purity and Thy most perfect obedience. I adore and glorify Thee in the eternal design Thou hast for all the souls who ever have made or shall make vows of poverty, chastity and obedience; and especially Thy holy design for m y own soul.

1 give Thee infinite thanks, 0 Good Jesus, for all the glory Thou hast rendered to the Almighty Father and Thyself by Thy poverty, chastity and obedience, as well as by the poverty, chastity and obedience of Thy Blessed Mother and all holy religious souls. I most humbly beg Thee to make up for m y faults, and to restore unto Thyself a full measure of all the honor I ought to have given Thee by my three vows. I offer myself to Thee to do and suffer anything that may please Thee.

0 Dearest Jesus, once again I offer to Thee the three vows I have made, of poverty, chastity and obedience and I protest before heaven and earth that I desire to keep them perfectly right up to my last breath, in homage to Thy divine poverty, chastity and obedience, in honor of the vows of Thy holy Mother.

I give myself to Thee, 0 Jesus; may it please Thee to destroy in me all that is contrary to these three virtues and give me grace to keep these three vows with all the perfection Thou dost ask of me.

0 Mother of Jesus, angels and saints of Jesus, implore Him to annihilate in me all that displeases Him and to establish in me a participation and image of His poverty, chastity and obedience, that I may ever advance in the continual imitation and adoration of His poor, chaste and obedient life on earth.

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Xx. Exercise of Reparation

The Son of God employs every resource of His divine wisdom to devise with holy ingenuity new ways of giving Himself to you, and of demonstrating His unfailing love for you; therefore, you ought also to seek out with holy ingenuity new ways to consecrate and devote the span of your life to His glory and love.

Inasmuch as you have been his enemies in the first few months of your life and since then have often been unfaithful to Him. you ought surely to make use of every kind of means Of reparation for your infidelities and faults, to the full extent of your ability aided by His grace.

To make reparation, the following practice is recommended. Every year, set aside one day for each year of your life on earth; then, having profoundly humbled yourself before Our Lord, in view of the sins and ingratitude of your past life, having begged His forgiveness and implored Him to obliterate your sins i n His Precious Blood and consume them in the fire of His divine love, take a firm stand in the unshakable resolution to enter upon a new life, and to begin to love and honor Jesus as though you were only now starting to live.

Stir up a strong desire to use these precious days of recollection as if they were the first days of your life, or as though they were to be the last you would ever have, to love and glorify Jesus on earth. Strive to do all you should have done in each year of your life. Strive to make such holy use of this time and to conduct yourself so perfectly in all your doings and activities, that you may to some extent make reparation for the failings of your past life.

Here is your plan of action for each day.

Devote the first day to reparation for the deficiencies of the first year of your life. This should be done in the following manner:

1. Adore Jesus in the sublime events of the first year Of His life. Accuse yourself before Him, and beg His forgiveness for all the dishonor you gave Him by the state of original sin in which you were for a part of the first year of your life. To make satisfaction for this, offer to the Eternal Father all the honor His Son Jesus gave Him in the first year of His life on earth, and offer to Jesus all the honor

given Him by His Blessed Mother in the first year of his earthly life.

2. Offer to the Eternal Father everything that occurred in the first year of your life, and implore Him, by His most burning love and exceeding great zeal for the glory of His Divine Son, to transform all that you suffered, and all that occurred both outwardly and inwardly in you during your first year of life , into praise, glory and love for His Son, and for all the events, both outward and inward, of the first year of His life in this world.

Repeat to Jesus the prayer just offered to the Eternal Father and beg to consecrate all that you suffered, in body and soul, every use you made of the limbs, senses and faculties of your body and soul during that first year of your life, to the honor of His sufferings in body and soul, in union with the operations Of His limbs, senses, and faculties of body and soul during the first year of His divine Infancy.

Say this prayer also to the Holy Ghost, similarly to the Blessed Virgin and to the angels and saints, that by their merits and glory they may now transform the first year of your life into eternal homage and glory to the mysteries of the first year of the life of Jesus Christ.

3. Offer to Jesus all the acts to be performed on the first day of your retreat and the love, praise and acts of adoration you shall give Him in union with the love, glory, and praises that were accorded Him i n the first year of His life by His Eternal Father, by Himself, by the Holy Spirit, by His Blessed Mother, His angels and all His saints, to make Him a hundredfold return for all the glory and love you should have given Him in the first year of your life, if you had enjoyed the use of reason.

On the second day, corresponding to your second year, and on each of the other days, corresponding to each of the years of your life, you shall practise the same exercises as on the first day. Make exception, of course, for the fact that on the days corresponding to your childhood years, in which you remained in the state of baptismal grace, it will not be necessary to ask pardon for sins committed, since during that time you were incapable of sin. But you will indeed have to humble yourself greatly for having gone so long a time without really knowing God, and for having carried about within you, all that time, the

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principal and source of all sin, namely, the remains of the corruption of original sin, which corruption i s the source of all sin.

If your years outnumber those of the temporal life of Jesus, you might carry on the same exercises with reference to the years of the glorious life of Jesus in heaven. Although it is true that the duration of this glorious and eternal life of Jesus is not counted by years in heaven, because there is no passage of time nor years in eternity, nevertheless, on earth, and with respect to us, that life may he measured by years. At present you may calculate the glorious life of Jesus, since His Resurrection, at about nineteen hundred years.

Consequently, if you are over thirty-four, you shall, on the thirty-fourth day of this pious exercise, adore Jesus in the first year of His glorified life in heaven. The next day, take the second year, and so on, performing the same exercise with respect to the years of the glorious life of Jesus as were proposed for the years of His temporal life.

You may perform this exercise not only on your own account, but also on behalf of other souls with whom you have some special bond, or to whom you are in any way obligated, uniting the years of their lives with your own, and performing the exercise for them as well as for yourself. Yet do all of this not for yourself nor for them, but for Jesus, for His glory and for His most pure love.

You might wish, during this exercise, to recite the Rosary of Jesus in glory-as follows:

Xxi. Rosary of the Glory of Jesus

This rosary is made up of three decades and four beads, a total of thirty-four small beads, in honor of the thirty-four years of Christ's life on earth.

First, you repeat three times Veni Domine Jesu, "Come Lord Jesus" (Apoc. 22,20), the inviting words with which St. John ends his Apocalypse, and you say them to invoke Jesus and draw Him into your soul, your mind and your heart, imploring Him to enter into you and annihilate everything in you that displeases Him, and to fill you with His grace, His spirit and His pure love. It is also a good thing to recite these same words with the same intention at the beginning of your other prayers and acts.

On each small bead say: Gloria tibi, Domine Jesu, qui natus es de Virgine, cum Patre et Sancto Spiritu in sempiterna saecula.

As you repeat this invocation you should offer to Jesus all the glory given to Him in each year of His life by His Father, His Holy Spirit and His Blessed Mother, and all His angels and saints, by way of satisfaction for your faults against Him in each year of your life, imploring Him to consecrate all that ever occurred in your life to the honor of all that took place in each year of His own.

For example, at the first bead, as you say Gloria tibi Domine Jesu, etc...., you should offer to Jesus all the glory of the first year of His life in satisfaction for your deficiencies in honoring Him during the first year of your life. So too you should offer Him your first year, imploring Him to cause all that occurred in it to be consecrated to the honor of all that occurred in the first year of His life.

At the second bead, you should offer Him all the glory given Him in the second year of His life by His Father, etc., while also offering Him the second year of your own life, imploring Him, etc. And so on, with the other beads.

On the large beads, you say the Gloria Patri, and as you do so, offer to the Holy Trinity all the glory that Jesus ever gave or ever shall give to the Three Divine Persons, by way of satisfaction for your faults against the Blessed Trinity.

Xxii. Additional Spiritual Exercises to be Performed Each Year

It is also a very holy practice to set aside a little time each year to acquit yourself before God of the duties you should have been obliged to pay Him at the hour of your birth and baptism, if you had possessed the use of reason. You should do the same with regard to your future obligations towards Him at the hour of death, thus using this means to prepare yourself for death. I shall, however, reserve the exercises appropriate to such matters for the last part of this book.

XXIII. PREPARATION To GAIN INDULGENCES

At frequent intervals during the course of the year, rich opportunities for gaining indulgences are available; yet most Christians are satisfied to seek nothing more on such Occasions than exemption from

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die punishment due to their sins, having practically no other end in view but their own interest. This very fact prevents many from gaining the desired indulgences, and robs God of the glory which constitutes the purpose for which He offered them to you. it will consequently be very much to the point if I give you some idea of the intentions and dispositions you ought to have, if you are to gain indulgences worthily for the pure glory of God. Hence, when you wish to gain an indulgence, prepare yourself accordingly.

1. Adore the very great love which prompts God to grant you these indulgences. His burning love for you gives Him a very great desire to behold you soon united with Him; and as He well knows that the punishments you have deserved by your sins will defer the fulfillment of His desires, by detaining you i n purgatory, unless wiped out in this world, He wills to give you indulgences, which are the shortest and easiest way of wiping out your deserved punishment. Give yourself to Him, in order to gain a wealth of precious indulgences not so much out of consideration for your own interests, as to fulfill His constant desire to bring you nearer to Him. Carry out everything prescribed for gaining the indulgences, in honor of and in union with the most pure love that prompts God to give them to you.

2. Adore the exceeding great love of Jesus, by which He acquired these indulgences. You must see them as fruits of the Cross and Passion of Christ, as graces which cost Him dearly indeed, since He purchased them at the price of His blood and death. Hence, you should desire to gain indulgences so that the Son of God may not he cheated of the fruits and effects of His Cross, and in order that what cost Him so dearly may not be lost, nor become vain and fruitless so far as you are concerned.

3. Adore God's justice, before which you are accountable for the penalties due to your sins, and cultivate an active desire to gain indulgences, not to escape those penalties, but to satisfy and glorify God's justice.

4. It is also good to adore God's universal design for your souls from all eternity. For from all eternity God designs to establish you in a high degree of grace on'earth and of glory in heaven. But by your sins, you have put many Obstacles in the way of the fulfillment of His

eternal plan. Even though the guilt of your sins may have been forgiven by a good confession, you have, nevertheless, made yourself unworthy to receive many of the graces God designed to give you, if you had not prevented Him by your sins. Now, He desires by indulgences to wipe out these iniquities and remove from your heart the obstacles raised by sin against the fulfilment of His plans. He wishes to make you capable and worthy to receive the graces planned for you in accomplishment of His infinite designs. Desire, therefore, again these indulgences not to escape the sufferings; of purgatory, but that God may avoid being disappointed in the designs He deigns to entertain in your regard.

5. Desire to gain indulgences so that your souls may be perfectly cleansed of many evil effects left by sin, which prevent you from loving God perfectly, thus you may become able to love Him with a more pure and ardent love. To do this, each time some opportunity of gaining an indulgence arises, address the Son of God as follows:

"0 Jesus, I give myself to Thee to do all that Thou dost desire me to do in order to gain this indulgence, in honor of and in union with the very great love with which Thou didst acquire it for me with Thy Precious Blood, in homage to Thy divine justice, to bring about the fulfilment of Thy designs in m y regard, so that I may love and glorify Thee ever more perfectly."

Xx1v. Annual Confession

Once you have made a good general confession, you should no longer think of your past sins, that i s , not consider and examine them in detail any more, but be satisfied to detest them in general and humble yourself before God for them. It is, however, a very profitable thing, and a most important one, to make an annual confession, to review the chief faults you have committed during each year. For it is much to be feared that you may have frequently been remiss in your ordinary confessions, by having failed to approach the tribunal with the necessary preparation, contrition and other dispositions demanded by the sacrament of Penance. You cannot he too careful or diligent in a matter so important as the salvation of a soul created to love and glorify God forever.

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Yearly confession has become a frequent practice among all Christians who desire to please God and to guarantee their salvation for the glory of God. There are many, indeed, who review their confessions every six months, and still others at even shorter intervals.

Adopt this holy practice at least at the end of each year, so that you may to some extent repair your failings during the year, and dispose yourself to serve and love God more perfectly the next year. If you do not do this at the end of the year, make your review of your confessions at some other time, according to the advice of your confessor, but in any case, perform it with an unusual amount of preparation, self - abasement and contrition.

And above all, make a point of protesting to Our Lord that you do not wish to make this exercise for the unburdening and satisfaction of your soul, nor for your own merit or interest, but solely for M pleasure and pure glory.

Xxv. Ending the Year with Jesus

To end each year of your life with Jesus, you ought to close it just as Jesus ended His mortal, human life on earth. You ought to set aside a little time at the end of each year to acquit yourself of your obligations and offer fitting homage to Jesus as the following prayer suggests.

Xxvi. Prayer of Praise and Gratitude for the Close of the Year

0 Jesus, my Lord, I adore, love and glorify Thee in the last day, the last hour and last minute of Thy mortal life on earth. I adore all that happened both inwardly and outwardly on that last day, I mean, Thy last thoughts, acts, words and sufferings, Thy final use of the senses of Thy sacred body, and the last dispositions of Thy holy soul, to which I desire to unite myself now, with a view to die closing moment of my own life.

0 Divine Jesus, by the light of faith I behold Thee on that last day of Thy life, adoring and loving Thy Father infinitely. Thou dost give Him fitting thanks for all the graces imparted to Thee and, through Thee, to the whole world during the time of Thy sojourn on earth. Thou dost ask His pardon for all the sins of men, offering Thyself to Him to suffer the penance due to them. Thou dost think of me with

love exceeding great, with a most ardent desire to draw me to Thyself. Finally Thou dost sacrifice Thy Precious Blood and Thy most noble life, for the glory of the Heavenly Father and for love of us. Blessed be Thou infinitely for all these inestimable graces.

0 Good Jesus, in honor of and in union with the love, humility, and other holy dispositions with which Thou didst perform all the last actions of Thy life, I give Thee infinite thanks for all the glory Thou didst give the Eternal Father during Thy life on earth, for all the graces Thou hast bestowed upon me and all men this year and always, as well as for the graces Thou wouldst have lavished on me, if I had not stood i n Thy way.

I most humbly beg Thy forgiveness for all the outrages and indignities Thou didst suffer on earth because of me, and for all the offenses I have committed against Thee this year. In satisfaction, I offer Thee all the honor and glory rendered to Thee, during Thy time on earth and during the past year, by Thy Eternal Father, the Holy Spirit, Thy holy Mother, and by all the angels and saints. So, too, I offer myself to Thee to bear all the penance Thou mayest ordain for me in this world and in the next.

0 Jesus, most worthy of love, I adore Thy infinite thoughts and designs for me on the last day of Thy most precious life; and I give myself to Thee to do and suffer all Thou dost desire of me, for the fulfilment of these unfathomable designs. Grant that I may die a thousand times rather than hinder the operation of Thy loving Providence.

0 Good Jesus, I offer to Thee the last day, the last hour and the last moment of my life and everything that may happen to me outwardly and inwardly then. I mean, my last thoughts, words, actions and sufferings, as Well as the last use of my bodily senses and of the powers of my soul.

May it please Thee to grant that all these things may be consecrated to the honor of the last day, the last hour and last moment of Thy life. May I die loving Thee with Thy holy love. May my being and my life be sacrificed and consumed for Thy glory, and may my last breath be an act of pure love of Thee. This is m y intention, my desire, my expectation. 0 my Dear Jesus, relying as I do upon the excess

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of Thy infinite love, may it please Thee to grant, by Thy great mercy that this may be so.

Xxvii. Prayer to the Blessed Virgin, at the End of the Year

0 Mother of Jesus, Mother of the Eternal and Immortal God made Man, I honor and venerate thee i n the last hour and moment of thy life. I honor thy last thoughts, words and acts, and the last use made of the senses of thy immaculate body and of the powers of thy glorious soul. Especially I wish to honor the last act of love made by thy mother's heart for thy Most Beloved Son.

With all my heart I bless and thank thee, 0 holy Virgin, for all the glory thou didst render to God during thy spotless life, and for all the graces thou didst ever obtain from His bounty for me and for all men, especially during this year.

I beg thy forgiveness, 0 Mother of Mercy, for all the offenses thou didst suffer on earth, as well as for those I have committed this year against thee. To make satisfaction for these, I offer thee all the honor that has ever been accorded thee in heaven and on earth.

0 Mother of Fair Love, I offer thee the last day, the last hour and moment of my life, and all that shall take place in me at that last moment, in honor of the last Moment, hour and day of thy life, and of all that occurred in thee on that day. Unite me, if it please thee, with all the holy and divine dispositions of thy maternal heart and thy pure soul. Grant that, by thy merits and prayers, my last thoughts, words, acts and breaths may be consecrated to the honor of the last thought, words, acts and breaths, both of thy Son and of thyself. Grant that I may die loving Him with His holy love, and that I may be utterly consumed and sacrificed to His glory, and that my life may end with a last act of most pure love for Him.

0 Angels and Saints of Christ, pray that He may consummate all this in me, by His exceeding great mercy and for love of Him. 293-