Mental Prayer

Liguorian (St. Alphonsus)

15 min

I. Preparation

Three acts, made attentively but briefly.

1. Act of faith in the presence of God

My God, I believe that You are here present, and I adore You with all my heart.

2. Act of humility and contrition

Lord, at this hour I should be in hell because of my sins; with all my heart I repent of having offended You, O infinite Goodness.

3. Act of petition for light

My God, for the love of Jesus and Mary, enlighten me in this meditation, that I may draw profit from it.

Then a Hail Mary to our Lady and a Glory Be to St. Joseph, your Guardian Angel and your patron saint, that they may obtain this light.

Hail Mary

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou amongst women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners,

now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

Ave María, grátia plena, Dóminus tecum.

Benedícta tu in muliéribus,

et benedíctus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.

Sancta María, Mater Dei,

ora pro nobis peccatóribus,

nunc et in hora mortis nostræ.

Amen.

Glory Be

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.

Glória Patri, et Fílio, et Spirítui Sancto.

Sicut erat in princípio, et nunc, et semper,

et in sǽcula sæculórum.

Amen.

II. Meditation

Take a book and read, stopping where the text strikes you.

For the meditation, always use a book, at least in the beginning, stopping at the passages that make the greatest impression on you. St. Francis de Sales says that we should imitate the bees, which linger on a flower while they find honey there, and only then fly on to another.

The day's meditation from St. Alphonsus or Divine Intimacy, the Gospel of the day, or any spiritual reading will serve.

The meditation bears three fruits: affections, petitions, and resolutions — and in these the profit of mental prayer consists. So, after you have meditated on an eternal truth and God has spoken to your heart, you must speak to God.

1. By affections

That is, by acts of faith, thanksgiving, adoration, praise, humility, and above all of love and of contrition, which is itself an act of love. Love is like a golden chain that binds the soul to God; according to St. Thomas, every act of love merits us one more degree of eternal glory.

Acts of love:

My God, I love You above all things.

I love You with all my heart.

Make me know what is pleasing to You; I want to do Your will in all things.

I rejoice that You are infinitely happy.

For the act of contrition it is enough to say:

Infinite Goodness, it grieves me to have offended You.

2. By petitions

Asking God for light, for humility or any other virtue, for a good death, for eternal salvation; but chiefly for the gift of His holy love and for holy perseverance — for, as St. Francis de Sales says, with love all graces are obtained.

In great dryness it is enough to say this — and even if you did nothing more, the prayer would be excellent:

My God, help me. Lord, have pity on me. My Jesus, mercy!

3. By resolutions

Before ending the prayer, take some resolution — not a general one, such as avoiding every deliberate fault or giving yourself entirely to God, but a particular one: to guard more carefully against the fault you fall into most often, or to practise better the virtue you most need — to bear with the temper of such a person, to obey a superior or a rule more exactly, to mortify yourself more often on such a point.

Never end your prayer without having formed a particular resolution.

One particular resolution for today.

III. Conclusion

Three acts.

1. Thanksgiving and petition for pardon

Lord, I thank You for the lights and affections You have given me in this meditation, and I ask pardon for the faults I have committed in it.

2. Offering of the resolutions

My God, I offer You the resolutions I have just taken with Your grace, and I am determined to carry them out, cost what it may.

3. Petition for the grace to keep them

My God, through the merits of Jesus Christ and the intercession of Mary Most Holy, give me the strength to put faithfully into practice the resolutions I have taken.

End by commending to God the Church, the souls in purgatory, sinners, and all who are yours, with an Our Father and a Hail Mary.

Lord, I commend to You Holy Church with her Prelates, the souls in purgatory, the conversion of sinners, and all my spiritual and temporal needs as well as those of my relatives, friends, and benefactors.

Our Father

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

Amen.

Pater noster, qui es in cælis,

sanctificétur nomen tuum.

Advéniat regnum tuum.

Fiat volúntas tua, sicut in cælo et in terra.

Panem nostrum quotidiánum da nobis hódie,

et dimítte nobis débita nostra,

sicut et nos dimíttimus debitóribus nostris.

Et ne nos indúcas in tentatiónem,

sed líbera nos a malo.

Amen.

Hail Mary

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou amongst women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners,

now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

Ave María, grátia plena, Dóminus tecum.

Benedícta tu in muliéribus,

et benedíctus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.

Sancta María, Mater Dei,

ora pro nobis peccatóribus,

nunc et in hora mortis nostræ.

Amen.

After the Meditation

Three things to carry out of the prayer.

1. Following the counsel of St. Francis de Sales, make a bouquet of flowers to smell throughout the day — that is, fix well in memory one or two thoughts that impressed you most, to recall them and be strengthened by them during the day.

2. Put the resolutions taken into practice at once, in small occasions as well as great ones: bearing patiently with a person angry at you, mortifying yourself in what you look at, in what you listen to, in conversation.

3. By silence and recollection, keep the affections stirred up in prayer alive as long as possible; without this, the fervour conceived in prayer soon fades through dissipation of conduct or useless conversation.