Eudist Associate

QUINQUAGESIMA TUESDAY

After evening prayers, but before the Subject of Meditation is given,
the Hebdo-Madary reads the following Prayer clearly and devoutly:

PRAYER TO JESUS

Containing the Dispositions
Necessary for Us to Make Good
Use of the Holy Season of Lent

Let each one give himself to Our Lord while saying in his heart and mind what I am about to express in words.  God grant me the grace to say it more with my heart, too, than with my mouth.

Oh Jesus, King of the ages and Sanctifier of time, I adore Thee as the Author of the holy season of Lent, and as the Source of all its holiness. I adore, O my God, all Thy providential designs toward Thy Church, this Congregation and myself in particular at this time, a period of special grace and blessing during which Thou dost undoubtedly desire, O my Saviour, to bestow special graces on me if I but cooperate with them. Grant that I may do so, I beseech Thee with all my heart. Destroy in me whatever is opposed to Thy will, and grant me the dispositions necessary to accomplish it perfectly. With all my strength, O my Lord, do I detest my sins for love of Thee. I renounce all self-love, my own will and whatever pertains to the fallen creature, offering myself to Thee instead to do and suffer whatever is pleasing to Thee for the rest of my life, and expecially during this Holy Season of Lent.

O my God, I wish to look upon and spend this Lent as if it were to be the last one of my life. I dedicate and consecrate to Thee, therefore, all my actions during that period, protesting to Thee that I have no wish to do, say or think anything save for Thy glory, and that I desire to discharge all my obligations with the utmost perfection, with the help of Thy grace which I earnestly supplicate for that intention.

O my Jesus, I desire to spend this Lenten season with Thee and Thy Holy Mother, imitating as much as possible your manner of spending it. I behold Thee passing this time in solitude, isolating Thyself from the society of men and even from the sweet conversation of Thy Most Holy Mother, remaining in perpetual silence and continual prayer, performing harsh penances, fasting, sleeping on the ground and enduring many other inward and outward hardships in the desert. I adore Thee, O my God, in all these things, and in the interior dispositions of Thy holy soul. I give myself to Thee that I may accompany and imitate Thee in them to whatever extent Thou desirest of me. I wish to love, with Thee and for love of Thee, solitude, silence, prayer and penance. Grant me the grace, I beseech Thee, to shun vain and pointless conversations, to abstain from all bad and idle speech, to find pleasure in conversing with Thee in prayer, to perform all my actions in a spirit of prayer and recollection, and to do penance for love of Thee.

O my Saviour, I offer Thee my fasts and abstinences of this Lent, together with all the fasts and other mortifications of Thy holy Church, Thy saints and Thy Holy Mother, in honor of and union with Thine own fasts and penances, in reparation for my sins, and for the accomplishment of Thy divine will with regard to Thy holy Church, this Congregation and especially my soul.

O Mother of Jesus, I offer myself to thee. Grant that I may share in the holy dispositions with which thou didst spend these forty sacred days.

O angels and saints of Jesus, pray for me and obtain for me, I beseech you, the grace to use this time and all the rest of my life in the service of my God, according to His divine will. Amen.

Then the Hebdomadary also reads aloud the following:

Those who cannot fast during Lent because of some infirmity or for another reason should do four things after having submitted to the commands of obedience in this regard.

The first is to humble themselves before God, acknowledging that they are unworthy to perform this good work.

The second is to try to acquire the dispositions and the will to fast as if God were asking it of them, notwithstanding the difficulty it would cause them.

The third is to offer to God all the fasts and other mortifications of His Son Jesus, of the Blessed Virgin, of all the saints and of the whole Church, in satisfaction for their sins and for the fulfillment of all the intentions that He may deign to have in their regard.

The forth is to resolve, since they cannot fast, to compensate for it by mortifying themselves more rigorously and performing all their other actions more perfectly, to give themselves to Our Lord for that intention, to pray Him to grant them the grace to carry out their resolution and to atone for their failings and weaknesses Himself.

Then the Hebdomadary also reads aloud the following:

Tomorrow we will begin the exercise in preparation for death, as set forth in The Kingdom of Jesus, (1) and this shall be the subject of tomorrow’s Meditation as well as those of the following days.

We  should also remember to say the Stabat Mater (see below) at the conclusion of Compline each Friday during Lent.

(1)    Part VII, p. 312 ff.