BEAR THIS IN MIND WHEN “THE GOING GETS TOUGH”

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

We cannot love suffering for itself, but, aided by grace, we can love the will of God sufficiently to remain attached to it, even when it causes suffering.

God alone knows the sorrow which will result from His Will, for each one, until he sees the face of God.

Nevertheless, without knowing anything of it, without even wishing for such a knowledge, one can accept everything in advance, and love everything by considering it under this sovereign and beautiful form of the “holy will of God”.

– Laverty & Sons (eds), 1905

 

DEVOTIONAL PRAYER TO JESUS SUFFERING IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE

My soul is sorrowful even unto death. Stay here and watch (Mk 14:34).

O Jesus, through the abundance of thy love, and in order to overcome our hardheartedness, thou pourest out torrents of thy graces over those who reflect on thy most Sacred Sorrow in the Garden of Gethsemene, and who spread devotion to it. I pray thee, move my soul and my heart to think often, at least once a day, of thy most bitter Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, in order to communicate with thee and to be united with thee as closely as possible.

O Blessed Jesus, thou, who carried the immense burden of our sins that night, and atoned for them fully; grant me the most perfect gift of complete repentant love over my numerous sins, for which thou didst sweat blood.

O blessed Jesus, for the sake of thy most bitter struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane, grant me final victory over all temptations, especially over those to which I am most subjected.

O suffering Jesus, for the sake of thy inscrutable and indescribable agonies, during that night of betrayal, and of thy bitterest anguish of mind, enlighten me, so that I may recognise and fulfil thy will; grant that I may ponder continually on thy heart-wrenching struggle and on how thou didst emerge victoriously, in order to fulfil, not thy will, but the will of thy Father.

Be thou blessed, O Jesus, for all thy sighs on that holy night; and for the tears which thou didst shed for us.

Be thou blessed, O Jesus, for thy sweat of blood and the terrible agony, which thou didst suffer lovingly in coldest abandonment and in inscrutable loneliness.

Be thou blessed, O sweetest Jesus, filled with immeasurable bitterness, for the prayer which flowed in trembling agony from thy Heart, so truly human and divine.

Eternal Father, I offer thee all the past, present, and future Masses together with the Blood of Christ shed in agony in the Garden of Sorrow at Gethsemane.

Most Holy Trinity, grant that the knowledge and thereby the love, of the agony of Jesus on the Mount of Olives will spread throughout the whole world.

Grant, O Jesus, that all who look lovingly at thee on the Cross, will also remember thy immense Suffering on the Mount of Olives, and that they will follow thy example, learn to pray devoutly and fight victoriously, so that, one day, they may be able to glorify thee eternally in Heaven. Amen.

Imprimatur: Macario, Bishop Fabiano,
23rd Novemver 1963