An Act of Supplication
Our Saviour’s last supper was one continual prayer, which he offered up for his apostles, and a most pressing invitation to solicit favours from him. “O holy Father,” says he, “preserve those whom thou hast given me; for them I ask. Peter, I have asked for thee. Until now you have not asked for anything; ask, and you shall receive.” Here he exhorts us to pray for all those graces we stand most in need of. He further adds a most affecting and solid instruction, recommending them earnestly to persevere in his service: “Remain,” says he, “in my love.” He forewarned them of the trials they were to undergo; he inculcated certain precepts; he reproached them with some of their most striking defects. In this manner will he also speak privately to your heart; he will make known his will to you; he will tell you many things of which you have no notion, or which you disguise to yourself. Listen to him then without doubt, as the apostles did, and ask him questions with the most sincere desire to accomplish his holy will.
Thou are present within me, O inexhaustible source of all good; thou art full of tenderness, and ready to shed all thy favours upon me. O shower them down most abundantly! Consider my manifold wants; consider the immensity of thy power. Transform me, therefore, into a new man. Divest my heart of whatever is displeasing to thee. Adorn it with whatever may render me acceptable in thy sight. Purify my body. Sanctify my soul. Let me share in the merits of thy life and death. Unite thyself to me; unite me to thyself. Live thou in me, that in thee I also may live, and never have life but for thy sake. Grant me those graces of which thou knowest I stand most in need. Grant the same to all those for whom I am bound to pray. Canst thou refuse me any thing, after what thou hast done for me? What may I not expect from thee, since thou hast given me thyself? “I will not let thee go until thou dost bless me.”—Gen. xxxii. 26. “Do to thy servant according to thy mercy.”