that I may render to thee, my Lord, the pleasing and acceptable service which I owe to thee.
To thee, then, O most loving Father, who art the giver and preserver of all things, I offer myself and all that is mine, to thy most ready worship and service, in union with the oblation of thy most beloved Son our Lord Jesus Christ, with which he offered and commended himself to thee, when yet an infant, in the temple; afterwards, when praying in the garden; and, lastly, when dying on the altar of the cross.
O most merciful God, be favourable to me, a wretched sinner, and despise not the work of thine own hands; but look upon the face of thy Christ, whom thou hast given to us to be our Advocate and Mediator.
Let his worthiness atone for my baseness, that I may obtain through his merits what I cannot by my own.
Vouchsafe, then, of thine infinite goodness and mercy, favourably to accept my service, however unworthy, for the greater glory of thy name, and the salvation of my soul.
AN OBLATION
Of our sleep and watching.
O most gracious God, I offer to thee my sleep and watching, in union with all the sleep and watching, and also with the resurrection of thy Son my Saviour, who, after three days, awoke from death, as it were from sleep, and by his own power took his life again.
Grant, I beseech thee, that I may so use the necessary rest of my body, and so employ my waking hours, as that all may tend to thy greater glory and the salvation of my soul.
AN OBLATION
Of our thoughts, words, and actions.
O most loving God, I offer to thee all my thoughts, words, and actions; all my labours, and all my business, which I this day, and ever undertake, together with all the labours, actions, and troubles, which thy only-begotten Son our Saviour ever undertook to redeem us miserable sinners.
All these I offer to thee in acknowledgment of that debt by which I am bound to thee as my supreme Lord, and in thanksgiving for thy immense benefits, which thou hast bestowed on me from the beginning of my life to this hour.
Look favourably upon me, I beseech thee, and so direct me in all things according to thy divine will, that by thy gift I may desire what is pleasing to thee, and may per-
