In like manner, enumerate and invoke thy other Patrons. Then make thy prayer as follows:
OBLATION OF ONE’S SELF TO GOD.
O most dear Lord Jesus Christ, in union with the love with which thou didst recommend and offer thyself for our salvation to the eternal Father when dying on the cross; and by the example of the three Wise Men who, soon after thy birth, offered to thee with fervent affection of heart the three mystical gifts; and by the love with which all thy saints and elect have ever pleased thee and served thee: I, an unworthy sinner, offer to thee, my God and Creator, three small gifts, which, however trivial, of supreme right are due to thee alone: my understanding, my memory, and my will.
I offer thee my body and soul, with the state of life to which thou hast vouchsafed to call me.
I fully and purely apply all my thoughts, words, and actions to the greater glory of thy name, my own salvation, and the edification of my neighbour.
From my heart I implore thee, most merciful Jesus, by the tenderness of thy eternal goodness, by the love which procured thy cry to Thy Father to be heard according to thy devotion, and by the sweet love with which thou didst so mercifully receive the three Wise Men with their gifts; by all the mercy and goodness thou hast displayed towards the wretched and the sinner from the beginning of the world to this very hour, I beg of thee to regard me also with the eyes of thy mercy, and to receive favourably my offering, however unworthy; and so to guide me henceforward by thy effectual grace, that all things within and around me may be directed and ordered to thy glory, and to my own and my neighbour’s salvation. For my soul’s desire is, to please thee and be united to thee now and for evermore.
OBLATION OF ONE’S SELF TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN.
Holy Mary, Virgin Mother of God, confiding in the tenderness of thy maternal heart, unworthy as I am to serve thee, I choose thee this day, in the presence of my angel guardian and the whole court of heaven, to be my mother and mistress, patroness and advocate; and henceforward I firmly resolve to serve thee faithfully, and to be eternally united to thee and to thy Son. I adjure thee, most holy mother, by the love with which thy Son, when at the very point of death, recommended himself to his Father upon the cross, but thee to his dis-
