love, that I may have a perfect contrition for them, and thy grace, that I may avoid them in future.
[Here let us examine what sins we have committed since our last confession, by thought, word, deed, or omission, against God, our neighbour, or ourselves.]
A PRAYER TO BEG THE GRACE OF CONTRITION.
DIVINE Jesus! I desire with my whole heart to bewail my sins as they deserve. But the grace of contrition must be thy gift. Bestow it on me then in thy mercy; I beg it through the merits of thy most precious blood and wounds; and since thou wiliest not the death of a sinner, but that he be converted and live, convert me, my God, and I shall be truly converted.
Let us imagine ourselves at the feet of Christ crucified, and that he says to us from the cross: “ What is there that I ought to do more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? Was it that I looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it hath brought forth wild grapes?” (Isa. v. 4.) Let us ask our heart the same question; it will reply, that the blood, the mercy, the choicest graces of a God have never been withheld, to render it fruitful in all virtue: but has not our ingratitude frustrated the designs of his love? When we compare the labours of our Redeemer with their effects on our souls, should we not tremble, lest bringing forth nothing but wild grapes, we should expose ourselves to hear from the lips of the divine husbandman, that awful threat: "And now I will shew you what 1 will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof and it shall be wasted: I will break down the wall thereof and it shall be trodden down. And I will make it desolate: it shall not be pruned, and it shall not be digged: but briars and thorns shall come up: and I
