Preces Gertrudianae/Additional Devotions

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Preces Gertrudianae: Prayers of St. Gertrude and St. Mechtilde of the Order of St. Benedict (1861)
by St. Gertrude the Great, translated by Thomas Alder Pope

Additional Devotions

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St. Gertrude the Great3922881Preces Gertrudianae: Prayers of St. Gertrude and St. Mechtilde of the Order of St. Benedict — Additional Devotions1861Thomas Alder Pope

Additional Prayers

FOR

MASS AND COMMUNION.

From the Ven. Blosius.

I ADORE thee, O glorious, bright, and ever-peaceful Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one God, my Hope, my Light, my Rest, my Joy, my Life, my All in all.

I give thee thanks, O Lord, that thou hast created me after thine own image, that thou hast borne with me all my life long to this day notwithstanding my sins, with such long-suffering mercy, that thou hast rescued me from so many dangers, and encompassed me with innumerable blessings.

O compassionate Father, I offer thee the most holy incarnation, Nativity, Life, Passion and Death, Resurrection and Ascension of thy only and well-beloved Son Jesus Christ in full expiation, propitiation, and satisfaction for all my sins and negligences, and also for the sins of all mankind. I offer thee all the toils, the afflictions, the outrages, the scorn, the blows and stripes, the woes and bitter anguish, wherewith he was overwhelmed. I offer thee the most precious Blood which he shed. I offer thee his humility, his patience, his charity, and his spotless innocence.

O Father, O Son, O Holy Ghost, my God who dwellest within me, grant me that I may be unable to think any thing, to will any thing, to speak any thing, to do any thing, hut what is pleasing in thy sight. Grant that I and all men may ever do thy holy will. Make us well-pleasing to thee, and one with thee, so that thy delight may be to dwell in us. It is my bounden duty to praise thee, O Lord, and it is my most eager longing desire; but, inasmuch as I can never praise thee worthily, I implore thee that thou wouldst deign, to offer to thyself most perfect praise within my heart, so that thou mayest sanctify for thyself, and accept as most grateful praise and adoration, every breath I draw, whether I wake or whether I sleep.

Glory be to the Father, &c.

From the same.

I ADORE thee, I praise and magnify thee, O Jesus Christ, my Lord. I bless thee and give thanks to thee, thou Son of the living God, who, according to the will of the Father, and with the cooperation of the Holy Ghost, didst once vouchsafe to be conceived in the most chaste womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to be made man, partaker of my passible flesh and blood. O good Jesus, with what priceless and incomprehensible love hast thou loved me, that thou, the Lord of highest Majesty, shouldst condescend to empty thyself, taking the form of a servant! Thou, my God, art become my Brother! And what can I render thee for this thy compassion and thy tender mercy? Behold, I offer thee now my body and my soul for thine everlasting praise and glory.

I give thee thanks for thy most sacred Nativity, when thou didst come forth from the womb of the Virgin Mary, a tender Infant, in a stable, on a rough and bleak winter's night. Hail, thou sweetest Babe; hail, thou King of Glory, Light of the nations, Saviour so long desired, who didst not disdain to be wrapped for me in swaddling clothes, to be swathed with bands, to be laid on straw in a manger, and to draw thy sustenance from the Virgin's breast.

I give thee thanks for thy painful Circumcision, for thy Manifestation to the Gentiles and the bright star with which thou didst bring them to thy feet, for thy Presentation in the Temple, for the Flight into Egypt, and for all the privations and sufferings thou didst endure in thy most holy infancy, thy boyhood, and thy youth.

I give thee thanks for the sacred and worshipful Baptism which thou, the Creator of heaven and of earth, didst so humbly receive from thy servant John, for the Fast of forty days and forty nights wherewith thou wast afflicted and exhausted in the wilderness, and for all the foul temptations wherewith thou didst not refuse to be assailed by the devil.

I give thee thanks for thy saving doctrine, for the miracles thou didst work, and the benefits thou didst bestow on the world, for thy journeyings, thy labours, and thy sorrows, for the hunger and the thirst, the cold and the heat thou didst endure, and for the manifold persecutions wherewith thou didst deign to be harassed for my salvation.

I give thee thanks for that marvellous condescension where with thou, their meek and lowly Master,didst kneel to wash thy disciples' feet and wipe them with a napkin.

I give thee thanks for the institution of the adorable Sacrament of the Eucharist, in which, with most amazing liberality and unutterable love, thou hast given and bequeathed thyself to us. Amen.

Glory be to the Father, &c.

DEVOTIONS BEFORE COMMUNION.

From St. Ambrose.