"Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be Thy Name."
The Presence of God
On this day I will force myself to think of God present within my heart as my Father. I will behave myself before Him with the respect of a child to whom the inheritance of heaven has been promised, since God has created me to His own Image, and capable of knowing, loving and possessing Him. Furthermore, to correspond with this grace, I will procure the honouring of my Heavenly Father, hallowing Him in myself by holy thoughts and affections, and hallowing Him in my neighbour by edifying words and works.
Union with Jesus Christ
It is said that doves ordinarily withdraw to their dove-cot about the middle of the day; so should my soul today seek its retreat in the Wound in the side of Jesus Christ, close to His Divine Heart, in order to consider the excess of His love in my regard, and to receive from it some flames, begging Him that He would hold me hidden in His Heart, and come also into mine, and that no self-love, solicitude, hindrance, or anything else, deprive me of the honour of His dwelling within me, that, on the contrary, my heart may always be open to Him, as He Himself has always His Side open that I may enter in when I like, and rest there most intimately with His loving Heart.
Virtue to Practice
Since the devil, in order to destroy the hallowing of the Most Holy Name of God, introduced into the world the sin of gluttony, and since also we see Christians, instead of hallowing His Divine Name on this day, abandoning themselves to many excesses against temperance and soberness, thus sullying the temple of their soul, I will force myself in conformity with my sublime dignity as a child of God to hold in horror all that injures Christian temperance, and I will be modest, restrained, sober, and well regulated at meals.
"Thy Kingdom come."
Presence of God
On this day I will think of God present as my King. I will hold myself before His Divine Majesty in the posture of a very humble subject, begging Him to be good enough to establish His Kingdom in me, to take my soul as part of His Empire, to deliver it from all thoughts and affections contrary to His Divine Will, and to fill my heart with a fervent desire to extend His interior kingdom in souls and His exterior kingdom in Holy Church.
Union with Jesus Christ
While contemplating the glorious kingdom of Jesus Christ, I will not forget the shameful diadem with which He was crowned in Pilate’s house. At the thought of this, I will hide myself among the thorns in My Saviour’s Crown like a hunted hare, trembling and fugitive; and I will reflect upon how Jesus my Saviour willed to take complaisance and satisfaction in this ignominy. I will beg Him to forgive all my bad thoughts and ill-regulated affections – real spiritual thorns which so many times have pierced His Divine Heart more deeply than the material thorns buried themselves in His Sacred Head.
Virtue to Practice
Since the kingdom of God can only be won by fighting for it, I will take the resolution to fly sloth, to tread under foot all worldly thoughts, and make war upon my sluggishness and tepidity. I will work at my salvation courageously and ardently sustained by the hope of a blessed eternity.
"Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
The Presence of God
Oh this day I will occupy myself with the thought of God present as my Heavenly Spouse. My soul belongs to God by faith and charity. I will ardently long to be united to Him more and more, to have but one and the same heart with Him, always to fulfil without reasoning about it His holy, agreeable, and perfect Will, spending my whole life without offending Him, and ceaselessly acquiring new virtues by a burning love of His Divine Goodness.
Union with Jesus Christ
I will unite myself generously with Jesus Christ laden with His Cross. Accompanying Him on the road to Calvary, I will hide myself in the terrible, deep wounds which the Cross made in His shoulders, so cruelly scourged as they already were with the lashes that all the wounds thus received made but one. I will admire His fortitude and constancy in carrying the Cross, and the greatness of His patience in bearing that heavy burden for my sins which, to Him, were incomparably more unbearable than His excessive bodily pains.
Virtue to Practice
Since sin against the virtue of purity is that which is most contrary to the union of the soul with God, I will guard very carefully the doors of my heart in order to preserve this angelic virtue, mortifying my flesh and all inclinations to sensuality.
"Give us this day our daily bread."
The Presence of God
On this day, I will rest like a sheep near its Shepherd, reflecting on His Divine Providence which guards His elect and nourishes them with the exquisite food of His Word and His Grace, of the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, and of the firm hope of eternal glory.
Union with Jesus Christ
I will unite myself in spirit with the Right Hand of my Saviour fastened to the Cross, reflecting on His excessive liberality which gives Paradise to the Good Thief and to me the Sacrament of the Eucharist, pledge of eternal life.
The Virtue to Practice
Under the crook of so kind a Shepherd, and under the care of so great and powerful a Procurator, I will exercise myself in the practice of Holy Poverty, as opposed to the vice of exercising dominion, stripping myself of everything, even of the desire of possessing things, so as to live in complete renunciation and entirely abandoned to Divine Providence.
"And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us."
The Presence of God
On this day I will consider God as my Judge. He has the power of effacing and washing out all my sins: I will hold myself before Him as a debtor humble and afflicted, praying Him with all my heart to be so good as to pardon me: I will confess with sorrow all my faults, of having abused His grace, of not having satisfied for the debts which I contracted with Him, and of having left my soul in its bad habits, never thinking to perfect it by the practice of virtue nor chastising my body as I ought. But because my Judge promises me general remittance of all my debts if I remit those of the people in debt to me, I wish to forgive for love of Him all the offences which I have received from my neighbour.
Union with Jesus Christ
On this day I will hide myself in the Wound of My Saviour’s Left Hand, ad miring His extreme patience towards sinners, and the profound humility with which He suffered the blasphemies and maledictions of the Bad Thief. I will return thanks to Him for His so great patience towards me, and for His having ever filled me with benefits in spite of my faults and ingratitude.
Virtue to Practice
In considering God as my Judge, I will force myself to fight against presumption by a holy and salutary fear of His Divine Majesty. I will ever bear in mind the thought of the terrible day of the Last Judgment, reminding myself of Saint Vincent Ferrer, who had such a lively fear of it himself, and who preached it with so much zeal and fervour to the people whom he was evangelising.
"And lead us not into temptation."
The Presence of God
On this day I will represent God to myself as my Protector and my Defender against the attacks of the enemies of my salvation. I will beg Him to grant me the grace to resist the artifices of the devil, the pleasures of the world, the stings of the flesh, and the slavery of bad habits. I will render thanks to Our Lord Jesus Christ for having placed me under the shadow of His Shame, of His Poverty, and of the Sufferings of the Cross, against the furious assaults of all the enemies of my salvation.
Union with Jesus Christ
I will hide myself in the Sacred Wounds in My Saviour’s Feet, embracing them as did the saintly sinner Magdalene. In the Wound of His Right Foot I will adore His infinite Majesty, and in that of His Left Foot His very rigorous Justice. I will lovingly embrace them both, bringing my heart near to them that they may provide me with a strong motive for both hope and fear at once, which are both most necessary, for if I were to take notice of His Mercy alone, I should, by over-confidence, fall into presumption and be lost; and if I were to fix my eyes on His Justice alone, I should expose myself, by too great fear, to giving way to despair.
Virtue to Practice
After the example of my Jesus, I will always love my neighbour, and fight against the sin of envy, rejoicing ait his good fortune as much as at my own, for charity obliges me to love him as myself.
"But deliver us from evil."
The Presence of God
On this day I will consider God as my Saviour. I will hold myself before Him. as a wretched slave with hands and feet in irons. Indeed, my passions and bad habits do hold me bound under the cruel tyranny of the devil; and since I cannot of my own strength free myself from these unbearable bonds, I will humbly cry from the bottom of my heart to God my all-powerful Saviour, that He may deliver me from the weight of my sins and eternal damnation.
Union with Jesus Christ
I will represent to myself my Redeemer, taken down from the Cross, in the arms of His most holy Mother, and gazing at His mangled Body covered with wounds from Head to Foot, I will beg Him not to look at all the sins which I have committed with the help of my body, but to have the goodness to heal all my spiritual wounds and those of His Mystical Body, through the intercession of the most holy Virgin.
Virtue to Practice
I will exercise myself in the practice of the virtue of humility, ceaselessly fighting against pride and vainglory, remembering the example of the Blessed Virgin who was ever full of very great humility, albeit overflowing with every grace and adorned with every perfection.
I have given these little exercises to facilitate continuing in the Presence of God, in conformity with the subject of the meditation made in the morning. Let me add that one ought to take each day a Saint of our Order as the Protector of our recollection, as Saint Dominic for the first day, Saint Peter, Martyr, for the second, Saint Antonino for the third, Saint Thomas Aquinas for the fourth, Saint Vincent Ferrer for the fifth, Saint Raymund for the sixth, Saint Hyacinth for the seventh, or any other Saint according to each one’s devotion.
- text taken from A Short Method of Mental Prayer, by Father Niccolò Ridolfi, O.P., 1920