Pray in the Name of Jesus
In union with your infinite merits, Oh my Jesus, I offer to your Eternal and Divine Father … the merits, virtues and fruits … your creatures have reaped or could have reaped. (OOCC, X, p. 361; STA, 389)
Prayers of faith and trust, for St. Vincent Pallotti, must be offered in the name of Jesus. It means that prayers are offered united with the intentions of Jesus. When a person offers his prayer to the Father in union with Jesus and having his very intentions, then he is praying in the name of Jesus. A person’s prayer becomes effective and is of value only when it is ennobled by his meditations on Jesus and being touched by his power. Hence, if a person’s prayer is to be offered in the name of Jesus, that person must seek the will of God and assure that the intention with which he offers his prayer is worthy of God. Similarly, if a person seeks anything that is contrary to his own or that of his neighbor’s salvation, it cannot become a prayer in the name of Jesus. St. Vincent constantly attempted to make his prayer a prayer offered in the name of Jesus. He meditated on the Person of Jesus and got to know his intentions and purposes. Having understood the intentions of Jesus, St. Vincent made them his own while he prayed. In his prayer, he was aware of his own salvation and that of his neighbor. Similarly, St. Vincent constantly sought things worthy of God and conducive to his life with God. He never allowed himself to be distracted from God. In this manner, St. Vincent approached the presence of God in and through prayers he offered to God in the name of Jesus.
Do I pray in the name of Jesus? Do I offer my prayers with the very intentions of Jesus? Do my prayers seek things worthy of God? Do my prayers help me to do those things that are conducive to the attainment of Divine Life? Do I approach the Presence of God in the name of Jesus?
I in them, and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me. (Jn. 17: 23)