Opening Prayer

(To be said by all)

My God, my Jesus, Redeemer of my soul, my divine model, who can understand the infinite love and mercy out of which you were born in a stable, lived a life filled with humility and poverty, burdened with pains, labor, and scorn? Who can understand my indescribable ingratitude towards your infinite love and mercy? O my God, it is very true that for my unspeakable ingratitude I deserve that you withhold your gifts from me. Yet, through your infinite mercy, through the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, through the merits and intercession of Mary, and all the angels and saints, I firmly believe and am certain, that you will grant me perfect contrition for my sins. Furthermore, you will grant me the grace to imitate you in your humble, poor, suffering, laborious and obedient life, in order to perfect myself, created as the living image of God (OOCC, XIII, pp 130-131), particularly as I walk along with you in my thoughts and in my spirit on the way to Calvary. Amen.