If some of you do not find this approach helpful and get nothing out of it, please do not worry. It does not mean that anything is wrong with you or your prayer, but just that this is not your type of prayer. If none of you gets any help from it, then I expect there is something wrong with me. But at least we shall be thinking of God, and that must be a good thing. So let us begin our personal prayer to God now.
Act of the Presence of God: We quietly and reverently put ourselves into the presence of God and try to drop all other distracting thoughts. And we pray, “Eternal and Merciful God, I truly believe that You are dwelling in my heart. You are looking at me and loving me without distraction. Grant me grace to adore You, to love You, to thank You and be with You in this time of prayer, and so be strengthened to do Your holy will and always seek Your honor and glory in everything I do. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for me.”
Composition of Place: Gently using your imagination, picture your heart and soul as a garden, a beautiful, peaceful garden, for the grace of God is there. Picture this garden in your soul, within you. Invite Our Lord Jesus Christ to come into your garden and bring His Mother with Him. Watch Him coming in, and invite Him to sit down on a comfortable seat with Mary beside Him. When He has sat down, you kneel or sit there at His feet and quietly take His wounded Hand in yours and remain there holding it with great love as you rest at His feet. Then without any hurry or effort or tension, just from the heart, begin to speak to Him with few words and many pauses, letting your heart speak or keep silence as it wills.
Adoration: “Jesus, Lord, I adore Your divine greatness from the depth of my nothingness.” (Keep hold of His wounded hand.) “You are so great; I am so small. Jesus, I adore you. Jesus, infinite in majesty, I humbly prostrate myself at Your feet. Give me strength to abandon myself entirely to Your holy will. . . . Jesus, You are so good and so great, and I am so small.”
Now let the picture fade, and turn to God Alone in Himself in your soul and raise your heart to the infinite glory of God. “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Almighty God, my Creator, my Father, I worship You. Heavenly Father, You are so great, and I am so small. You are everything, and I am nothing. Hallowed be Thy name. My God and my All.” Now just be still and belong to God.
Contrition and Love: Return now to the garden within you and to Jesus and Mary sitting there waiting for you. Take His wounded hand in yours and speak to Him with the wounds of scourging and the crown of thorns and the Cross in mind. “O my dear Jesus, my Lord and my Savior, I love You because You are so good. Lord, so deeply wounded for me, I love you. Never let me hurt You again, Jesus, my Lord and my God.”
Now let all pictures fade and with eyes closed outwardly and inwardly, turn to God Himself within you, looking at you, loving you, waiting for you. Very slowly, and relishing each word, speak to God. “O my God, I love You with my whole heart, with my whole mind, with my whole soul, with all my strength, because You are so good and love me with an infinite and everlasting love. My God and my All, I surrender myself completely to your loving care. My God I am deeply sorry for my sins. You are God. I am a sinner. My God I love You. You are so great; I am so small. You are everything; I am nothing. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. My God, my God, I am sorry for my sins, and I do love You”
Thanksgiving: Return to the garden within you, or visit Jesus in heaven, as you wish, or kneel there close to Jesus and Mary, and hold Jesus’ wounded but glorious hand, and see His bright glory and the shining splendor of Our Lady in the garden of your soul. “Jesus, I thank You for Your great glory. Jesus, I thank You for the gift of faith. Jesus and Mary, help me to dissolve in loving thankfulness. Thank You Lord for coming from heaven to find and save me. Thank You for suffering for me.” Quietly, lovingly thank Jesus and Mary in your heart for your own life and blessings. “Jesus, thank You for being here so close to me, for letting me speak to You. Thank You for everything. Hail Mary full of grace . . .”
Let the pictures fade and be alone with our unseen infinite God. “I give You thanks for Your great glory. My God, I thank You for Your overwhelming care for me. Thank You for Your diving Providence. I am all Yours, and You are all mine. My God, I love You.”
Now, if you wish, you can add a forth and final section to your prayer with Jesus in the garden and with God in His invisible light, the section where we plead for our needs and those of others, all in the same calm, slow, peaceful way.
Without our God, all creation is nothing. Let us rest our hearts in God, and receive all things in God, and love all things in God; and let us love one another in God.
