O ETERNAL God, my Sovereign Lord, I acknowledge all I am, all I have is thine. O give me such a sense of thy infinite goodness, that I may return to thee all possible love and obedience.
I humbly and heartily thank thee for all the favours thou hast bestow’d upon me; for creating me after thine own image, for thy daily preserving me by thy good providence, for redeeming me by the death of thy blessed Son, and for the assistance of thy holy Spirit: for causing me to be born in a Christian country, for blessing me with plentiful means of salvation, with religious parents and friends, and frequent returns of thy ever blessed sacrament. I also thank thee for all thy temporal blessings; for the preservation of me this night, (――――)¹ for my health, strength, food, raiment, and all the comforts and necessaries of life. O may I always delight to _praise thy holy name_, and, above all thy benefits, love thee my great benefactor.
¹ Here mention the particulars you would pray for.
And, O Father of mercies, shut not up thy bowels of compassion towards me a vile and miserable sinner; despise not the work of thine own hands, the purchase of thy Son’s blood. For his sake I most humbly implore forgiveness of all my sins. _Lo, I come now, to do thy will alone_; and am resolved by thy assistance, to have no longer any choice of my own, but with singleness of heart to obey thy good pleasure: _Father not my will, but thine be done, in all my thoughts, words, and actions_!
*O thou all-sufficient God of angels and men, who art above all, and through all, and in all; from whom, by whom, and in whom are all things; _in whom we live, move, and have our being_; may my will be as entirely and continually derived from thine, as my being and happiness are!
I believe, O sovereign goodness, O mighty wisdom, that thou dost sweetly order and govern all things, even the most minute, even the most noxious, to thy glory, and _the good of those that love thee_! I believe, O Father of the families of heaven and earth, that thou so disposest all events, as may best magnify thy goodness to all thy children, especially those whose _eyes wait upon thee_. I most humbly beseech thee teach me to adore all thy ways, though I cannot comprehend them: teach me to be glad that thou art king, and to give thee thanks for all things that befall me; seeing thou hast chosen that for me, and hast thereby _set to thy seal that they are good_. And for that which is to come, give me thy grace to do in all things what pleaseth thee, and then, with an absolute submission to thy wisdom, to leave the issues of them in thy hand.
O Lord Jesu, I give thee my body, my soul, my substance, my fame, my friends, my liberty, my life; dispose of me, and all that is mine, as it seemeth best unto thee. I am not mine, but thine; claim me as thy right, keep me as thy charge, love me as thy child! Fight for me when I am assaulted, heal me when I am wounded, and revive me when I am destroyed.
O help me with thy grace, that whatsoever I shall do or suffer this day may tend to thy glory. Keep me in love to thee, and to all men. Do thou direct my paths, and teach me to set thee always before me. Let not the things of this life, or my manifold concerns therein, alienate any part of my affections from thee; nor let me ever pursue or regard them, but for thee, and in obedience to thy will.