PRAYER FOR THE CONVERSION OF OBSTINATE SINNERS ST TERESA OF AVILA

“I adore You, O Jesus, penitent by Love, Leader and Model of true penitents, Principle, Cause and Source of Christian penance: I want and desire with all my heart to unite intimately with your penitent Sacred Heart, and to commune with His adorable dispositions, to this spirit of penitence with which he was filled from the first moments of your Incarnation, and during all the days of your Life, until your Death on the Cross. It is therefore with all the affection of my heart that I desire, by approaching Your holy Table, and by eating today this Bread which was represented to us by that which the prophet Elijah found when he awoke, that he was ordered to eat to strengthen himself, and who in fact sustained him for forty days and forty nights: I desire, I say, to receive the strength and grace which is necessary for me to undertake this holy Quarantine. By giving me therefore, Lord, the Grace to give You to me in Holy Communion, dedicate, I beg You, my whole person, and devote all my actions to penance. Bring me, O God Chief of penitents, into Your disposition as Victim and expiation for the sins of men and mine in particular; tell me about the feelings and dispositions of Holy Church, Your spouse; make me, as his true daughter, unite and conform perfectly to his intentions in this favorable time and in these days of salvation for those who sincerely return to you. I want, my Savior, to satisfy your Justice in You and through You; I surrender myself with thanksgiving to the effective means that Your infinite Mercy provides me with this solemn penance, consecrated by You and in Yourself: it awakens my faith, animates my courage, and excites my fervor; thus I hope, by the strength that I will draw from You, to work wholeheartedly to destroy and atone for my sins every day, to fight and resist the opportunities, to defeat the devil and the world, which never cease to attack me. to tempt and want to seduce me. O infinite Goodness, who was willing to undergo the humiliation of being tempted and under the hand of the devil, to teach me and merit for me the Grace of not being troubled and cast down in times of trials and adversity, dazzled by the false brilliance and false sweetness of perishable pleasures and honors; I ask You, by the virtue of this Mystery of Your voluntary infirmity, to make me live after this Communion in continual vigilance in the midst of all the dangers in which I find myself getting lost, and to teach me to use the same weapons which You have used, to always defeat my enemies. I will use my faith to overcome what is opposed to the spirit of prayer in me, by praying more frequently during this holy time; I will fight my self-esteem in the false pretexts it seeks to dispense with penance; I will learn to regulate the desires of my heart, and to rest on Your divine Providence touching all my temporal needs; finally adoration, ardent love towards You, and that of my neighbor in You and for You, will be the rule of my conduct, and will accompany the sacrifice of penance that I intend to offer You in this Time dedicated to honor Your labors, Your humiliations and your very Death. Give me this true contrition, to make a worthy penance for my past life, so that, working to die to myself and to the world, I achieve the happiness of resurrecting with You. Amen