The “Offering of Self” Prayer from St. Ignatius of Loyola
Pray this short prayer to make an offering of Self from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
Pray this short prayer to make an offering of Self from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
Prayer is a form of communication with God that draws us closer to Him and to doing His holy will. There are many efficacious ways to pray but the best thing to do is to start by opening your heart and humble yourself before God. But it is hard to do this if you do not know God or understand His ways. How do you enter into His presence and open your heart to receive His grace?
The Catholic church has a long history of teaching Christians how to pray. There are five ways to pray, or types of prayers. These ways to pray are worship and praise, petition and intercession, supplication, thanksgiving, and spiritual warfare.
If you are new to prayer and do not know where to start, begin by structuring your day around prayer and use the prayers that were given to us by the angels and saints. Many of them are here on this website. When you have prayed these prayers and meditated on His holy word, then open your heart to pray in your own words. Then spend time in adoration, seeking to know Him in silence. This is the most powerful and beautiful way to pray – to sit in His presence and love Him in silence and let Him fill you with grace.
“Father forgive them for they know not what they do” is a meditation by Venerable Bishop Fulton Sheen on the 7 last words Jesus spoke during his crucifixion.
Jesus you love me, and You show this divine love in such a piercing and intimate way that I fall to my knees in gratitude.
We invoke the Holy Spirit when we begin our devotions in order to have an increase in spiritual gifts and graces when we pray. This prayer is a common prayer invoking the Holy Spirit to come and enlighten our hearts and minds in Christ.
Pope Pius VII granted an indulgence to everyone who, with contrition for his sins and with devotion, says the following Act of Reparation to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
Pray prayers of gratitude to God and meditate on the 5 Holy Wounds of Jesus to grow in love and humility.
The Lord knows our thoughts and the movement of our hearts, so when we enter into His presence, in the silence, He speaks. I began with an appeal, “Jesus, Life and Truth, Let the Kingdom of God come.”
The traditional Stations of the Cross by St. Alphonsus Liguori, or way of the cross, meditates on the 14 stations of the Passion of Christ, publicly prayed on Fridays during Lent.
Sacred Heart of Jesus prayer opens the soul to adore Jesus and contemplate His deep, personal, and intimate love. Saint John Henry Newman, a 19th century convert to the Church, wrote much about his devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist, and on the coat of arms in 1879 when he became a Cardinal, he wrote, “Heart speaks unto heart.”
“Jesus Christ is truly present here before the Blessed Sacrament” is a prayer from the heart to be prayed by the faithful while in Eucharistic adoration.
If you need peace pray the Angelus prayer. By having a routine Angelus prayer time you will begin to have more peace. This ancient prayer about the incarnation of Christ is from the 12th century.
