BEHOLD ME, PROSTRATE AT THY FEET...CAST UPON ME A LOOK OF PITY


We are on the cusp of the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (June 19), and many of us, myself included, have not offered a novena to the Sacred Heart in the last 8 days which would have culminated on the eve of the Feast, June 18, or on the Feast, June 19.  But please may I ask you to consider offering the novena which I  have put below as "a 9 hour novena"? This may involve you offering this prayer once an hour for 9 consecutive hours. Truly a novena is offered once a day for 9 days per strict ethic, but in times of time constraint (you are not Marty McFly and can't go back in time) you may offer this same novena every hour for 9 hours.

May you offer it with great confidence and may the prayers you offer which are in accordance with the Divine Will be granted. I ask you, however, to brace yourself because to pray this novena is to adopt the position of beggar before the Heart of Jesus where we are prostrate at His Feet and we ask Him to look upon us with pity. Yet, if there is a prayer petition you want badly enough you will voluntarily humble and reduce yourself to that of a panhandling bum, or begging vagrant.  I give of this novena for your disposal:

O Divine Jesus, Who hast said, "Ask and you shall receive; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you," behold me prostrate at Thy feet. Animated with a lively faith and confidence in these promises dictated by Thy Sacred Heart and pronounced by Thine adorable lips, I come to ask (here mention your request).

From whom shall I ask, O sweet Jesus, if not from Thee, Whose Heart is an inexhaustible source of all graces and merits?  Where shall I seek, if not in the Treasury which contains all the riches of Thy clemency and bounty? Where shall I knock, if it be not at the door of Thy Sacred Heart, through which God Himself comes to us and through which we go to God?

To Thee, then, O Heart of Jesus, I have recourse. In Thee I find consolation when afflicted, protection when persecuted, strength when overwhelmed with trials, and light in doubt and darkness. I firmly believe that Thou canst bestow upon me the grace I implore, even though it would require a miracle. Thou hast only to will it, and my prayer is granted. I admit that I am most unworthy of Thy favors, O Jesus, but this is not a reason for me to be discouraged. Thou art the God of Mercy, and Thou wilt not refuse a contrite and humble heart. Cast upon me a look of pity, I implore Thee, and Thy compassionate Heart will find in my miseries and weakness a pressing motive for granting my petition.

But, O Sacred Heart, whatever may be Thy decision with regard to my request, I will never cease to adore, praise and serve Thee. Deign, my Jesus, to accept this my act of perfect submission to the decrees of Thine adorable Heart, which I sincerely desire may be fulfilled in me and by me and by all Thy creatures forever and ever.  Amen.

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