May my soul bless You, God and Lord, my Creator, may my soul bless You and, from the most intimate recesses of my being, may my soul praise You for Your mercies, with which I have undeservedly been blessed, overwhelmingly filled with Your goodness.

I give You thanks with my whole heart for Your immense mercy and support; at the same time, I recognize Your patient goodness, which I put to the test during my infancy and childhood, my adolescence and youth, up to the age of nearly twenty-six, as I spent all that time obfuscated and somewhat demented; thinking, speaking and working, whenever I could, according to what I felt like doing - now I realize this! - without any remorse of conscience, without taking You into account; letting myself be carried away by nothing more than my natural despisement for evil and attraction for what is good; or, by the warnings of those surrounding me, as if I were a pagan among pagans.

All this I lived as if I had never understood that You, my God, rewards good and punishes evil; and all this in spite of the fact that from my infancy, from the age of 5, You chose me to become part of Your intimate ones in the religious life.

For all of this, I offer You, in reparation, most loving Father, all that Your beloved Son suffered, from the moment that He began to cry, reclined on the hay in the manger; passing later on through the demands of infancy, the limitations of puberty, the difficulties of adolescence ... the youthful impetus: all until the hour in which, inclining His head, He surrendered His spirit on the Cross, letting out a loud cry.

I also offer You, most loving Father, so as to make up for all my negligences, the absolute sanctity and perfection with which Your Only-begotten Son thought, spoke and worked, from the moment in which, sent down from the Celestial Throne, He made His entrance into this world, up to the moment in which He presented Himself, before Your paternal glance, with the glory of His triumphant humanity.

Full of gratitude, I submerge myself into the most profound abyss of my smallness and I praise and adore - together with Your mercy which is above all - that sweetest benignity with which You, Father of Mercy, have for me; I, who lived so waywardly; You gave me Your designs of peace and not affliction. Said another way: the manner in how You lifted me up with the multitude and magnitude of Your benefits, showed me that You were not content with only all this; You also bestowed upon me the inestimable gift of Your friendship and kinship, opening up for me the most noble Ark of Divinity: Your divine Heart, in which I find all of my sweetest delights.

Even more, You drew my soul to Yourself with such promises, referring to the benefits You want to grant me at my death and after my death; such are these that, even if they were the only gifts I received from You, would be all-sufficient for my heart to yearn for You constantly, with a hope that is most deeply and completely, alive.



PRAYER
O God, who made the heart of Your virgin Saint Gertrude, by her prayers and merits, a joyful abode for You, illuminate the darkness in our own hearts, and grant that we joyfully experience Your presence and actions in us, and between us. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the Unity of the Holy Spirit and is God, for ever and ever. Amen