In this sixth and last part of the prayer, in which the victim soul has concluded the giving of itself and, ready to renew its offering all the days of its life assured of the reward of God, it asks for the graces and blessings it desire for all the world.

The prayer of petition begins fully here. But, the first thing it does is to confess itself unworthy of soliciting even the least grace. "On the other hand," it says, "what shall I ask of Thee, O bountiful God? I feel I have no right to ask Thee for even the least grace."

Surely, in spite of the fact that the soul gives everything that it is to God and is faithful in its promise to death, it must not esteem itself worthy of any recompense. The reason is this: it offered itself because God has inspired it to do so, God has asked it and it is obliged to respond to the call of its Master. On doing so, it has not done anything but what it is obliged to do. "You have not chosen Me," says Jesus, "but I have chosen you." (Jn. XV:16)

Then, as it says elsewhere: "Doth he thank that servant for doing the things which he commanded him? I think not. So you, also, when you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which we ought to do." (Lk. XVII:9-10)

And, truthfully, let the soul that has offered itself as a victim to Divine Justice stop to consider this point of incontrovertible truth: predestination.

Each soul predestined by God will have a debt in its obligations inasmuch as it does not respond to the divine calling, no matter what its state of life or perfection. Thus: let the soul assure itself that, if it has offered itself as a victim, it is because it was predestined by God for so sublime a mission. And, on feeling inspired to offer itself, let it be a debtor before God for those precious graces that have conspired to make it aware of the divine will, and thus it is His Divine Majesty that adds another merit to its labor. That is why the soul, convinced of this truth, humiliates itself and does not recognize itself as having any right to be recompensed, for if it has done anything, it is because it has been obliged to do so in justice. On the other hand, do not forget that the human creature can merit nothing of itself. Jesus has said, "Without Me, you can do nothing." (Jn. XV:5)

But, for that reason, the soul immediately adds: "Nevertheless, I am consoled in remembering that the Infinite Merits of the Sacred Humanity of my Lord, Jesus Christ, can obtain all things. 'If you ask the Father anything in My Name, He will give it to you.' Enveloped, therefore, in the resplendent veil of the merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ, I venture to entreat Thee. . .O Thou Omnipotent Majesty, for. . .

With great consolation and extraordinary confidence, the victim soul will be able to lay claim before the throne of God to graces and gifts through the merits of Christ. And there are two reasons why it can do so: the propitiation of the sufferings that Jesus has taken upon Himself for the world, for which it is a promise common to all the redeemed; and, besides, that other promise of His to His chosen ones: "If you abide in Me. . .you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you." (Jn. XV:7)

And the victim soul will be more closely united to Christ to the degree to which it is faithful to its victimhood, because St. John says: "In this we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us." (1 Jn. III:24)

Due, then, to that union that is established between Christ, Victim and the victim soul, in which it shares in His Cross and His Passion, and even in His merits, as in His feelings of charity and ardent zeal, the soul will be able to lay claim to a great deal before the Heavenly Father, for Jesus Himself has authorized it with these words: "You shall ask in My Name, and I say not to you that I will ask the Father for you: for the Father Himself loveth you, because you have loved Me." (Jn. XVI:26-27)

The victim soul, convinced in this matter that his petition will find grace before God, because it has the right of appropriating to itself the merits of Christ th rough His own condescension, for that reason, comes to ask unreservedly, with its eyes lifted, without abjectness, since it is going to ask while laying claim to infinite merits and before an infinite power, too, and it is going to ask a God Whose love is infinite and Who is pleased to give His gifts.

Thus the soul then says in its prayer: "above all, for ………………, my country, etc."

In this petition each one must ask for that nation to which it belongs and thus it can add the invocation or titles of the Blessed Virgin under which its nation is consecrated.

Thus for our Mexican nation, the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe is invoked. And immediately it adds: "May this little corner of the world become the land of Mary."

Through this it is asked that God Our Lord extend the kingdom of the Blessed Virgin, since where She reigns, the true Church flourishes; where She reigns, all will be in the dominion of Her Most Holy Son and the head of the infernal dragon will be crushed since Mary is a "great sign in Heaven." (Apoc. XII:1)

The prayer continues with these words: "Behold our lamentable situation in these moments of trial. Assist and comfort our souls that we may never abandon Thy ranks."

Let one have here the intention of commending the latent necessities of the Church, whether in one's own nation or another, since in the Church of Christ, there is no exception of persons nor races nor peoples; rather, it is a single great family and a single kingdom, of which He is Father and King. That is why He is asked to help and comfort souls so, in the midst of the perennial battle that it maintains with its sworn enemies that must be fought until the end of time, the children of His Kingdom may not desert the ranks of the Church. On asking: "Grant, dear Lord, that soon the cockle may be separated from the wheat, so it may no longer corrupt the good seed," the soul must ask for the liberation the Church needs from all temporal antichristian power that restrains its just liberty, exposes its children to contamination in doctrine or customs, by the unavoidable mingling with the impious.

This petition must be made under the spirit of that of the Psalmist: "Deliver my soul from the wicked one: thy sword from the enemies of Thy hand. O Lord, divide them from the few of the earth in their life." (Ps. XVI:13-14) "The wickedness of sinners shall be brought to naught; and thou shalt direct the just." (Ps. VII:9)

There must, however, be another important intention in this petition. The soul considers life a perennial battle in which man often falls, overthrown forever, and God loses some of His glory in the soul of each sinner who arrives at the threshold of eternity impenitent. It considers, too, that, because of the wickedness spread throughout the world, the corruption of customs increases, sins and offenses against God increase, for which, justly, calamities will come to guilty mankind. And, in the light of these considerations, it is afflicted remembering the prophetic words of the Gospel concerning the last times which must be fulfilled and having in mind what Christ Himself charges and promises on saying: "And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened." (Mt. XXIV:22) That is why the victim soul asks here in a special way that the Lord deign to make the day come soon on which the "wheat may be gathered into His barns." (Mt. XIII:30)

This the victim to Divine Justice must always and constantly ask, also for another reason: because it is obliged to augment and exalt that Holy Justice which must be to it like the key to all the other divine attributes. "I will give glory to the Lord according to His justice: and will sing to the name of the Lord Most High." (Ps. VII:18) And, as the full exaltation of the Justice of God will be on the last day of time, when the glorification of the just and the punishment of the wicked will be consummated, the victim soul must sigh for that splendorous day and that resplendent glory of its God. For, on that day, the power of the evil one and all sin and injustice will be forever erased from the earth; because "the wicked shall not rise again in judgment: nor sinners in the council of the just." (Ps. I:5)

"But let them be glad that hope in thee: they shall rejoice forever." (Ps. V:12) "Because the Lord is just, and hath loved justice." (Ps. X:8) "For with thee is the fountain of life; and in thy light we shall see light." (Ps. XXXV:10) "Extend thy mercy to them that know thee, and thy justice to them that are right in heart." (Ibid. 11)

The victim soul to Divine Justice must not have any fear of the day of just recompense for humanity before the Tribunal of God. Its duty is to love Justice and its love will impel it to confide precisely in Divine Justice, as the Evangelist St. John says in his first letter exhorting to perfect charity, in imitation of Christ: "In this is the charity of God perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of Judgment." (1 Jn. IV:17) This is what the victim soul must long for and ask that the times be abbreviated and that soon the Just Judge may judge this world and separate the cockle from the wheat so that, as it clearly says, it may no longer infect the good seed.

Thus, anxious that all its brothers may be saved, the soul then says: "O my God, convert heretics and sinners. Sanctify Christians and grant perseverance to the just. . .give us saintly Priests!"

Thus its fraternal anxiety embraces both the good and the wicked, since it knows through faith that, until the last day comes, Infinite Mercy will continue shedding its graces to attract to itself all men of good will.

This petition must be like an echo of the desires of God expressed through the mouth of His Divine Son Who says: "Now this is the will of the Father Who sent Me: that of all that He hath given Me, I should lose nothing; but should raise it up again in the last day." (Jn. VI:39)

Let the victim to Divine Justice note well that, although it places the petition asking for the sanctification of priests in the last place, this must be its primary intention, as if it were the sum of all the others, since it recognizes the meaning of those words of the Gospel with respect to priests of God: "You are the salt of the earth." (Mt. V:13) For surely the sanctification of the faithful will correspond to the sanctity of the priests.

Besides, it understands what the world neglects and ignores and that is: that the faithful are seriously obliged to pray for the priests of the Lord who are doubly persecuted by the enemies of the Kingdom of Christ.

And for this, the soul concludes its petition with the following words: "May Thy Holy Church triumph throughout the world! And may the Most Sacred Emblem of Thy Holy Cross shine forth resplendently in every clime! Behold, O Jesus, in synthesis, the object of my self-offering." With these words, the victim soul makes it known that its longing is for nothing other than what the Heart of Jesus longs for: "that there may be but one flock: His Apostolic Roman Catholic Church, and a single Pastor: He, Christ, in the person of His Vicar."

Such was the purpose of Christ's coming to earth, and thus the victim soul must continue the work of its Model, cooperating with its supplicatory prayers, with its sacrifices and immolations, united to those of the Divine Victim to make its victimhood reparatory.

Beyond this, there is nothing more to be added to the formula of its offering than to repeat before its God, gratefully, that all glory may devolve on Him, by virtue of the fact that it is He Who inspires it and it insists that for itself it asks only, it desires only, the grace of final perseverance. It does not aspire to be rewarded with any other gift but that: "I give Thee thanks and thereby honor Thee for the virtue that inspires me. For, I am sure that, without Thee, I would not feel inspired to perform any good act whatever. Hence, at the sight of Thy mercies towards such an unworthy creature as I am, I implore on my own behalf: the pardon of my sins, and may I not be deprived of loving Thee forever. Amen."

That is: the victim soul has now confided itself completely to its God, it has given itself up as a host of perfect immolation. That is why it will not now ask for itself of its Master any particular thing for the path of this life, but rather only for eternity, the possession of His Divine Lord: the beatific vision, to absorb itself and lose itself forever in that infinite Charity that has inflamed it here and that will consume it there forever, realizing the perfect unity with the August Trinity, by means of Its Word Who is the BOND OF THE TRINITY. --- From "Estrella," December, 1973

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