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meditation of the day

The Prayer of a Child

A faithful Christian, when he is about to go to sleep, will keep all that has been said above by examining his conscience with respect to the sins he has committed during the day by resolving, with the grace of his Lord, to amend them, and by being determined to confess them when he can. And since sleep is the image of death, and many who have gone to sleep in good health are dead in the morning, I shall say the Confiteor with great repentance for my sins, and I shall commend myself to my holy guardian angel and pray as follows: I, a sinner who have wandered far astray, confess to the Lord God and to Saint Mary and to Saint Michael, the angel, and to Saint John the Baptist…and to all the saints of the heavenly court…that I have sinned exceedingly through thought and through omission and through deed, that I did not do much good which I could have done, and that I did not refrain from much evil from which I could have refrained, for all of which I am sorry…. I pray and ask my Lady Saint Mary and all the saints that they may be willing to ask my Lord Jesus Christ that he may be willing to forgive me my present, past, confessed, and forgotten sins; and that from now on he may grant me his grace of keeping me from sinning and of bringing me to the enjoyment of the glory of paradise….

O blessed cross that was sanctified by the body of my Lord Jesus Christ and adorned with his precious blood! I entreat you, merciful Lord Jesus Christ, through the efficacy of your Passion and death, which you suffered on this most holy cross, that you may deign to forgive me my sins as you forgave those of the thief when you, gracious Lord, hung crucified upon it, and that you may grant me victory over my adversaries and deign to bring my enemies to a knowledge of the truth so that they may repent.

Saint Francis Xavier

Saint Francis Xavier († 1552) was a great Spanish Jesuit missionary to Asia. / From The Letters and Instructions of Francis Xavier, M. Joseph Costelloe, s.j., tr. © 1992, The Institute of Jesuit Sources, Boston College Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, Brighton, MA.