Ave Maria Meditations
(Prayer was written by St Thomas More, Franciscan Tertiary, while imprisoned in the Tower of London)
Give me the grace, Good Lord: To set the world at naught. To set the mind firmly on You and not to hang upon the words of men’s mouths. To be content to be solitary. Not to long for worldly pleasures. Little by little utterly to cast off the world and rid my mind of all its business; gladly to be thinking of God, piteously to call for His help. To lean into the comfort of God. Busily to labor to love Him.
To humble myself under the mighty hand of God. To bewail my sins and, for the purging of them, patiently to suffer adversity. Gladly to bear my purgatory here. To be joyful in tribulations. To walk the narrow way that leads to life.
To have the “last thing” in remembrance. To have ever before my eyes my death that is ever at hand. To make death no stranger to me. To foresee and consider the everlasting fire of Hell. To pray for pardon before the judge comes. To have continually in mind the passion that Christ suffered for me. For His benefits unceasingly to give Him thanks.
Give me the grace to long for Your Holy Sacraments, and especially to rejoice in the presence of Your Body, sweet Savior Christ, in the Holy Sacrament of the altar. Amen.
