Lenten Campaign 2025
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Typically the most important part of the day is the morning, as it sets the tone and gets you in a particular mood that will carry through all of your daily activities.
Fr. Francis Xavier Lasance reflected upon this reality in his My Prayer Book, and explained the benefits of morning prayer:
What the new-born day is to our physical nature, the morning prayer is to the life of the soul. It is opening the windows of the heart that the clear air of heaven may flow in. It reinvigorates the life within us and turns our thoughts toward the One we love the most. It is a source of renewed strength, and gives a buoyancy to the spiritual step and a clearness to the inner vision. It floods the heart with the breath of life and bathes it in the sunshine of God’s smile.
Even if we are not a "morning person," it is important to begin our day in God's grace, setting ourselves up for spiritual success.
It is much better to start the day in the sunshine of God's smile than the darkness of our gloomy disposition.
Giving your heart to Jesus
One way to open the windows of the heart in the morning is to give our heart directly to Jesus.
It is our heart that guides the motivation of our activities and influences not only our actions, but also our thoughts and words. The Psalmist put it most eloquently, “For you do not desire sacrifice or I would give it; a burnt offering you would not accept. My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a contrite, humbled heart, O God, you will not scorn” (Psalm 51:18-19).
The prayer below from the Manual of the Sacred Heart is short, but also incorporates all of the above spiritual themes. It can help you start the day in a spiritual frame of mind that will impact your daily activities:
My God, I give thee my heart, grant that it may be pure, humble, upright, and sincere; give thine, I beseech thee, to me, that it may be my treasure and my life. Awake me from the sleep of sin, clothe me with the new man, create in me justice and sanctity. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
