A Quarter of an Hour before the Blessed Sacrament

Print this page or access it by phone when you are in front of the Blessed Sacrament in church. Go through it slowly, pausing after each sentence or section and responding to Christ in your heart.

To please Me, dear child, it is not necessary to know much; all that is required is to love Me much, to be deeply sorry for having ever offended Me and desirous of being ever faithful to Me in future.

Speak to Me now as you would do to your dearest friend. Tell Me all that now fills your mind and heart. Are there any you wish to commend to Me? Tell Me their names, and tell Me what you would wish Me to do for them. Do not fear; ask for much. I love generous hearts, which, forgetting themselves, wish well to others.

Speak to Me of the poor you would wish to comfort; tell Me of the sick that you would wish to see relieved. Ask of Me something for those who have been unkind to you, or who have crossed you. Ask me much for them all; commend them with all your heart to Me.

And ask Me many graces for yourself. Are there not many graces you would wish to name that would make you happier in yourself, more useful and pleasing to others, and more worthy of the love of Me, the dearest Lord, Master, and Spouse of your soul? Tell Me the whole list of the favors you want of Me. Tell Me them with humility, knowing how poor you are without them, how unable to gain them by yourself; ask for them with much love, that they may make you more pleasing to Me.

With all a child’s simplicity, tell Me how self-seeking you are, how proud, vain, irritable, how cowardly in sacrifice, how lazy in work, uncertain in your good resolutions, and then ask Me to bless and crown your efforts. Poor child, fear not, blush not at the sight of so many failings; there are saints in heaven who had the faults you have; they came to Me lovingly, they prayed earnestly to Me, and My grace has made them good and holy in My sight.

You should be Mine, body and soul; fear not, therefore, to ask of Me gifts of body and mind, health, judgment, memory and success – ask them for My sake; that God may be glorified in all things. I can grant everything, and never refuse to give what may make a soul dearer to Me and better able to fulfill the will of God.

Have you no plans for the future which occupy, perhaps distress your mind? Tell Me your hopes, your fears. Is it about your future state? Your position among My creatures? Some good you wish to bring to others? In what shall I help and bless your good will?

And for Me you must have – have you not? – some zeal, some wish to do good to the souls of others. Some, perhaps, who love and care for you, have ceased, almost, to know or care for Me. Shall I give you strength, wisdom and tact, to bring these poor ones close to My heart again?

Have you failed in the past? Tell me how you acted; I will show you why you did not gain all you expected. Rely on Me: I will help you and guide you to lead others to Me.

And what crosses have you, My dear child? Have they been many and heavy ones? Has someone caused you pain? Someone wounded your self-love? Slighted you? Injured you? Lay your head upon My breast, and tell Me how you suffered. Have you felt that some have been ungrateful to you, and unfeeling toward you? Tell Me all, and in the warmth of My heart you will find strength to forgive and even to forget that they have ever wished to pain you.

And what fears have you, My child? My providence shall comfort you, My love sustain you. I am never away from you, never can abandon you. Are some growing cold in the interest and love they had for you? Pray to Me for them: I will restore them to you if it is better for you and your sanctification.

Have you got some happiness to make known to Me? What has happened since you came to Me last, to console you, to gladden and give you joy? What was it? A mark of true friendship you received? A success unexpected and almost unhoped for? A fear suddenly taken away from you? And did you remember the while that in all it was My will, My love, that brought all your heart has been so glad to have? It was My hand, My dear child, that guided and prepared all for you. Look to Me know, My child, and say, ‘Dear Jesus, I thank You.’

You will leave me soon. What promises can you make me? Let them be sincere ones, humble ones, full of love and desire to please me. Tell Me how carefully you will avoid every occasion of sin, drive from you all that leads to harm, and shun the world – the great deceiver of souls. Promise to be kind to the poor; loving, for My sake, to friends; forgiving to your enemies, and charitable to all. When you have little love for your neighbor whom you see, you are forgetting Me who am hidden from you.

Love all My saints; seek the help of your holy patrons. I love to glorify them by giving you much through them. Love, above all, My own sweet glorious Mother – she is your mother. Love her, speak to her often, and she will bring you to Me, and for her sake, I will love and bless you more each day.

Return to Me again soon, but come with your heart empty of the world, for I have many more favors to give, more than you can know of; bring your heart so that I may fill it with many gifts of My love.

My peace be with you.