Prayer for Monday in Holy Week

 by Dom Guaranger

O great and Sovereign Lord! (Adonai!) Christ our God! crucify us, with Thyself, to this world, that so Thy life may be in us. Take upon Thee our sins, that Thou mayst crucify them. Draw us unto Thyself, since it was for our sakes that Thou wast raised up from the earth; and thus snatch us from the power of the unclean tyrant: for, though by flesh and our sins, we be exposed to the insults of the devil, yet do we desire to serve, not him, but Thee. We would be Thy subjects; we ask to be governed by Thee; for, by Thy death on the cross, Thou didst deliver us, who are mortals and surrounded by death. It is to bless Thee for this wonderful favor, that we this day offer thee our devoted service; and humbly adoring Thee, we now implore and beseech Thee, to hasten to our assistance, O Thou our God, the Eternal and Almighty! Let Thy Cross thus profit us unto good, that Thou, by its power, mayst triumph over the world in us, and Thine own mercy restore us, by Thy might and grace, to the ancient blessing. O thou, whose power hath turned the future into the past, and whose presence maketh the past to be present,--grant, that Thy Passion may avail us to salvation, as though it were accomplished now on this very day. May the drops of Thy holy Blood, which heretofore fell upon the earth from the Cross, be our present salvation: may it wash away all the sins of our earthly nature, and be, so to say, commingled with the earth of our body, rendering it all Thine, since we, by our reconciliation with Thee, our Head, have been made one body with Thee. Thou that ever reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, now begin to reign over us, O God Man, Christ Jesus, King for ever and ever!