X
Pour Out Your Spirit
The soul asks how to move God to send the Spirit when it finds nothing in itself that can please him.
But, Lord, what can I do to move you to pour out your Spirit on this wretched earth? Everything I am is hateful to you, and I find nothing in myself that can please you.
Wounds From Your Hand
Only present and threatened sufferings resemble Christ, so the prayer begs a merciful look on wounds given by the Savior’s hand.
I see nothing there, Lord, but my sufferings alone, which somewhat resemble yours.1 So consider the evils I suffer and those that threaten me. Look with a merciful eye on the wounds your hand has given me, O my Savior, who loved your sufferings in death!
The Body You Chose
Three doxological addresses praise the God who became man after the Fall to suffer in flesh and chose the most crushed body.
O God, who became man only so that you might suffer more than any man for the salvation of men! O God, who became incarnate only after the sin of men, and who took a body only to suffer in it all the evils our sins have deserved!2 O God, who love suffering bodies so much that you chose for yourself the body most crushed by sufferings that has ever been in the world!
Love These Ills
The sick body is offered not for what it is but for the evils it endures, that those ills may invite the Lord’s visit.
Look with favor on my body, not for its own sake, nor for anything it contains, for everything in it deserves your anger, but for the ills it endures, which alone can be worthy of your love.3 Love my sufferings, Lord, and let my ills invite you to visit me.4
Sorrow With You
The soul asks to match Christ’s body in suffering for sin and his soul in sorrow, suffering with him in body and soul.
But to finish preparing your dwelling place, grant, O my Savior, that if my body has this in common with yours—that it suffers for my offenses—my soul may also have this in common with yours: that it may be in sorrow for those same offenses; and so may I suffer with you, and as you do, and in my body.5 and in my soul, for the sins I have committed.
Read the original Latin
Mais, Seigneur, que ferai-je pour vous obliger à répandre votre esprit sur cette misérable terre ? Tout ce que je suis vous est odieux, et je ne trouve rien en moi qui vous puisse agréer. Je n’y vois rien, Seigneur, que mes seules douleurs, qui ont quelque ressemblance avec les vôtres. Considérez donc les maux que je souffre et ceux qui me menacent. Voyez d’un œil de miséricorde les plaies que votre main m’a faites, ô mon Sauveur, qui avez aimé vos souffrances en la mort ! ô Dieu, qui ne vous êtes fait homme que pour souffrir plus qu’aucun homme pour le salut des hommes ! ô Dieu, qui ne vous êtes incarné après le péché des hommes et qui n’avez pris un corps que pour y souffrir tous les maux que nos péchés ont mérités ! ô Dieu, qui aimez tant les corps qui souffrent, que vous avez choisi pour vous le corps le plus accablé de souffrances qui ait jamais été au monde !
Ayez agréable mon corps, non pas pour lui-même, ni pour tout ce qu’il contient, car tout y est digne de votre colère, mais pour les maux qu’il endure, qui seuls peuvent être dignes de votre amour. Aimez mes souffrances, Seigneur, et que mes maux vous invitent à me visiter. Mais pour achever la préparation de votre demeure, faites, ô mon Sauveur, que si mon corps a cela de commun avec le vôtre qu’il souffre pour mes offenses, mon âme ait aussi cela de commun avec la vôtre, qu’elle soit dans la tristesse pour les mêmes offenses : et qu’ainsi je souffre avec vous, et comme vous, et dans mon corps. et dans mon âme, pour les péchés que j’ai commis.
Notes
- 1 ↩« y » points back to the speaker’s self/interior: the only thing found that might answer to God is suffering that faintly resembles Christ’s.
- 2 ↩First clause reads « ne... incarné après » without an explicit « que »; rendered as restrictive temporal sense (only after / not until after), parallel to the clear « n’avez pris... que pour » that follows.
- 3 ↩Classical French prayer idiom: to find acceptable / look favorably upon. Rendered as 'Look with favor on' rather than the stiffer 'Accept as agreeable'.
- 4 ↩Spiritual visitation: God's coming with grace/presence, not a mere social call.
- 5 ↩Syntactic unit continues in s4 ('and in my soul...'); kept uncombined per sentence-ref contract.
Prayer to Ask God for the Good Use of Sickness companion
A prayer for every moment, already on your phone
Chosen Portion puts a curated historic prayer in front of you each day — so the words are there before the moment arrives.
Chosen Portion is the digital descendant of the carried prayer book: the short daily prayers this collection preserves, delivered one a day to your pocket.
- One short, memorable prayer delivered daily — build your repertoire a card at a time
- Prayers matched to real situations: fear, gratitude, decisions, grief, sleep
- Save favourites into your personal pocket collection you can open anywhere