O my most loving Father!
in the bitterness of the dolorous Passion of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, I now pour forth my complaint,
indignantly accusing myself that I have served Thee so unfaithfully during this day
and have offended Thee, my most amiable and loving Father, by so many and so great negligences.
I grieve for them from my inmost heart,
and strike my breast in the spirit of compunction,
and say unto Thee, O God! be merciful to me a sinner.
And for all the negligences whereby I have extinguished Thy good and gentle Spirit within me,
I offer Thee the sufferings and the tears of Thy beloved Son.
I beseech Thee, in union with His most availing prayers,
to grant me pardon of my sins, and to supply all my defects.
Deign to hear this, my prayer, through that love which held back Thine arm from taking vengeance,
when Thine only and most beloved Son, the object of Thine eternal and unspeakable complacency, was numbered with transgressors.
Amen.
- St. Gertrude the Great
