MARIAN PRAYER OF SAINT JOHN EUDES (A.D. 1601-1680)

At the New Year

O Blessed Virgin,

Mother of my God and Saviour,

I honour and revere you

in the first moment of your life.

I honour and revere

the dispositions of your holy soul,

an all that took place in you at that time.

You began immediately,

O holy Virgin,

to love and glorify God most perfectly,

and from that first moment

to the last of your life,

you did ever love and glorify him more and more.

As for me, in spite of all the years

I have been in this world,

I have not yet begun to love

and serve him as I should.

O Mother of mercy,

beg your divine Son to have mercy on me.

Atone for my failings,

offering Him on my behalf

all the love

and glory you ever gave Him,

to satisfy for my neglect

in loving and glorifying Him.

Grant that I may share

in your surpassing love for him,

and in the fidelity of that great eternal love.

Pray for me,

that He may give me the grace to begin,

at least now,

to love Him perfectly,

and that all that shall take place

during this year,

and all my life,

may be consecrated to His glory and your honour.

O angels, and saints of Jesus Christ,

pray for me,

that our loving Saviour may give me new grace

and new love for him,

to devote this year and my whole life,

purely and solely to the service of His glory and love.