Prayer to Jesus on the Cross
O Jesus,
for how many ages have you been on the Cross and yet people pass by in utter disregard of you except to pierce once again your Sacred Heart.
How often have I passed you by,
heedless of your overwhelming sorrow,
your countless wounds,
you infinite love.
How often have I stood before you,
not to comfort and console you,
but to offend you by my conduct or neglect of you,
to scorn your love.
You have stretched out your hands to comfort me,
and I have seized those hands
- that might have consigned me to hell
- and have bent them back upon the Cross,
nailing them rigid and helpless to it.
Yet I have only succeeded in imprinting my name on your palms forever.
You have loved me with an infinite love and I have taken advantage of that love to sin all the more against you.
Yet my ingratitude has only succeeded in piercing your Sacred Heart and causing your Precious Blood to flow forth upon me.
O Jesus,
let your Blood be upon me,
not for a curse,
but for a blessing.
Lamb of God,
you take away the sins of the world.
Have mercy on me.
Amen.
