• It is not in vain that we pray to God, whose very nature is to be merciful and forgiving . He even wants us to importune Him; and if He is severe towards the heart that rebels against His love's advances to draw it to Himself, He is all kindness to the penitent and docile heart. Prayers are excellent and necessary, but they are not enough. They must be sanctioned by compunction of heart, by real efforts to correct oneself, and by a penance that is the fruit of sincere contrition. So make every effort to ensure that your heart is touched by deep regret, and beseech Mary to inspire in you a just abhorrence of all that offends God. Moaning thus humiliated, you will infallibly deserve that the God who never despises the heart broken and annihilated by the feeling of its faults, should approach you and say: “Go, your sins are forgiven you, be delivered from evil, but sin no more, lest something worse happen to you.” Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us. God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us. God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us. God the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us. Holy Trinity, One God, have mercy on us. O Lord, who do not wish the sinner to die, but rather to be converted and live, I am extremely sorry to have offended You so much. O Lord, who have compassion on all men and conceal their sins, so that they may do penance, I am extremely sorry to have offended You so much. O Lord, who have never rejected a contrite and humble heart, I am extremely sorry to have offended You so much. O Lord, who remember none of our sins after we have done penance for them, I am extremely sorry to have offended You so much. O Lord, who, after Adam's fall, made him aware of his fault and called him to penance, I am extremely sorry to have offended You so much. O Lord, who forgave David when he accused himself of his sin and did penance for it, I am extremely sorry to have offended You so much. O Lord, who forgave the people of Nineveh when they did penance through fasting, ashes and cilice, I am extremely sorry to have offended You so much. O good Jesus! who, coming to redeem mankind, sent before You Saint John the Baptist to preach penance, I am extremely sorry to have offended You so much. O good Jesus! who declared that the publican, striking his breast with pain and humility, had been justified, I am extremely sorry to have offended You so much. O good Jesus! who gave hope of forgiveness to the greatest sinners, in the parable of the prodigal son returning to his father, I am extremely sorry to have offended You so much. O good Jesus! who forgave Mary Magdalene her great and many sins, because she had loved You so much, I am extremely sorry to have offended You so much. O good Jesus! who saved the life of the adulteress, and demanded only a true change of heart, I am extremely sorry to have offended You so much. O good Jesus! who went looking for the Samaritan woman, and who so gently removed her from her errors and disorders, I am extremely sorry to have offended You so much. O good Jesus! who blessed the home of the converted Zacchaeus with Your presence, and placed him among the true children of Abraham, I am extremely sorry to have offended You so much. O good Jesus! who, looking upon Saint Peter with an eye of mercy, when he denied You for the third time, revealed to him his crime, and made him expiate it through the tears of a sincere penitence, I am extremely sorry to have offended You so much. O good Jesus! who, lifted up on the Cross, promised paradise to the good penitent thief, I am extremely sorry to have offended You so much. O good Jesus! who wanted to be a propitiation victim for our sins, I am extremely sorry to have offended You so much. O good Jesus! who, to save us from the curse our sins deserved, made Yourself an object of curse, I am extremely sorry to have offended You so much. O good Jesus! who reconciled Heaven with Earth by the blood You shed on the Cross, I am extremely sorry to have offended You so much. Show us, O Lord, Your kindness, and grant us Your salvation. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to You. From all sin, deliver us, O Lord. By the tears You shed in the manger, deliver us, O Lord. By the sufferings of Your circumcision, and by the blood You shed there, deliver us, O Lord. By the poverty, darkness and labors of Your hidden life, deliver us, O Lord. By the baptism of penance You wished to receive, and by the rigor of Your fast, deliver us, O Lord. By the sweat, toil and contradictions of Your public life, deliver us, O Lord. By Your agony and Your sweat of blood at the sight of our sins, deliver us, O Lord. By the opprobrium with which You were filled for us, deliver us, O Lord. By the torments and pains of Your Passion, deliver us, O Lord. By the abandonment You suffered on the Cross and by Your cruel death, deliver us, O Lord. By the thrust of the lance that opened Your divine Heart, deliver us, O Lord. By the sorrows of Your holy Mother at the foot of the Cross, deliver us, O Lord. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, Forgive us, O Lord. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, Graciously spare us, O Lord. Lamb of God who takest away the sins of the world, Have mercy on us, O Lord. Christ, hear us. / Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us. / Christ, graciously hear us. Let Us Pray – O God, who rejects no one, but by a great mercy lets Yourself be touched in favor of the greatest sinners when they do penance, listen favorably to the prayers we offer You in our misery; dispel the darkness into which our passions plunge us; and grant us the grace to faithfully fulfill Your holy commandments. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.