I have received into my heart Jesus Christ, His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. I begin this day as a day in Heaven. He is in my soul the Divine Infant in the crib, the growing Boy at Nazareth, the Apostle acclaimed by crowds on the roads of Galilee, the Miracle-Worker Who performed such prodigies, the Martyr Who completed His Sacrifice on Calvary.
And now, O good Master, what shall I give Thee in exchange for Thy visit...?
I would like to pray to Thee with the burning words of Thy Mother and her court of Heaven, but I feel riveted to earthly things...
I would like to offer Thee courageous loyalty to my Baptismal Vows and Confirmation Graces but alas, I have so often been disloyal...
I would like, at least, to have a desire for the Christian life, but I allow myself to be discouraged by my failures...
O good Jesus, I have nothing to give Thee, and Thou hast given Everything; Thou hast given Thyself to me. I can only join my poor voice in the chorus of praise to Thee, rising out of all the works of Thy Creation here on earth...
With the fifteen hundred millions now living on earth, I shall praise Thy Mercy! May our voices unite with the billions of those who inhabited the earth before us, and out of whose dust the beauty of Nature perpetually rises to praise Thy Glory!
May an infinite concert of voices from cottages and palaces, from fields and forests, from towns and deserts, from workshops and cathedrals, from earth and from heaven, from time and from eternity arise to give my thanks unto Thee!
from my grandfather's WWII Navy missal, nihil obstat & imprimatur Jan. 6, 1938
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