My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me.

I adore you with profound reverence.

I ask your pardon for my sins and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful.

My Immaculate Mother Saint Joseph, my Father, and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful.

My immaculate Mother St. Joseph, my father, and Lord,

my guardian angel, and deceit for him.

Lord, as we gather around you,

we ask you for that grace of spirit of penance during these special times of lent, these days of grace. And we want that spirit of penance because self-denial on many fronts is part of that trajectory to enter into your heart.

We have that holy vested interest, ulterior motive, of getting to know you more intimately, more personally.

And we have that other vested interest,

which is your vested interest, Lord,

that we be more of a light, more of a witness to you.

And all the time, but especially during these days of Lent, the prominent word is penance and repentance.

Lord, what is it that you want us to see?

Centuries before the birth of Christ, especially the prophet Isaiah, the Psalms as well,

specify what kind of penance gives glory to God.

And the Holy Spirit through these scriptural writers

list the different acts of devotion keeping the Sabbath fasting prayer putting on sackcloth

and ashes and the Holy Spirit says that those acts in themselves do not please God.

Why should God be pleased by the sacrifice of an animal or serial offerings?

And since David, I think, reigned a thousand years before Jesus, David heavily illuminated by the Holy Spirit,

reveals what is God's favorite form of penance.

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