What Shall I give Thee?

An after Communion Prayer

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 preformed such prodigies…the Martyr Who completed His Sacrifice on Calvary.

He is in my….What more can I desire when I posses Jesus?

And now, O good Master! What shall I give Thee in exchange for Thy visit…?

I would like to give Thee a soul all sparkling with purity and sincerity, but mine is afflicted with so many miseries!

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 majesty of the mountains, the immensity of the desert, the roar of the ocean, the fury of the storm, I shall praise Thy Power!

With the flowers of the field, the colors of the rainbow, the whiteness of the snow, the blue of the skies I shall praise Thy Beauty!

With the fruits of the earth, the air I breath, the light I see, the life I enjoy, I shall praise Thy Goodness.

With the splendor of the stars, the rays of the sun, the moon’s pale light, the depths of space, I shall praise Thine Immensity.

With 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!  Amen