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of holy souls! inflame, I beseech thee, my heart with the fire of thy divine love, and with thy saving Wounds, that I may love thee from my inmost heart; mercifully visit me, and with thy grace inebriate my soul, for my inmost affections ardently seek for thee, the Fount of sweetness. O fire! that burnest sweetly, shinest secretly, and enkindlest powerfully, fill the whole breadth of my soul with the constant recollection of thy most sacred Wounds, that I may hunger and thirst for thee alone* who hast suffered and wast wounded for me; that I may sigh and pant after thee, and be heated with desire to see thy face, that is the perfection of sweetness. Amen. Our Father. Hail Mary.

II.

Transfix the marrow of my soul, O lovely Jesus, with the sweetly penetrating arrow of thy love, that my soul may be wounded and may languish with the inmost love of thee and of thy Wounds; and then, being entirely dissolved into love of thee, may melt away, and be wholly absorbed into thee, and inseparably adhere to thee. Amen. Our Father. Hail Mary.

III.

Disengage, O Lord, my soul from all things under heaven, that it may be free to apply itself to thee only, and to thy Wounds, received for my salvation; dwell in it alone, as its true possessor and its rightful Lord. Let the remembrance of thy most sweet Death and Passion sink deeply into it, with the unutterable fragrance of thy charity, to stir up within me pure and heavenly aspirations and desires, that, as the hart pants after the fountains of water, so my soul may pant after thee. Amen. Our Father. Hail Mary.

IV.

Give me, O Lord Jesus, to be so fully and effectually inflamed with devotion to thy five most awful Wounds, that I may return thy love to me with my whole heart. Let me love thee, as thou hast loved me, O only salvation of my soul! I will love thee with all my might, for thou hast first so loved me as to lay down thy life for me, that by thy Death and Wounds I may live in thee. Amen. Our Father. Hail Mary.

V.

O Jesus! most lovely, most delightful Spouse of souls, marked for me upon the Cross with five very distinct sacred Wounds, as with so many characters of love; engrave and indelibly imprint upon the tablet of my heart the sweet love of thy Wounds, which no oblivion may out-blot; that, ever heated with the desire of thee, I may glow