Devotion of the Six Sundays.
IN HONOUR OF ST. ALOYSIUS GONZAGA.
Which commences on the sixth Sunday preceding the 21st June, generally the second Sunday of May.
Prayer.
GLORIOUS Saint! my powerful protector at the throne of God, who so long and so bitterly bewailed the slightest faults, you see before you a criminal soul, which, though guilty of numberless and grievous sins, can with difficulty be brought to conceive the least sorrow for them. Obtain for me, I beseech you, some degree of that lively and profound contrition with which you were penetrated, and which alone can soften my hard and insensible heart. If I do not merit this singular favour, my divine Saviour has merited it for me, and he demands this compunction of me in satisfaction for my sins. Intercede with him for me, that the enormity of my crimes may be ever present to my mind, and my heart always penetrated with a sincere sorrow for them, to the end that I may live in the pleasing hope of having obtained that pardon which is granted only to repentance and compunction. A contrite and humbled heart, O God, says the Prophet, thou wilt never despise. ( Ps . 1.) Amen.
Prayer.
MOST mortified and most innocent Aloysius! I feel humbled, and stand confounded at the sight of the contrast between the innocence of your life and the guilt of mine. You treated your innocent body with the utmost rigour and severity; and I, though guilty of so many sins, seek every means to gratify
