REMEMBER YOU ARE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD

Before reaching the place chosen for the meditation, pause for a moment and put yourself in the presence of God: make an interior act of adoration and an exterior one as well, if possible.

PREPARATORY PRAYER

In the preparatory prayer I will beg God our Lord for grace that all my intentions, actions and operations may be directed purely to the praise and service of His Divine Majesty. Then I do the following:

FIRST PRELUDE. This is the history of the mystery: A very sick woman touched Jesus and was healed.

SECOND PRELUDE. This is a mental representation of the place: A crowded outdoor setting.

THIRD PRELUDE. The third, to ask for what I want: it will be to ask for interior knowledge of the Lord, that I may more love him and follow him.

Now there was a woman who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years; after long and painful treatment under various doctors, she had spent all she had without being any the better for it, in fact she was getting worse. She had heard about Jesus, and she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his cloak. “If I can touch even his clothes,” she had told herself, “I shall be well again”. And the source of the bleeding dried up instantly, and she felt in herself that she was cured of her complaint. Immediately aware that power had gone out from him, Jesus turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” His disciples said to him, “You see how the crowd is pressing around you and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’ ” But he continued to look around to see who had done it. Then the woman came forward, frightened and trembling because she knew what had happened to her, and she fell at his feet and told him the whole truth. “My daughter,” he said, “your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free from your complaint” (Mk 5:25-34).

FIRST POINT. This will consist in seeing the persons. Maybe I will make myself the woman in the story. Then I will reflect on myself that I may reap some fruit.

SECOND POINT. This is to consider, observe, and contemplate what the persons are saying, and then to reflect on myself and draw some fruit from it.

THIRD POINT. This will be to see and consider what they are doing.

COLLOQUY. The exercise should be closed with a colloquy. I will think over what I ought to say to the Three Divine Persons, or to the eternal Word incarnate, or to His Mother, our Lady. According to the light that I have received, I will beg for grace to follow and imitate more closely our Lord, who has just become man for me.

Close with an Our Father.