An Ignatian Prayer

That I May Be Received Under the Standard of Our Divine King

O Lord, behold me a suppliant praying before Thee.

I come to implore of Thee a grace which is repugnant to my nature and which I dread to obtain.

Alas, my heart is not indifferent: on the contrary,

it rebels at the thought of voluntary poverty,
and the contempt of men.

It is to master my natural inclinations,

to vanquish self, and to conquer my heart,

to extinguish in it every spark of that self-love which

is not in accordance with the rule these exercises place before me,

that I entreat Thee to receive me under Thy standard.

May Thy Divine Majesty deign to shelter me beneath the folds of this Thy holy standard,

to give me the spirit of poverty and detachment,

and to call me even to the practice of actual and perfect poverty,

if such is Thy good pleasure.

Lord Jesus, in order that I may resemble Thee more closely,

grant me a share, I beseech Thee, in Thy humiliations,

and in the injustices that Thou didst meet with,

provided that I can bear them without committing any sin,

without ever displeasing, in any way,

Thy Divine Majesty.

O Blessed Virgin, Mother of my God, obtain for me from

Thy Divine Son the grace to be received and to march under His standard.

Hail Mary...

O Eternal Word, for the love Thou bearest our Lady,

Thy Blessed Mother, obtain for me from the Father the grace to be received

and to march under Thy standard.

Anima Christi…

O Father, for the love Thou bearest the most holy Virgin Mary,

for the sake of Thy Son, our Lord,

I beseech Thee to grant me the grace to be received

and to march under the standard of Jesus Christ.

Our Father...

With Gratitude to Good Jesuit, Bad Jesuit (www.goodjesuitbadjesuit.blogspot.com)