MIRACULOUS MIRACLES^™

Prayer — Prayers of the Saints

Offrande de moi-même comme victime d'holocauste à l'Amour miséricordieux

Act of Oblation to Merciful Love

by St. Thérèse of Lisieux

St. Thérèse of Lisieux's offering of herself as a victim of God's Merciful Love — composed on June 9, 1895, two years before her death.

The Prayer

English · Original

O my God, Most Blessed Trinity,
I desire to love You and make You loved,
to work for the glory of Holy Church
by saving souls on earth
and liberating those suffering in Purgatory.

I desire to accomplish Your will perfectly
and to reach the degree of glory You have prepared for me
in Your Kingdom.
I desire, in a word, to be a saint,
but I feel my helplessness
and I beg You, O my God,
to be Yourself my Sanctity.

Since You have loved me so much
as to give me Your only Son
as my Saviour and my Spouse,
the infinite treasures of His merits are mine.

I offer them to You with gladness,
begging You to look upon me
only in the Face of Jesus
and in His Heart burning with Love.

In order to live in one single act of perfect Love,
I offer myself as a victim of holocaust
to Your Merciful Love,
asking You to consume me incessantly,
allowing the waves of infinite tenderness
shut up within You
to overflow into my soul,
and that thus I may become a Martyr of Your Love, O my God.

May this martyrdom,
after having prepared me to appear before You,
finally cause me to die,
and may my soul take its flight
without delay
into the eternal embrace of Your Merciful Love.

I want, O my Beloved, at each beat of my heart,
to renew this offering to You an infinite number of times,
until the shadows having vanished,
I may tell You of my Love
in an Eternal Face to Face.
Amen.

When the Prayer is Said

On the Feast of St. Thérèse (October 1); on Trinity Sunday; in personal devotion.

History & Background

On June 9, 1895 — the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity — St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, age twenty-two and not yet two years from death, knelt with her sister Céline in the chapel of the Carmel of Lisieux and offered herself to God as a victim of His Merciful Love. She had spent weeks composing the text. Her prioress, Mother Marie de Gonzague, gave permission; the act was carried out privately, with no ceremony.

The Act stands at the center of Thérèse's 'Little Way' — the path of spiritual childhood that John Paul II would later canonize her doctrine of. Where the older Carmelite tradition offered itself as a victim to Divine Justice, Thérèse offered herself to Divine Love: 'I cannot endure that Your love should be wasted, that the souls who love You should refuse Your love. Let me become the prey of Your love, O my God.'

She died of tuberculosis fourteen months later, on September 30, 1897. Pius XI canonized her in 1925; Pius XII declared her co-patron of the missions in 1944; John Paul II named her a Doctor of the Church in 1997, only the third woman so named.

Related Saints

St. Thérèse of Lisieux

January 2, 1873 – September 30, 1897

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