In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Come, Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Your Beloved Spouse! (3x)

Lk.17, 11-19

As He continued His journey to Jerusalem, He traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As He was entering a village, ten lepers met Him. They stood at a distance from Him and raised their voice, saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” And when He saw them, He said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” As they  were going they were cleansed. And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked Him. He was a Samaritan. Jesus said in reply, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” Then He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”

To be grateful

Let us pray for a heart sensitive to God’s gifts and for the grace to be grateful 

I will enter the touching scene of Jesus’s encounter with the lepers (11-12). I will see their decaying bodies and their suffering and tragic faces. They stand at a distance deprived of the right to see their loved ones.

I will thank Jesus for the miracle of my life, for my healthy body, for my beauty, for my close meetings with my loved ones and for my sufferings which are smaller than those of many other suffering people.

I will hear a piercing cry of ten lepers: “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” (13). They place their last hope in Jesus. They believe that He can heal them.

I will remember those situations in my life when I suffered greatly losing my hope. Do I remember my prayers from those days? Does my heart not cry today because of some lived experience? Do I not need the “prayer of the lepers”?

Jesus heals the lepers. He does so at the moment they least expect it. “As they were going they were cleansed” (13). Do I see the works of grace in my life? Which graces have I recognized so far?

I will look at the healed one. He is glorifying God in a loud voice (15-16). I will see his eyes sparkle. He falls at the feet of Jesus giving thanks.

Do I remember similar moments in my life? I recall them. What have I been most grateful for?

I will focus on Jesus’s pain. He suffers because of the nine healed ones. Absorbed in their own happiness they forgot about Him (17-18). Jesus asks me about my gratitude. Is there anything I have failed to thank Him for? I will turn my prayer into a spontaneous “Litany of Praise”. I will glorify Him for the most important events and graces in my life: “Jesus, I glorify You for…”

In the school of Our Lady

From Mary’s life, a prayer of praise constantly rose to God: my soul magnifies the Lord. In joy and in pain, she always stood before God with a grateful heart, because she believed that He is good. Mary’s gratitude is the way she loved God. It teaches us that gratitude to God for everything that happens to us – beautiful, painful, joyful, holy – causes us to grow spiritually.

August 25, 1988

Dear children! Today I invite you all to rejoice in the life which God gives you. Little children, rejoice in God, the Creator, because He has created you so wonderfully. Pray that your life be joyful thanksgiving which flows out of your heart like a river of joy. Little children, give thanks unceasingly for all that you possess, for each little gift which God has given you, so that a joyful blessing always comes down from God upon your life. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Mary, Mother of Gratitude, teach me to give thanks even for what I do not understand. Teach me to see God’s gifts where my eyes do not see them. May my life, like yours, become a hymn of praise. In silence, in service, in joy, and on the cross, may my prayer be: I praise you, Lord, for everything.

The prayer of consecration to Jesus through Mary

Holy Virgin Mary, today before You and in Your hands I renew and confirm the vows of Holy Baptism.

I renounce satan forever, his works; and I consecrate myself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. I want to carry my cross after Him all the days of my life according to the will of the Heavenly Father.

O Mary, in the presence of all the heavenly court and the whole Church I consecrate myself to Your Immaculate Heart. Be my Mother and Queen. In complete submission and love I give You and consecrate to You my body and soul, my goods, both interior and exterior, the value of all my good actions, past, present and future leaving to Thee the entire and full right of disposing of me, and all that belongs to me according to Thy good pleasure, for the greater glory of God in time and in eternity. Amen.