PRAYER: A Novena of Saint Teresa of Ávila

Author unknown

O most amiable Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for the great gift of faith and of devotion to the holy sacrament that you did grant to your beloved Teresa.  I pray you, by your merits, to grant me the gift of a lively faith and of a fervent devotion toward the most holy sacrament of the altar, where you, O Infinite Majesty, have obliged yourself to abide with me even to the end of the world, and wherein you did so lovingly give your whole self to me.  I come here to celebrate this novena, hoping to obtain the intercession of Saint Teresa for the following intention (STATE REQUEST).

O most merciful Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for the great gift of hope that you did grant to your beloved Teresa.  I pray you, by your merits, to give me a great confidence in your goodness by reason of your precious blood that you shed to its last drop for my salvation.

O most loving Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for the great gift of love which you granted to your beloved Teresa. I pray to you, by your merits, and by those of your most loving spouse, to love as you loved and give myself in the service of God and my fellowmen.

O most sweet Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for the gift of great desire and resolution that you granted to your beloved Teresa, that she might love you perfectly.  I pray you, by your merits, to give me a true desire and a true resolution of pleasing you to the utmost of my power.

O most kind Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for the great gift of humility that you granted to your beloved Teresa.  I pray you, by your merits, to grant me the grace of a true humility that may make me ever find my joy in humiliation and prefer contempt before every honor.

O most bountiful Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for the gift of devotion towards your sweet mother, Mary, and her holy spouse, Joseph, that you granted to your beloved Teresa.  I pray you, by your merits, to give me the grace of a special and tender devotion towards your most holy mother, Mary, and towards your beloved father, Joseph.

O most loving Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for the wonderful gift of the wound in the heart that you did grant to your beloved Teresa.  I pray you, by your merits, to grant me also a like wound of love, that, henceforth, I may love you and give my mind to the love of nothing but you.

O most beloved Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for the eminent gift of the desire for death that you granted to your beloved Teresa.  I pray you, by your merits, to grant me the grace of desiring death in order to go and possess you eternally in the country of the blessed.

O dearest Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for the gift of the precious death that you granted to your beloved Teresa, making her sweetly to die of love.  I pray you, by your merits, to grant me a good death, and, if I do not die of love, yet, that I may at least die burning of love for you, that so dying, I may be able to go and love you for evermore with a more perfect love in Heaven.

Graciously hear me, O God of my salvation, that, as I rejoice in the commemoration of the blessed virgin, Teresa, so I may be nourished by her Heavenly doctrine and draw from thence the fervor of a tender devotion.

Amen.