Morning Offering

The Morning Offering is a prayer of a person, who offers all his/her deeds during the day to God with the intent to repair the personal sins and the sins of others.

Morning Offering of Reparation

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, (here kiss your brown scapular) and in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass being offered throughout the world, I offer You all my prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day in reparation for the offenses committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for my sins and the sins of the whole world.

The value of Morning Offering of Reparation

The jewels of the Church are those who suffer; those who carry their crosses and endure their penances while being united to God. Father Pio, the famed stigmatist, once said: "If you knew the value of suffering you would never give it up." Whether an individual believes in God or not, a certain amount of suffering must enter every life. A person who offers his trials to God finds peace and purpose, even in his trials. One who does not unite himself to God becomes bitter and despairs.

Graces to endure our daily trials, can be obtained so easily by reciting this daily prayer, "The Morning Offering of Reparation." Imagine the countless graces being lost in hospitals and homes for the aged by neglecting this prayer. Graces which could be used to free souls from purgatory, convert sinners and strengthen the Church.

In 1945 Jesus told Lucia, the seer of Fatima, "The sacrifice and penance I now seek and require is the fulfillment of your state in life and the observance of my laws." Whatever your state in life may be you can sanctify all your daily actions if upon arising you recite sincerely the morning offering prayer. Through the "Morning Offering of Reparation" every act you do becomes a sacrifice. The word "sacrifice" means to make "holy." Once you have made your morning offering you make "holy" every act you do throughout the day.

Whatever trial God permits to pass your way during the day becomes a penance — whether it be work, bad weather, rebellious children, sickness in the family, tight economic conditions or misunderstandings by relatives or friends. All these sacrifices and penances obtain graces the Blessed Virgin needs for the conversion of sinners.

At Fatima, when showing the children, a vision of hell, Our Lady told them: "See my children, the souls of poor sinners because there was no one to pray for them or make sacrifices for them."

If you do not say your morning offering prayer, you have wasted the day as far as many graces are concerned and have lost opportunities to help in the salvation of souls.

One day a person visiting the shrine of Fatima, Portugal, was present during the blessing of the sick and afflicted. She saw before her people in wheel chairs, on crutches, lying on stretchers and cots. Moved with compassion for these afflicted, she closed her eyes to pray for them. While praying she envisioned souls dressed in white leaving purgatory and going to heaven. This incident clearly shows how the suffering of all those afflicted was the instrument God was using to free souls in purgatory.

Be sure to recite the "Morning Offering of Reparation" every day and try to renew it often throughout the day. You can place this prayer by your bedside, on your mirror or on your kitchen wall as a reminder to say it. By being faithful to your morning offering, God will send graces upon you, your family, the souls in purgatory and throughout His Church.

Make out of everything the offer to the Most High

The Angel of Peace had appeared to Fatima's children in 1916 and asked them to pray and sacrifice constantly to the Most High. He explained to Lucia how to do that:

“Offer prayers and sacrifices constantly to the Most High. … Make of everything you can a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners. You will thus draw down peace upon your country. … Above all, accept and bear with submission, the suffering which the Lord will send you.”

FATIMA in Lucia's own words [pdf]

Fourth Memoir
II. The Story of the Apparitions
1. Apparitions of the Angel. p.171

Only for Christ's sake…

…only good deeds done for Christ's sake brings us the fruits of the Holy Spirit. All that is not done for Christ's sake, even though it be good, brings neither reward in the future life nor the grace of God in this life.

Saint Seraphim of Sarov
On Acquisition of the Holy Spirit

All that we do without offering it to God is wasted.

Saint John Vianney

Daily Offering to God of St. Thérèse

My God, I offer you all that I do today

for the intentions and the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

I want to sanctify every beat of my heart,

my thoughts and my simplest works

by uniting them to his infinite merits.

I want to repair for my faults

by casting them into the furnace of his merciful love.

O my God!

I ask you for myself and for those dear to me

the grace to fulfil perfectly your holy will

and to accept for love of you

the joys and sorrows of this passing life,

so that one day we may be reunited in Heaven for all eternity.

Amen.

Prayer number 10
in the collected prayers of St. Thérèse

The Morning Prayer of the Last Elders of Optina

Grant unto me, O Lord, that with peace of mind I may face all that this new day is to bring.

Grant unto me to dedicate myself completely to Thy Holy Will.

For every hour of this day, instruct and support me in all things.

Whatsoever tidings I may receive during the day, do Thou teach me to accept tranquilly, in the firm conviction that all eventualities fulfill Thy Holy Will.

Govern Thou my thoughts and feelings in all I do and say.

When things unforeseen occur, let me not forget that all cometh down from Thee.

Teach me to behave sincerely and rationally toward every member of my family, that I may bring confusion and sorrow to none.

Bestow upon me, my Lord, strength to endure the fatigue of the day, and to bear my part in all its passing events.

Guide Thou my will and teach me to pray, to believe, to hope, to suffer, to forgive, and to love.

Amen

Prayer of the Optina Elders