Saint Jean Eudes: Selected Prayers

Today, August 19, we celebrate the feast day of Saint Jean Eudes (1601-1680), priest, founder of the congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge, and devotee of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Saint Jean worked tirelessly throughout his life, building seminaries and increasing the number of religious devoted to the Lord. Pope Benedict XVI has referred to Saint Jean as “an example of priestly holiness.” A prolific writer, his written works continue to inspire us today. Below, a selection of prayers written by Saint Jean Eudes:

Marian Prayer

O Blessed Virgin,
Mother of my God and Saviour,
I honour and revere you
in the first moment of your life.
I honour and revere
the dispositions of your holy soul,
and all that took place in you at that time.


You began immediately,
O holy Virgin,
to love and glorify God most perfectly,
and from that first moment
to the last of your life,
you did ever love and glorify him more and more.
As for me, in spite of all the years
I have been in this world,
I have not yet begun to love
and serve him as I should.

O Mother of mercy,
beg your divine Son to have mercy on me.
Atone for my failings,
offering Him on my behalf
all the love
and glory you ever gave Him,
to satisfy for my neglect
in loving and glorifying Him.
Grant that I may share
in your surpassing love for him,
and in the fidelity of that great eternal love.

Pray for me,
that He may give me the grace to begin,
at least now,
to love Him perfectly,
and that all that shall take place
during this year,
and all my life,
may be consecrated to His glory and your honour.


O angels, and saints of Jesus Christ,
pray for me,
that our loving Saviour may give me new grace
and new love for him,
to devote this year and my whole life,
purely and solely to the service of His glory and love.
Amen.

Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Oh, how good and delightful it is to dwell in the Heart of Jesus!
Thy Heart, O good Jesus, is a precious treasure, a precious pearl
which we have found by digging the field of Thy Body.


Who will cast aside this pearl? Nay, rather I will give all I have,
I will exchange all my thoughts and desires and purchase it.
I will cast all my care on the Heart of the Lord Jesus and He will
provide for me without fail. I will adore in this temple,
this Holy of Holies, this Ark of the Testament, and I will praise the name
of the Lord, saying with David, "I have found my heart that I may pray
to my God. And I have found the heart of my King, my Brother, my Friend,
the benign Jesus, and why shall I not adore?" Assuredly I shall pray.

For His Heart is mine. I will say it boldly, for Christ is my Head,
is not what belongs to my Head mine? Therefore as the eyes of my corporal
head are truly my eyes, so is my spiritual heart my heart.


Therefore, it is well with me: truly I have but one Heart with Jesus
and what wonder that there should be but one heart with the multitude of believers.

A Lenten Prayer

O Lord, You have created me for Yourself, to love You and to enjoy You, infinite Good, ineffable Beauty; do not permit me to lose sight of this sublime end toward which I must tend; do not permit me to wander among the wretched satisfactions that vain, feeble creatures can offer me.


O my Lord, what poor use I have made of creatures! Pardon me, O Lord! Henceforth I do not want to use anything unless it is for Your glory and according to Your holy will, as Your Son Jesus did. O my God, if in the past I have turned aside from You who are my Beginning, my End, and my supreme good; if I have turned toward myself and creatures, preferring their will and mine to Yours, I here and now promise to renounce, entirely and forever the world and myself, and to give myself wholly and forever to You. O my God, I give myself to You as my Beginning; take complete possession of me. May I always abide in You! Be the beginning and end of all my actions. O my God, I give myself to You as my End, my Center, my supreme Good. Draw me to You! Make me tend continually toward You. Be my delight, my glory, my treasure, my all!