Why Do We Pray the Morning Offering?

The information will be provided in the following order:

(1) The prayer video
(2) The reasons why we pray the morning offering
(3) The intentions of the Pope

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,

We ask Jesus to accept our offering through Mary's Heart because it is "not stained" (Latin immaculatus, from in- 'not' + maculatus 'stained') with original sin. This allows our offering to be presented in all its purity.

I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day

That is, everything good we can do and experience.

in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world.

Jesus' passion, death, and resurrection are of more value than everything we can offer by ourselves. Thus, we offer our day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

"There is nothing so great as the Eucharist. If God had something more precious, He would have given it to us" (St. John Vianney).

I offer them for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart; the salvation of souls, reparation for sin, and the reunion of all Christians.

Our intentions are not always the best. However, Jesus' intentions always are because He is God, so we offer everything for His intentions.

I offer them for the intentions of our bishops

The wisdom of our bishops is usually wiser than ours, and given that they are the "overseers" (Greek episkopos, from epi- 'over' + skopos 'one that watches') of the Church, we offer the day for their intentions as well.

and of all Apostles of Prayer,

Apostles (from Gk. apostolos, 'messenger') are all the messengers of prayer - those who advocate prayer. In this case it can mean members of the prayer group called the Apostleship of prayer, and all faithful Christians. As one family in the mystical body of Christ, we ought to offer everything up together.

and in particular for those recommended by our Holy Father this month.

Our Holy Father is the Pope. Of course, we are not saying the Pope is God: Holy Father is taken in a different sense here.

Nevertheless, we pray for the popes because they have asked that we do so as they shepherd Jesus' flock. Pope Francis expressed this need when he said, "Please pray for me."

Pope's intentions:

Intentions for all of 2015
Pope's Intentions for 2016



By: Fidel Valenzuela

© Servants of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts