Prayer to Jesus, The True Friend
Pastor’s Column
Palm Sunday, 2022
Today I wish to share with you this great prayer by St. Claude La Colombière, the spiritual advisor of Saint Margaret Mary, visionary of the Sacred Heart devotion. This prayer seems particularly appropriate when we meditate on the great sacrifice of Jesus, who shows himself to be a true friend for you on Palm Sunday.
Father Gary
Jesus, You Are My Only True Friend
You share my troubles, you bear them with me, you know the secret of bringing good out of them for me. You listen to me kindly when I tell you of my afflictions, and you never fail to soften them. I can always find you everywhere; you never go away, and if I am obliged to change my dwelling, I never fail to find you in the place where I have gone. You are never tired of hearing my voice; you never weary of doing me good. I am assured of being loved if I love you. You do not need all that I possess and you are not in any way poorer for communicating to me what you possess. However wretched I am, a more noble, finer spirit or even a holier one will never take your friendship for me; as for death, which snatches from us all our other friends, it will only reunite me with you. None of the disgraces of age or the disfavors of fortune can separate me from you; on the contrary, I will never enjoy your presence more fully, you will never be closer than when all is most in my disfavor. You suffer my shortcomings with admirable patience; even my infidelities, my ungratefulness do not wound you at all to the extent that you are always ready to come back if I so wish. Oh Jesus, grant me the grace of desiring this so that I may be all yours for all time and for all eternity.
