My parents taught us the importance to start each day with a heartfelt prayer they called a morning offering.
Telling our blessed Lord first thing that we want our whole day to be for Him and about Him. There is no double top-secret secret word formula – only a sincere entrustment of ourselves to God so that everything we say and do throughout the day gives glory to God and helps others.
In this way, work and prayer compliment each other like human voices and musical instruments make astonishing sounds.
A morning offering puts Christ Jesus at the center of all that is come in the day.
Here is the morning offering Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Flower, composed and prayed each day upon waking:
O my God! I offer You all my actions of this day for the intentions and for the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I desire to sanctify every beat of my heart, my every thought, my simplest works, by uniting them to Its infinite merits; and I wish to make reparation for my sins by casting them into the furnace of Its Merciful Love.
O my God! I ask of You for myself and for those whom I hold dear, the grace to fulfill perfectly Your holy will, to accept for love of You the joys and sorrows of this passing life, so that we may one day be united together in heaven for all eternity. Amen.
