Retreat Day One: The Fence

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Opening Prayer

Dear Jesus, 
         Help me to spread Your fragrance wherever I go.
         Flood my soul with Your Spirit and Life.  Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly, that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
        Shine through me,  and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul. 
        Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus!  Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine, so to shine as to be a light to others.
        The light, O Jesus, will be all from You; none of it will be mine.  It will be you, shining on others through me.
        Let me thus praise You the way You love best, by shining on those around me.
Amen.

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Closing Prayer

To Our Lord Jesus Christ
        My most humble Jesus, who for love of me humbled yourself and become obedient unto the death on the Cross, how dare I appear before you and call myself your follower when I see myself so proud that I cannot bear a single slight without resenting it! How, indeed, can I be proud, when by my sins I have so often deserved to be cast into the abyss.
         O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, help me and make me like unto you. You, for love of me, bore so many insults and injuries. I, for love of you, will bear slights and humiliations patiently. But you see, O Jesus, how proud I am in my thoughts, how disdainful in my words, how ambitious in my deeds.
​         Grant me true humility of heart and a clear knowledge of my own nothingness. May I, for love of you, rejoice at being despised and feel no resentment when others are preferred before me. Let me not be filled with pride when I am praised, but seek only to be great in your sight and to please you in all things.
Amen.

Two Questions and a Resolution

1.    What do you protect with a fence?  Does what you protect represent what/who is most important in your life?  Why or why not?
2.     How do you maintain your fence?  What spiritual practices are most important in your life?  What is one improvement that you can work on this week to help maintain your fence?
3.     Resolve to keep your eyes and heart on your farm and when you are tempted to stray ask Our Lady for help and pray a Hail Mary