Preparation
Place yourself in the presence of God.
Ask him earnestly to inspire you.
Reflections
Consider that a few years ago you were not in the world, and that you were just nothing. Were was I then? The world was already existing a long time but there was no news of me.
God has given you existence from this nothingness. He has made you what you are, without having need of you and only because of his goodness.
Consider the kind of being God has made you: the first in the visible world, capable of everlasting life and of perfect union with himself.
Give vent to Good Movements of the Will and make Deliberate Decisions[1]
Humble yourself profoundly before God: Say from your heart with the Psalmist: O Lord, I am truly nothing before you (Ps. 39:5). How did you have remembrance of me (Ps. 8:4) to create me? Alas! I was plunged in that ageless nothingness, and I would still be there now if you had not drawn me out. And what would I do in that nothingness? Give thanks to God: O my Creator, powerful and good, how much do I owe you, since you have taken me in my nothingness, to make me in your mercy what I am. What shall I do always worthily to praise your holy Name, and to give thanks for your immeasurable goodness?
Be filled with confusion: Alas! My Creator, instead of uniting myself to you by love and service, I have made myself a rebel by my disorderly attachments. I have separated myself from you and gone away in order to take hold of sin. I have not honoured your goodness, as if you were not my Creator.
Cast yourself down before God: Know that the Lord is your God. It is he who made you, and you have not made yourself (Ps. 100:3). O God, I am the work of your hands (Ps. 138:8).
From now on, I will no more be pleased with myself, since of myself I am nothing. In what can I find glory, I who am dust and ashes (Sirach 10:9), or rather, true nothingness? What have I to be proud of?
In order to humble myself, I resolve to do such or such a thing, bear such or such humiliations. I am determined to change my life and to follow my Creator from now on. I shall honour the kind of being he has given me, making use of it entirely in obedience to his will. For this I will take the means taught me, and which I shall find out from my spiritual director.
Conclusion
Thank God. Bless your God, my soul, and all my being praise his holy Name (Ps. 103:1), for his goodness has drawn me from nothingness, and his mercy has created me.
Offer, My God, I offer you with all my heart the being you have given me. I dedicate and consecrate it to you.
Pray. My God, strengthen me in these loving desires and resolutions. Holy Virgin Mary, recommend them to the mercy of your Son, along with all for whom I have to pray, and so on.
Our Father, Hail Mary.
At the end of your prayer, walk about for a while and gather a little bouquet of devotion, from your considerations, and inhale its fragrance all through the day.
__________________________
[1] Read Second Part Chapter 6.