Holy hour meditations, a minute-by-minute guide
To Reflect you need an altar with a light or candle lit to illuminate the sanctuary, you need a bible and perhaps an extract of readings from the catechism of the Catholic Church, this is all that is needed for the moment of holy hour meditations.
Rules before meditations for holy hour
Reflections for holy hour rules are needed and these are the 3 most fundamental:
- Silence: we know that we have a problem but at this time we should try to stop thinking about them, it is important to leave behind the stress of your daily life, when praying try to pray slowly, not recite them like a machine. Keep a silence and a calm in your exterior and interior.
- Attention: although readings should be done for holy hour, it should not take the entire hour, reading should be the entry point to perform the prayers.
- Good disposition: It is about the posture that we adopt, whether sitting, kneeling or even standing, everything must be done with respect. Advice: if at one point we begin to feel sleepy, it is best to stand up.
Minute by minute
There is no single way to do Catholic meditations , although churches often structure them. The advice that we leave you below can help you not to get lost during the hour of meditation, but you are in the power to change it at your convenience or what really suits your needs.
00:05 – Start= First 5 minutes : Ask the Holy Spirit for help, then do acts of faith, hope and charity. Tell God how you believe, trust and feel love for Him. Ask for more faith, hope and love.
Tip: There are great prayers to the Holy Spirit and Acts of Faith, Hope and Love in the Compendium.
00:15 – Worship= Next 10 minutes : Worship God. He holds the universe like a seed in the palm of his hand. He is all-powerful, all-good, more beautiful than we can imagine, and more real than the little things we so easily perceive. Imagine Christ sitting next to you.
And tell him: “O my God, I adore your divine greatness from the depth of my smallness; you are so big and I am so small”; or pray the Gloria Patri. Repeat as many times as you think necessary.
Advice : Try the Te Deum which is in the Compendium. Other Scripture aids for worship: Exodus 33:18-23; Song of Songs 2,8-17; Matthew 2,1-11; John 1,1-18; Colossians 1:15-20; Philippians 2,6-11.
00:25 – Contrition = Next 10 minutes : Offer reparation. What saves is not your love for God, but his love for you. Examine your conscience. It offers reparation for the sins of the world. Pray: “Oh my Jesus, I am so sorry. Forgive me”. (Imagine Jesus on the cross; kiss each sore).
Advice: Scriptures for contrition: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7; Colossians 3:5-10; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; James 3:2-12; 1 John 1.5 and 2.6; Penitential Psalms: 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 142.
00:40 – Meditation = Next 15 minutes : Observe the action of God. Perhaps you want to thoughtfully pray the Stations of the Cross or a Rosary. Or also:
Scripture Meditation. Read a short passage from the Gospel. Imagine the scene. Look at Christ’s reactions. Think of three ways that passage could fit into your life. Meditate on each line. Doctrinal meditation. Read passages from Scripture or the Catechism that apply to a Church doctrine. Evaluate God’s plan and find ways it applies to you. (Perhaps: Sunday, Resurrection; Monday, Incarnation; Tuesday, Mercy/Confession; Wednesday, Holy Spirit; Thursday, Eucharist; Friday, Passion; Saturday, Mary).
Life meditation. Observe your life studying in your examination of conscience. What kind of pride do you usually fall into the most? Egoism (value yourself above all else), Vanity (value the opinions of others above all else), Sensuality (value comfort first). Pray for the opposite virtues: Charity (serving others first), Fidelity (putting Christ’s opinion first), Discipline (accepting your crosses).
00:50 – Thanksgiving = Next 10 minutes : Express gratitude for all of God’s gifts. He not only created you, but sustains your existence out of love at every moment. Thank him for literally everything and be specific: food, shelter, clothing, health, family, friends, teachers, co-workers, and above all spiritual gifts: faith, hope, love, this moment of prayer, the Catholic faith, the disciples that came to you
Thank God for answers to prayer. Thank you for the crosses. Thank him for creating you and anguish so much for you that he has died for you.
Tip: Scriptures for Thanks: Genesis 1; Genesis 8,15-22; Job 1:13-22; Daniel 3,46 ss.; Matthew 6,25-34; Luke 17,11-19; Psalms: 8, 65, 66, 100, 111.
00:55 – Petition to God = Next 5 minutes : Ask God for your needs and those of others. He is the king of the universe. He has everything under control, even when it is not so obvious. Pray for the Church, for the Pope’s intentions, for those who suffer, for priests and bishops, for men and women religious, for vocations, for your country, for your family, for what you need most in your spiritual life. Pray for peace and protection of the institution of the family. Pray for those who have asked you for prayers.
01:00= Final 5 minutes : Make a resolution to participate in the light of the Holy Spirit that you have received: something that can be done and verified. Ask the Holy Mother to help you, perhaps with Marian prayers from the Compendium.
Assimilation of the holy hour
There are numerous readings for holy hour for reflections, songs and community prayers, this helps to organize the task of your “Holy Hour” according to your sensitivity. By creating an environment of abstraction to listen and reflect, with the Lord’s dialogue that leads to a life commitment. Today, silence is prayer: Listening to the Lord, contemplating what he did, drawing conclusions for our lives, that is the way to pray.
Slowly read the chosen topics, make a few moments of silence after each reading and after each one you finish a paragraph. We will leave you readings and prayers, you must take care of organizing it in your own way in a sequential way, remember to reflect, moments of silence, songs, prayers.
Prayers
Lord Jesus, we want to watch over you, we want to be with you. Perhaps not many things occur to us, but we want to be, we want to feel your love, like when we approach a bonfire, we want to love you, we want to learn to love. The important thing is to be open to your presence. And thank, praise, beg. And shut up, listen, say nothing, just be.
Meet us as disciples who want to listen to your words, learn from you, always follow you. Fuck us as friends. And make us your witnesses too, witnesses of love.
Lord Jesus, touch our hearts tonight, give us your grace, save us, fill us with the life that only you can give.
Thanksgiving
Thank you Lord, for your death and resurrection that saves us
. Thank you Lord, for having instituted the Eucharist that feeds us
. Thank you Lord, for this time that you have granted us to adore and venerate you.
Thank you Lord, for all the benefits you grant us.
Thank you Lord, for this hour of communion with you
Thank you Lord, for your words that comfort and heal
Thank you Lord, for your cross that teaches so much
Thank you Lord, for your blood that saves so many
Thank you Lord, for your love without truce and without borders
Thank you Lord, for the Mother who leaves us at the foot of the tree
Thank you Lord, for forgetting our betrayals and inconsistencies
Thank you, Lord, for forgiving the sleep that takes us away from being awake
. Thank you, Lord, for that broken bread on the table of the last supper
. Thank you, Lord, because even though you are God, you kneel and teach us to serve.
Thank you, Lord, for your priesthood, which is generosity, offering and delivery
Thank you Lord, for your love without limits and on the cross made madness
Thank you Lord.
Prayer Forgiveness, Lord, forgive.
Oh Jesus! For our sins, those of our parents, siblings and friends, and for those of the whole world: Forgive me, Lord, forgive me.
For infidelities and sacrileges, for hatred and grudges: Forgive me, Lord, forgive me.
For the blasphemies; for the profanation of holy days: Forgive me, Lord, forgive me.
For impurities and scandals: Forgive me, Lord, forgive me.
For thefts and injustices, for human weaknesses and respect: Forgive me, Lord, forgive me.
For disobedience to the Holy Church: Forgive me, Lord, forgive me.
For the crimes of the spouses, the negligence of the parents and the faults of the children: Forgive me, Lord, forgive me.
For the attacks against the Roman Pontiff: Forgive me, Lord, forgive me.
For the persecutions raised against bishops, priests, religious and sacred virgins: Forgive me, Lord, forgive me.
For the insults to your images, desecration of the temples, abuse of the Sacraments and outrages to the August Tabernacle: Forgive me, Lord, forgive me.
For the crimes of the impious and blasphemous press, and for the horrendous machinations of the dark sects: Forgive me, Lord, forgive me.
For the just who waver, for the sinners who resist grace, and for all who suffer: Mercy, Lord, mercy!
Forgiveness, Lord, and mercy for the one most in need of your grace; may the light of your divine eyes never depart from us; chain our fickle hearts to the door of the Tabernacle; give us to feel something of the divine heat of your Chest, and that our souls melt with love and repentance. Amen
Tips for praying the Holy Hour
In the Catholic churches the holy hour is structured, we leave you here the intention of how they perform that Holy Hour:
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Oh Blessed Sacrament, oh divine Sacrament! All praise and thanksgiving be given to you at all times!
Prayer to the Holy Spirit
Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send your Spirit and everything will be created, and You will renew the face of the earth. O God, who, with the light of the Holy Spirit, indoctrinated the hearts of the faithful, grant that in the same Spirit we may always be lovers of what is right! Through Christ our Lord Amen.
- act of contrition
Oh my God! With all my heart I repent of having offended you, and I hate my sins, because I fear the loss of heaven and the pain of hell, but more than all because they offend you, my God, who are all good and worthy of all my love I firmly resolve, with the help of your grace, confess my sins, do penance and amend my life. Amen.
O Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, have mercy on us!
spiritual communion
My Jesus, I believe that you are truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. I love you above all things, and I want to receive you in my soul. I cannot now receive you in Holy Communion, but I ask you to come to me at least spiritually. I hug you as if I already had you inside and I join you. Grant me that I never separate from You!
I adore you at all times Oh Bread of Life come down from heaven. Great Sacrament!
Holy Hour Offering
My sweet Jesus, I wish to spend this hour with you, to console you, and to make some reparation through the love of my poor heart, for the agony you suffered in Gethsemane. In that lonely hour you were abandoned, and the creatures that you created to love you, did not love you. The weight of all our sins fell on You, and mine too; and for the pain that I caused you then with my sins, I will endeavor to satisfy you now with my love. Strengthen him, my Jesus, so that even in a small way, he gives You consolation.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, strengthened in your agony by an Angel, comfort us in our agony.
Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts similar to Yours.
- Act of faith:
All: Oh my God! I firmly believe all the sacred truths that your Holy Catholic Church believes and teaches, because You have revealed them, and you cannot deceive or be deceived.
- Act of Hope:
Oh my God! Trusting in your infinite goodness and your promises, I hope to obtain the forgiveness of my sins, the assistance of your grace and everlasting life, through the merits of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
- Act of Love:
Oh my God! I love you above all things, with all my heart and soul, because you are all goodness, and worthy of all love. I love my neighbor as myself for love of you. I forgive all those who have insulted me and I apologize to those I have offended.
Jesus, I live for You; Jesus, I die for You; Jesus, I am yours in life and in death. Amen.
- charity act
O good and merciful Savior! It is the desire of my heart to reciprocate your love with love. It is my greatest sorrow that you are not loved by all men and in particular that my heart is so cold, so selfish, so ungrateful. Deeply aware of my own weakness and poverty, I trust that your own grace will enable me to offer you an act of pure love. And I wish to offer you this act of love in reparation for the coldness and negligence that your creatures show you in the Sacrament of your love.
Oh Jesus, my sovereign good, I love You not for the reward You have promised to those who love You, but purely for Yourself, I love You above all things that can be loved, above all pleasures and finally above myself and above all that is not Yourself, I promise before heaven and earth that I want to live and die purely and simply in your holy love, and if to love you thus I must suffer persecution and suffering, I am perfectly satisfied, and I will always say with Saint Paul : “Nothing will separate me from the charity of Christ.”
Oh Jesus! Supreme Owner of all hearts, I love you, I adore you, I glorify you, I thank you because now I am all yours. Govern me and transform my soul in the likeness of Yourself, so that I can bless you and glorify you forever in the abode of the Saints. Amen.
Sweet Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us and on our brothers who are in error.
Instruction: To each subsequent invocation, reply:
“Have mercy on us.”
Heavenly Father God.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world.
God Holy Spirit.
Holy Trinity one God.
Heart of Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father.
Heart of Jesus, formed by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mother.
Heart of Jesus, substantially united to the Divine Word.
Heart of Jesus, of infinite majesty.
Heart of Jesus, holy temple of God.
Heart of Jesus, tabernacle of the Most High.
Heart of Jesus, house of God and gate of heaven.
Heart of Jesus, fiery furnace of charity.
Heart of Jesus, mansion of Justice and love.
Heart of Jesus, full of kindness and love.
Heart of Jesus, abyss of all virtues.
Heart of Jesus, most worthy of all praise.
Heart of Jesus, King and center of all hearts,
Heart of Jesus, in which all the treasures of wisdom and science are hidden.
Heart of Jesus, in whom dwells all the fullness of divinity.
Heart of Jesus, in whom the Father was pleased.
Heart of Jesus, from whose fullness we have all received.
Heart of Jesus, desire of the eternal hills.
Heart of Jesus, patient and very merciful.
Heart of Jesus, liberal with all those who invoke you.
Heart of Jesus, source of life and holiness.
Heart of Jesus, propitiation for our sins.
Heart of Jesus, full of opprobrium.
Heart of Jesus, torn by our sins.
Heart of Jesus, made obedient unto death.
Heart of Jesus, with spear pierced.
Heart of Jesus, source of all consolation.
Heart of Jesus, our life and resurrection.
Heart of Jesus, peace and our reconciliation.
Heart of Jesus, victim of sinners.
Heart of Jesus, health of those who hope in You.
Heart of Jesus, hope of those who die in You.
Heart of Jesus, delight of all saints.