The Twenty-Four Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ

The 24 Hours of the Bitter Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ by Luisa Piccarreta, the Little Daughter of the Divine Will

Preparatory Prayer for all Hours of the Passion

My Lord Jesus Christ! I believe that You are present here. Prostrate at Your feet, I ask You, for the love of Your Heart, to allow me to contemplate Your Passion, in which, out of love for us, You willed to suffer so much in Your adorable body as in Your Most Holy Soul, even death on the Cross. O grant me Your assistance, grace, love, deep compassion and great understanding for Your sufferings while I am holding this hour of contemplation.

But also for those hours of suffering that I cannot keep now, I offer You the good will to contemplate them in the time when I have to devote myself to my duties or to rest at night. Receive with favor, merciful Savior, my good intention. Grant that it may be of such benefit to me and to many others as if I had really and truly kept all the hours of suffering that I would have wanted to keep.

I thank You, O Jesus, for calling me to union with You in prayer. By uniting myself with Your thoughts, with Your words, with the acts of Your heart and by being completely absorbed in Your will and in Your love, I implore the assistance of Your Holy Mother and my good guardian angel.

Sacrifice and Thanksgiving after Every Hour of the Passion

Most gracious Jesus! You have called me to keep you company in this hour of suffering, and I have come. It seems to me that I see you in deep sorrow praying, suffering, atoning, pleading for the salvation of souls in the most tender and moving words. I have endeavored to follow you in everything.

As I have to leave you, I feel the need to thank you and express my gratitude:

“Be praised for this!” Yes, Jesus, thank You a thousand and one thousand times! I praise You, I glorify You for everything You have done and suffered for me and all people. Thank You and praise You for every drop of blood, for every tear, for every breath, for every heartbeat, for every word and every look, for every bitterness and insult that You have endured. Make my whole being, O Jesus, unceasingly pour out a flood of thanksgiving and praise to You, to draw down upon me and all people a flood of graces and blessings.

Jesus, press me to Your heart with Your most holy hands and mark my whole being with Your blessing, so that nothing but a constant hymn of love for You may resound from my mouth. Thus I remain in You in order to follow You in what You Yourself want to work through me. From now on I leave my thoughts in You to defend You against Your enemies, leave in You every breath as followship and accompaniment, every heartbeat to tell You: I love you! And to compensate you for the love that others deny you.

I leave in you every drop of my blood to atone for You and to give You back the honors that Your enemies take from You with their insults, their cheek strokes and their spitting.

Yes, I leave my whole being in You as protection.

My sweet love! If I must go about my business, I will remain in Your heart. I am afraid to leave it. Won't you keep me in it? Our hearts beat together in unison, so that life and love come to me from the inseparable union.

My Jesus! If You see that I am slipping away from You, then let Your heart beat more strongly within me, Your hands press me more intimately to Your heart, Your eyes guard me more keenly and send arrows of fire at me, so that I may immediately feel drawn towards union with You.

My Jesus, give my soul the kiss of divine love, embrace and bless me! I bow in love to Your sweetest Heart and remain in You. May the blessing of God, the almighty Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit descend upon us and remain with us forever. Amen.

Preparation for the Three Hours of the Mount of Olives in the Garden of Gethsemane

(It is only prayed once if the three hours are not interrupted, otherwise it is repeated as often as you start again.)

Jesus, my divine Savior! Take me with Your three disciples to assist You in Your agony on the Mount of Olives. Reminded by the gentle reproach You addressed to Peter, James and John because they had fallen asleep, I want to watch with You for at least one hour in the Garden of Gethsemane, I want to feel at least one of those wounds that Your death-stricken heart felt, I want to take in at least a breath of Your painful breaths. I want to fix my gaze on Your divine face and watch how it pales, how sorrow and fear paint Your features until it finally descends into the dust of the earth.

I can already see, my loving Jesus, how Your figure staggers and finally falls to the ground; I can see how Your frozen hands fold in prayer, I can hear the sighs, the cry of love and unspeakable pain that rises up to heaven. My Jesus, in agony in the gloomy Garden of Gethsemane, O let some of your adorable blood, which gushes from all your limbs, flow down upon me in this hour. O precious blood of my highest good, which is sorrowful to death for me, I would like to taste You, drink You to the last drop; taste and drink with You at least a sip of the bitter cup prepared for the Beloved of my soul, and feel in me the delights of His divine heart. O that my heart would burst with remorse for having so often offended my Lord, who is in agony for me.

Jesus grant me the grace and help me to suffer with You while contemplating Your hours on the Mount of Olives and to give free rein to my sighs and tears. Sorrowful Mother Mary!

Let me share in the sufferings of Your heart pierced with pain for Jesus, who endures agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. Amen.

Prayer of Thanksgiving after each Holy Hour on the Mount of Olives

I thank You, my sweet Jesus, that You were worthy to allow me to be in Your company for at least an hour and to witness Your terrible agony in the Garden of Olives. Oh, what miserable consolation You can have in me! Only Your infinite love and the exuberant kindness of Your compassionate heart allow You to find refreshment even in my small sympathy. Oh, my spirit will never forget the sight of Your adorable person, trembling, dejected, broken, humiliated to the dust and covered in blood sweat in the darkness of the Garden of Gethsemane.

O Jesus, joyfully I renounce the deceitful things of earth. I want You alone, my Savior bowed down and afflicted by sorrow.

From the Mount of Olives to Calvary, I will always keep You faithful company. Jesus, let me be seized and dragged with You from one judgment seat to another. Let me take part in the abuse, insults and cheek strokes with which Your enemies will heap upon You. Take me with You from Caiaphas to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, from Herod back to Pilate. Bind me with You to the scourging pillar and let me feel some of Your strokes. Give me also some of the thorns of Your crown, that they may wound my head. Let me be condemned with You to the death of the cross, You as a sacrifice of love for me and I as a sacrifice of atonement for my sins.

Let me take part in the carrying of Simon of Cyrene to Calvary, be nailed to the cross with You, suffer the agony with You and then die.

Sorrowful Mother, who was my model in sharing in Jesus' agony in the Garden of Olives, help me to be nailed with You to the same cross that stands ready for Jesus.

Teach me also to offer Him due satisfaction with the merits of His own suffering and death on the cross. Amen.