Prayer of Consecration to the Most Holy Cross of Jesus

Doce me passionem Tuam—teach me Your suffering.

Lord Jesus Christ, I consecrate my whole self, all that I am and all that I am not, all that I have and all that I lack, to Your Most Holy Cross. Your entire Passion—all Your terrible suffering—was for me, alone and individually. And You likewise prepare a place in Heaven for me, alone and individually. You did not embrace the Cross with any caveats or reservations. Help me to likewise take up and embrace the Cross daily, without reserve. May Your Cross be my Cross . . .

The heavy Cross that cut into Your shoulder and lower back as You carried it.

The rugged and jagged Cross from which You received countless splinters.

The Most Holy Cross soaked in Your precious Blood.

May I never ignore or avoid the Cross, but embrace it daily in order to become one with You. I want to participate in Your Cross in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass—the bloodless Calvary. I too desire to offer myself as a sacrifice on Your altar, to give You everything without reservation: what I love and what I hate, those whom I love and those who love me, those whom I scorn and those who scorn me, what I desire and what I fear, what I have and what I lack, all my virtues, and all my vices and sins. I give You my everything and my nothingness.

Grant me the grace to abandon myself completely to Your Divine Providence. If it be Your will, I accept being scorned and mocked and exiled. Give me the fortitude and perseverance I need for You, the courage to give You my whole life, the willingness even to be martyred for love of You. Give me the strength to take up the Cross daily and follow You—the blood-soaked Cross, the heavy and burdensome Cross, the rough Cross of jagged splinters and pain—the Most Holy Cross to which You were affixed not only by nails, but even more by Your love for me. From the wood of the manger to the wood of the Cross, You gave Yourself entirely to me. You were outstretched on that wood—the very material of Your trade—in a gesture of love; and with hammer and nails—the very tools of Your trade—You were fastened to the Cross.

You make us live by dying. You bore our sins in Your body and soul upon the Cross; by Your wounds we were healed. By the Cross alone You bless us: through suffering You confer Your wisdom, Your love, Your freedom, Your divine life. You desire that each of us bears the seal of Your Cross, which makes us beautiful in Your sight. When we join You on the Cross, we become alter Cristus, ipse Cristus—another Christ, Christ Himself.

Jesus, may Your Cross give me the strength to choose also to be nailed to it with You. May it detach me from created things so that I may be attached to Your will alone. May I stand upright and firm, keeping company always with Our Lady at the foot of the Cross. May the blood and water which flowed from Your side—pierced by the lance of my sins—wash me clean and unite me with You, the One I seek and the One I love.

I see the power of the living One who died and rose for me.