Pope Benedict's Morning Prayer

In his final General Audience this morning, a warm and encouraging good-bye message, Pope Benedict mentioned a simple prayer that he recommends saying every morning. You can tell that it was an old, familiar prayer--the sort of thing a child would learn in a devout family.

I learned that very prayer when I entered the Daughters of St. Paul. We have two versions of it: one for morning, and one for night prayers. Since I had never heard it before, I long assumed (until this morning, in fact!) that it had been composed by our Founder, as were most of the prayers in our community prayerbook. Now I see that it was the morning prayer of the ordinary families of Catholic Europe, prayed in Bavaria as well as in northern Italy.

Here's how it goes:

I adore you my God, and I love you with all my heart.
I thank you for having created me, made me a Christian and kept me this night.
I offer you my actions of this day. Grant that they all may be according to your holy Will.
May your grace be always with me, and with all my dear ones.
Amen.


And, as a bonus, here's the nighttime version:


I adore you my God, and I love you with all my heart.
I thank you for having created me, made me a Christian and kept me this day.
Pardon me the evil I have committed, and if I have done some good, accept it.
Take care of me while I sleep, and deliver me from dangers.
May your grace be always with me, and with all my dear ones.
Amen.