When we come before the Blessed Sacrament, it's all too easy to be distracted, to let our minds wander to our cares and responsibilities. In this prayer for the peace of Christ, composed by John Henry Cardinal Newman, we ask Christ in the Holy Eucharist to purify our hearts so that we may be filled with His love. It is, therefore, a very good prayer to begin a period of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

For the Peace of Christ

O most sacred, most loving heart of Jesus, Thou art concealed in the Holy Eucharist, and Thou beatest for us still. Now as then Thou sayest, "With desire I have desired." I worship Thee, then, with all my best love and awe, with my fervent affection, with my most subdued, most resolved will. O make my heart beat with Thy heart. Purify it of all that is earthly, all that is proud and sensual, all that is hard and cruel, of all perversity, of all disorder, of all deadness. So fill it with Thee, that neither the events of the day nor the circumstances of the time may have power to ruffle it; but that in Thy love and Thy fear it may have peace.