Morning and Night Prayers of a Counter-Revolutionary

Favorite Prayers

Morning and Night Prayers
of a Counter-Revolutionary

Plinio Correa de Oliveira

Upon request, Prof. Plinio made some comments about a good way for a counter-revolutionary to make his morning and night prayers. Because of our tendency toward dispersion when praying, he considered it convenient to change the formula of our personal prayers from time to time. His criteria for this: We should adopt a new formula either when we feel an inspiration to change or we are finding it difficult to concentrate on the one we are using.

Here we transcribe the essential parts of these prayers he then suggested.

The morning prayer

The morning prayer consists of the following:

I. An act of devotion, which is composed of four acts:

1. An act of adoration. Immediately at the beginning of the day, I recognize God as my Lord and my King. There is a special beauty in this first homage. It is like the first flight of a bird, or the first ray of sun at dawn.

2. An act of thanksgiving. I thank God for preserving me from temptation or sin during the night.

3. An act of reparation. I offer reparation for anything that I have to lament in myself on that night; for the sins committed by others on that night, for so many other persons that rise up without acknowledging what they owe to God and His Most Holy Mother.

4. An act of petition. I ask for the graces I will need for the dangers I will confront during the day.

II. An act of offering. God has the right to everything that I am and that I do. I offer my day to Him through Our Lady, telling her I am conformed to whatever she desires from me that day.

III. Consideration of our vocation. My day cannot begin without remembering my counter-revolutionary vocation. Why do I arise? To combat the Revolution. To hasten the coming of the Reign of Mary by means of the actions of the day that is beginning. I need, therefore, to ask Our Lady for the graces to correspond to my vocation. I ask her to increase my devotion, my astuteness, my combativeness. I ask her for the graces to be a warrior not only externally, but also internally, fighting against my capital defect. I ask Our Lord to give me the graces to love my vocation, the principles that constitute its foundation, and the persons who are my models in it.

IV. A memento. I should remember the persons who are fighting with me, as well as those who are not. I should think of those who are receiving all kinds of attacks as they climb the mountain of the Counter-Revolution, and ask graces for them. I should think also of those throughout the world who are called to become fighters like us and pray for them. Was I not one of them not too long ago? If someone had not prayed for me, what would my situation be today?

These intentions can accompany us throughout the day. If I do not have time to make a long prayer, however, I can unite all these intentions in a single exhortation, saying, “O my Blessed Mother, I make all these intentions my own, but I have one in particular I want to mention.” Then, say it. “Today’s cross glimmers before me, and I am disposed to carry it with good will.”

Thus begins the day of an authentic counter-revolutionary.

The night prayer

The night has something more solemn about it than the day. It is an image of death. For this reason one speaks of death as the eternal night. Sleep is an image of death, from which we awake at Judgment.

On the other hand, the Church celebrates many feasts with great pomp at this hour, such as Christmas and Easter, because the night has more majesty, for the light in the shadows is more splendorous.

But it is also true that at night the body tends more toward repose and pleasure. For this reason, night also presents the occasion for terrible sins. It is in these hours as well that the Revolution makes its plots. Just as in the morning we combat our animal tendency to ignore God, we should do the same at night. We should not just go to bed without any prior reflection, saying to ourselves, “I don’t want to think about anything. I just want to go to sleep!”

In our night prayer we should do the following:

I. We should make an assessment of the day that has passed.

At the end of the day, we as slaves of Our Lady must render our accounts to Our Lord and Our Lady. How many graces did we accept or refuse? What was the good we did or omitted, the evil we avoided or consented to? Analyzing each one of these actions, we should thank Our Lord and Our Lady for the good and repent for the evil we did that day.

We should also consider all the progress the Revolution made on that day and, to the degree we are aware of it, offer reparation for it. The best reparation is always the desire to destroy that evil and its source, the Revolution.

II. To consider the sins that will be committed.

We should consider the personal and collective sins of sinners and the plots the enemies of the Church will make on that night, and make a prayer of reparation for them.

III. We should ask Our Lady:

1. That she grant us a sleep that restores our strength for her service or offer her an afflicted sleep, if this be for her glory

2.That she protect us from temptations and the Devils of the night.

3.That she assist those who need it most, for example, persons who are rejecting grace through the action of the Devil and the flesh or through the agents of the Revolution.

4.That she help all those who fight for the good.

5.That she grant us the grace to admire the majesty and the goodness of God in this hour when all are sleeping and we are alone with Him in unperturbed silence. It is as if we were alone in an empty church. It is a tête-a-tête with God, when we feel His gaze on us.

6.We should offer Our Lady our night’s rest as testimony of our love for order, goodness and virtue and, therefore, of hatred for the Revolution, evil and sin.

Having made this prayer, we should sleep with tranquility.

In this way the day of a counter-revolutionary ends.

The repose of a son of light is without agitation and nervousness. The just man sleeps with a tranquil conscience, without anxiety, because concerns and dangers cannot upset his confidence. He fears sin, but not to the point of despair. His confidence is mirrored in his peaceful sleep.

The slumber of the sons of darkness is a flight from reality. It is the heavy sleep of one who dreams only of sleeping. It is the sleep of one who lies down and thinks, “Oh, my bed! How delicious!” He wakes up groggy and dazed, not like the child of light who wakes up joyful and vigilant.

Share

Follow us

Posted January 5, 2011

Related Topics of Interest

  The Importance of the Morning Offering

  Irresistible Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

  The Fiery Prayer for the Apostles of the Latter Times

  To Our Lady of Good Success for Our Country

  The Restoration Prayer

  A Prayer to Our Lady, Queen of Angels, for Protection