Saint Gemma’s Prayer of Forgiveness

Saint Maria Gemma Umberta Galgani was born on the 12th of March, 1878 in Camigliano, a province of Capannori. She was a devout Christian and a stigmata. She was known to live a life of piousness and purity. She helped the poor and was admired for her virtues such that people referred to her as “The virgin of Lucca”. She began experiencing stigmata on the 8th of June 1899, on the eve of feast of the Sacred heart at the age of twenty one. She died in 1903 after a huge decline in her health from tuberculosis and other mystical phenomena.

This prayer of forgiveness was composed by Saint Gemma asking for God’s pardon and should be prayed by all who seek God’s forgiveness and desire to be reconciled with Him:

“O my crucified God, behold me at Your feet; do not cast me out, now that I appear before You as a sinner. I have offended You exceedingly in the past, my Jesus, but it shall be so no longer. Before You, O Lord, I place all my sins; I have now considered Your own sufferings and see how great is the worth of that Precious Blood that flows from Your veins.

O my God, at this hour close Your eyes to my want of merit, and since You have been pleased to die for my sins, grant me forgiveness for them all, that I may no longer feel the burden of my sins, for this burden, dear Jesus, oppresses me beyond measure. Assist me, my Jesus, for I desire to become good whatsoever it may cost; take away, destroy, utterly root out all that You find in me contrary to Your holy will.

At the same time, I pray to You Lord Jesus, to enlighten me that I may be able to walk in Your holy light. Amen”.