"If we consecrate ourselves to Mary, then when we die, we won't get to appear before God clothed with the merits of our prayers and good works.  In fact, we'll have to appear before God with empty hands, because we will have given all our merits to Mary."  --Fr. Gaitley (33 Days to Morning Glory p.39)

What a relief! To stand before God, bare; to be accepted into His fold as His child because He recognizes our Mother, Mary, who will claim us as her own.  She will, in exchange for our gift of our everything, give us her everything.  Rather than our pathetic accumulation of prayers and merits, the merit of her sinless life will be our ticket to heaven.  Give her your all, and she will give you her Son.

Tax collector's prayer

Luke 18:13

"God, be merciful to me, a sinner."

A priest once taught me this very simple and short Act of Contrition: "Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner."  Though every priest in the confessional has accepted it, and it suits my poor memory very well, I've always wondered how something so short can be substituted for the long and seemingly more complete Act of Contrition.

Now I have my answer.

In Luke, Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector praying in the temple.  It is the Tax Collector, saying "God be merciful to me, a sinner" with true contrition who goes home justified.

Eucharist prayer

Mother Mary, enclose my broken vessel inside your most perfect vessel and receive your son Jesus. Receive all these graces of the Eucharist for me that they may not be lost through my cracks. Instead, allow me to soak in them, that the cracks rather than letting the grace out, allows the grace in. Let me soak as a cloth in dye, that I may be all Him.

Give me that which is yours

Jesus: "My daughter, you have not offered Me that which is really yours... Daughter, give me your misery, because it is your exclusive property." -- St Faustina's Diary p.473

Soul: But Jesus, if I give you my misery there is nothing between us any longer! You will be too close; You will burn me.

Jesus: My daughter, until you give me your misery, we cannot be heart to Heart. There can be nothing between us if we are to be one.