‘No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.' (Luke 9,62)

Invocation to the Holy Spirit:

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, who are everywhere and fill all things; Treasury of Blessings and Giver of Life - come and abide in us, and cleanse us from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.

- Orthodox Liturgy

Psalm 138 (139):

Lord, you have probed me, you know me:/you know when I sit and stand;/you understand my thoughts from afar./You sift through my travels and my rest;/with all my ways you are familiar./Even before a word is on my tongue,/Lord, you know it all./Behind and before you encircle me/and rest your hand upon me./Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,/far too lofty for me to reach,/Where can I go from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee?/If I ascend to the heavens, you are there;/ if I lie down in Sheol, there you are./If I take the wings of dawn/and dwell beyond the sea,/Even there your hand guides me,/your right hand holds me fast.

Reading: Matthew 11: 28-29

Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.

Meditation:

A sculptor has two ways of making a lifelike statue or figure: he may carve the figure out of some hard, shapeless material, using for this purpose his professional skill and knowledge, his strength and the necessary instruments, or he may cast it in a mold. The first manner is long and difficult and subject to many mishaps; a single blow of the hammer or the chisel, awkwardly given, may spoil the whole work. The second is short, easy and smooth; it requires but little work and slight expense, provided the mold be perfect and made to reproduce the figure exactly; provided, moreover, the material used no resistance to the hand of the artist. 

Mary is the great mold of God, made by the Holy Spirit to form a true God-Man by the Hypostatic Union and to form also a man-God by grace. In that mold, none of the features of the Godhead is wanting. Whoever is cast in it, and allows himself to be molded, receives all the features of Jesus Christ, true God. The work is done gently, in a manner proportioned to human weakness, without much pain or labor, in a sure manner, free from all illusion, for where Mary is, the devil has never had and never will have access; finally, it is done in a holy and spotless manner, without a shadow of the least stain of sin. 

Oh, what a difference between a soul which has been formed in Christ by the ordinary ways of those who, like the sculptor, trust in their own skill and ingenuity, and a soul thoroughly tractable, entirely detached and well-molten, which, without trusting to its own skills, casts itself into Mary, there to be molded by the Holy Spirit. How many stains and defects and illusions, how much darkness and how much human nature is there in the former; and oh how pure, how Heavenly and how Christlike is the latter!

There does not exist and never will exist a creature in whom God, either within or without Himself, is so highly exalted as He is in the most Blessed Virgin Mary, not excepting the Saints or the Cherubim or the highest Seraphim in Paradise. 

St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, The Secret of Mary, §16-18.

Prayer of consecration:

Virgin Mary, rescue of all Christians, receive the offering of my past. I am hereby giving you my entire past life, with its painful weight of failures, regrets, and confusions. Grant me the grace to make peace with this past, to face the truth, so that I may enjoy the true inner freedom. Mother of Mercy, teach me to welcome the forgiveness of God. Mother of the Church, grant our communities the grace of healing, so that we believers may reclaim the joy of salvation.

Pray a chaplet decade.