It is good to say, "Jesus, make reparation for me".  It is better to say, "Jesus, I know - I am sure that You will do it.  I unite myself to that which You bring about in me continually.  I unite myself with the marvels You accomplish in my soul without my perceiving it.  You hide them from me wisely, to keep me in my littleness, in a fitting mistrust of myself, and to preserve for me all the merit of faith, but I do not doubt it."

Did not Jesus say, "All things, whatsoever you ask when you pray, believe that you have already received them, and they shall come unto you"? 

 

You see how far He wants us to push our confidence: "Believe that you have already received it." Why are the passages from St. Matthew and St. Luke always cited - "Ask and you shall receive" - and so rarely this text from St. Mark, so much stronger, so much more revealing of the power of faith, and more in conformity with the divine munificence?