Lord Jesus Christ, who said: "I did not come to call the just but sinners" (Matth. 9:13); O good Shepherd, who seeks the far-wandering sheep to bring them back to the fold; since you have placed in the heart of Your servant Marie-Jean-Joseph Lataste the merciful thought to open religious houses under the patronage of St. Mary Magdalen, in which any sinful woman, purified by the desire for repentance and by Your pardon, to aspire to be admitted into the ranks of virgin daughters of St. Dominic consecrated to Your service, and to end their days in religious life "just like the souls of those who had never faltered, reunited and conjoined to them as sisters in the midst of sisters"; We beg of you to glorify your servant, founder of the Work of Bethany, so that the innocent virgins who speed to these cloisters might be stirred up by these examples of charity, to show themselves tender and patient mothers, and that these houses might attract a great number of souls who have borne the yoke of sin, as a burning light which will show them the gate where they may taste the sweetness of penitence, and happy above all to love You, O Jesus, in the innocence reclaimed by tears, with the firm hope that Your grace they may preserver and be brought to the port of eternal salvation. Amen.
