O my God, relying on Thy almighty power and infinite mercy and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of Thy grace, and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer. Amen.
The Act of Hope exercises the second of the three theological virtues. Christian hope is not mere optimism or wishful thinking; it is the firm and confident expectation, resting on God’s own word, of two things: eternal life, and the grace we need to reach it. The prayer names exactly what the soul hopes for — "pardon of my sins, the help of Thy grace, and life everlasting" — and, more importantly, what that hope relies on.
For hope, like faith, has a motive, and it is threefold: God’s "almighty power" (He is able to save), His "infinite mercy" (He wills to save), and His "promises" (He has bound Himself to save those who turn to Him). Hope leans not on our own strength or merits but "through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer" — it is His Cross, not our record, that is our confidence. St. Paul calls this hope "an anchor of the soul, sure and firm" (Hebrews 6:19).
The virtue of hope steers between two deadly errors. On one side is presumption, which expects heaven without repentance or effort, as though mercy made holiness unnecessary. On the other is despair, which decides that one’s sins are greater than God’s mercy — the sin that most wounds the Sacred Heart. Against both, the Act of Hope keeps the soul in the truth: certain of God’s help, and therefore neither presuming nor despairing, but pressing on toward the crown He has promised.
O my God, relying on Thy almighty power and infinite mercy and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of Thy grace, and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer. Amen.
O my God, relying on Thy almighty power and infinite mercy and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of Thy grace, and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer. Amen.