Category: P

O Mary, “full of grace and blessed among women,” stretch out the hand of your motherly protection, we ask you, upon us who gather round your queenly throne as your handmaidens, obedient to your command and resolved with your help to bring to realization in ourselves and our sisters the ideals of truth and Christian perfection. Our eyes are fixed on you in admiration, immaculate Virgin; you who are loved by the Heavenly Father above all others! O Virgin Spouse of the Holy Spirit! Tender Mother of Jesus! Obtain for us from your Divine Son the grace to reflect your sublime virtues in our conduct, according to our age and condition of life. Grant that we may be spotless and pure in our thoughts and in our behavior; gentle, affectionate, and sympathetic companions to our husbands; to our children solicitous, vigilant and wise mothers; prudent administrators of our homes; exemplary citizens of our dear country; faithful daughters of the Church, ever ready to allow ourselves to be guided by her in thought and deed. 

Help us, loving Mother, to be truly devoted to the duties of our state of life; help us make our homes true centers of spiritual life and active charity, schools where consciences will be rightly formed, gardens where every virtue will flourish. Give us your help that in social and political life we may be patterns of deep faith, of consistent and gracious Christian practice, of incorruptible integrity, and of well-balance judgment based upon the solid principles of religion. 
Bless these our resolutions which you have inspired us to make and the trials you have helped us to bear; may we with your aid come to see their abundant fruits in time and in eternity.

Amen.

Obedient to the invitation given in your own maternal words, O Virgin Immaculate of Lourdes, we hurry to your feet at the humble grotto, where you appeared to point out the way of prayer and penance to those gone astray and to dispense the graces and wonders of your supreme goodness to the sick. 

O gracious Queen, accept the homage and the prayers that the peoples and the nations, caught in bitter straits, trustingly raise to you, 
O resplendent vision of Paradise, dispel from our minds the darkness of error by the light of faith! O mystical garden of roses, comfort the broken hearts of people with the heavenly perfume of hope! O inexhaustible fountain of saving waters, refresh with the floods of divine charity the hearts that are dry. 

Grant that we, your children, may be consoled in our sorrows, protected in danger, and sustained in our struggles! May we love and serve your dear Son Jesus in such a way that we may deserve eternal joy before your throne in heaven above.

Amen.

O Divine Prisoner of the sanctuary, Who for love of us and for our salvation not only enclosed Yourself within the narrow confines of human nature and then hid Yourself under the veils of the Sacramental Species, but also continually live in the tabernacle! Hear our prayer which rises to You from within these walls and which longs to express to You our affection, our sorrow, and the great need we have of You in our tribulations, above all, in the loss of freedom which so distresses us. 
For some of us, there is probably a voice in the depths of conscience which says we are not guilty; that only a tragic judicial error has led us to this prison. In this case, we will draw comfort from remembering that You, the most August of all victims, were also condemned despite Your innocence. 

Or perhaps, instead, we must lower our eyes to conceal our blush of shame, and beat our breast. But, even so, we also have the remedy of throwing ourselves into Your arms, certain that You understand all errors, forgive all sins, and generously restore Your grace to him who turns to You in repentance. 

And finally, there are those among us who have succumbed to sin so often through the course of our earthly lives that even the best among men mistrust us, and we ourselves hardly know how to set out on the new road of regeneration. But despite all this, in the most hidden corner of our soul a voice of trust and comfort whispers Your words, promising us the help of Your light and Your grace if we want to return to what is good. 

May we, 0 Lord, never forget that the day of trial is an opportune time for purifying the spirit, practicing the highest virtues, and acquiring the greatest merits. Let not our afflicted hearts be affected by that disgust which dries up everything, or by that distrust which leaves no room for brotherly sentiments and which prepared the road for bad counsel. May we always remember that, in depriving us of the freedom of our bodies, no one has been able to deprive us of freedom of the soul, which during the long hours of our solitude can rise to You to know You better and love You more each day. 

Grant, 0 Divine Saviour, help and resignation to the dear ones who mourn our absence. Grant peace and quiet to this world which has rejected us but which we love and to which we promise our co-operation as good citizens for the future. 

Grant that our sorrows may be a salutary example to many souls and that they may thus be protected against the dangers of following our path. But above all, grant us the grace of believing firmly in You, of filially hoping in You, and of loving You: Who, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, live and reign forever and ever. 

Amen.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, make us love Thee more and more! Our Lady of Hope, pray for us! Saint Dismas, the Good Thief, pray for us!

Hail, O Virgin most pure, most powerful Queen whom the human family invokes by the sweet name of Mother! We who cannot invoke an earthly mother either because we never knew her or were very soon deprived of such a sweet and necessary support, we turn to you, certain that you shall be a mother to us in a special manner. 

If, indeed, because of our condition, we arouse in every one feelings of pity, compassion and love, we shall awaken such feelings of pity, compassion and love, we shall awaken such feelings to a much higher degree in you, the most loving, most tender and most merciful of all pure creatures. 

O true Mother of all orphans, we take refuge in your Immaculate Heart, certain of receiving therein all the comfort for which our bereft hearts are yearning.

We place all our trust in you so that your maternal hand may guide and support us along the steep paths of this life. 

Bless all those who assist or protect us in your name; reward our benefactors and the chosen souls that devote their lives to us. Above all, be ever to us a Mother, modeling our hearts, enlightening our minds, strengthening our wills, adorning our souls with eery virtue, and keeping away from us the enemies of our God Who would wish to ruin us forever!

Finally, dearest Mother, our delight and our hope, lead us to Jesus, the blessed fruit of your womb, so that if we have not enjoyed the sweetness of a mother here below, we may hereafter, in everlasting life, enjoy your motherly love and your presence, together with that of your Divine Son who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever.

Amen.

Blessed Virgin who, under the title of Repose, reminds us of the succoring pity with which your maternal heart is open to your children, hear our prayer! 

Through your powerful intercession, O Mary, may minds and hearts find repose in abandoning themselves to the Will of the Heavenly Father, in the consciousness of their frailty, in faith in divine promises, in the hope of eternal blessings, and in adhering lovingly to your Crucified Jesus who has made our crosses his own. 

If we are protected by you, O Mary, clam amid earthly perturbation will not be an empty word. It will be repose for the strong, watchful against hostile forces; repose for the pure, away from worldly corruption. And as through you we shall have had peace in this life, so, at the end of our pilgrimage in time, we shall enjoy peace for ever and ever. 

Amen.

St. Josephine Bakhita, you were sold into slavery as a child and endured untold hardship and suffering. Once liberated from your physical enslavement, you found true redemption in your encounter with Christ and his Church.

O St. Bakhita, assist all those who are trapped in a state of slavery; Intercede with God on their behalf so that they will be released from their chains of captivity. Those whom man enslaves, let God set free.

Provide comfort to survivors of slavery and let them look to you as an example of hope and faith. Help all survivors find healing from their wounds. We ask for your prayers and intercessions for those enslaved among us.

Amen.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.

Amen.

Praised be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, He who in His great mercy gave us new birth, a birth unto hope which draws its life from the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; a birth to an imperishable inheritance, incapable of fading or defilement, which is kept in heaven for you who are guarded with God’s power through faith; a birth to a salvation which stands ready to be revealed in the last days.

Amen.

O risen Lord, Your body was part of Your power, rather than You a part in its weakness. For this reason You could not but rise again, if You were to die, because Your body, once taken by You, never was or could be separated from You even in the grave. I keep Your most Holy Body before me as the pledge of my own resurrection. Though I die, as I certainly shall die, it only means that my life is changed, for I shall rise again. Teach me so to live as one who believes the great dignity and sanctity of the material frame in which I am lodged.

Amen.

O God, be gracious and bless us and let Your face shed its light upon us. So will Your ways be known upon earth and all nations learn Your saving help. 
Let the peoples praise You, O God;
let all the peoples praise You.
Let the nations be glad and exult for You rule the world with justice. With fairness You rule the peoples, You guide the nations on earth.
Let the peoples praise You, O God;
let all the peoples praise You.
The earth has yielded its fruit for God, our God, has blessed us. May God still give us His blessing till the ends of the earth revere Him.
Let the peoples praise You, O God;
let all the peoples praise You.