Prayers (A-Z)

Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus, While before Thy face I humbly kneel And with burning soul, pray and beseech Thee, To fix deep in my heart, Lively sentiments of faith, hope and charity, True contrition for my sins And a firm purpose of ammendment. While I contemplate with great love and tender pity, Thy five most precious wounds, Pondering over them within me, And calling to mind the words that David, Thy prophet, said of Thee , my Jesus, “They have pierced My hands and feet, They have numbered all my bones.”

O almighty and most merciful God, I give You thanks with all the powers of my soul for this and all other mercies, graces, and blessings bestowed on me, and prostrating myself at Your sacred feet, I offer myself to be henceforth forever Yours. Let nothing in life or death ever separate me from You! I renounce with my whole soul all my treasons against You, and all the abominations and sins of my past life. I renew my promises made in Baptism, and from this moment I dedicate myself eternally to Your love and service. Grant that for the time to come, I may detest sin more than death itself, and avoid all such occasions and companies as have unhappily brought me to it. This I resolve to do by the aid of Your divine grace, without which I can do nothing.

Amen.

Receive my confession, O most loving and gracious Lord Jesus Christ, only hope for the salvation of my soul. Grant to me true contrition of soul, so that day and night I may by penance make satisfaction for my many sins. Savior of the world, O good Jesus, Who gave Yourself to the death of the Cross to save sinners, look upon me, most wretched of all sinners; have pity on me, and give me the light to know my sins, true sorrow for them, and a firm purpose of never committing them again. 

O gracious Virgin Mary, Immaculate Mother of Jesus, I implore you to obtain for me by your powerful intercession these graces from your Divine Son. 

St. Joseph, pray for me.

Come Holy Spirit into my soul,
Enlighten my mind that I may know the sins I ought to confess,
and grant me Your grace to confess them fully,
humbly and with contrite heart.
Help me to firmly resolve not to commit them again.

O Blessed Virgin,
Mother of my Redeemer,
mirror of innocence and sanctity,
and refuge of penitent sinners,
intercede for me through the Passion of Your Son,
that I may obtain the grace to make a good confession.

All you blessed Angels and Saints of God,
pray for me,
a most miserable sinner,
that I may repent from my evil ways,
that my heart may henceforth
be forever united with yours in eternal love.
Amen.

It is good to mistrust ourselves, but how would that advantage us were we not to throw all our confidence on God, and to wait on His mercy? If you feel no such confidence, cease not on that account from making these acts and from saying to Our Lord: “Yet, O Lord, though I have no feeling of confidence in You, nevertheless, I know that You are my God, that I am all Yours, and that I have no hope but in Your goodness; so, I abandon myself entirely into Your Hands.” It is always in our power to make these acts; although we have difficulty in performing them, still there is no impossibility. Thus we testify faithfulness to our Lord.

I confess to Almighty God, to blessed Mary ever Virgin, to blessed Michael, the Archangel, to blessed John the Baptist, to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, to all the Saints and to you, Father, that I have sinned exceedingly, in thought, word and deed, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault. Therefore I beseech the blessed Mary, ever Virgin, blessed Micahel the Archangel, blessed John the Baptist, the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, all the Saints, and you, Father, to pray to the Lord our God for me.

Immaculate Mary, most Holy Mother of God and of Our Lord and SavioUr Jesus Christ, we the people of the United States of America at this historic moment stand before you in a humbled condition of love, loyalty, affection, and thankfulness. To your Immaculate Heart we recommit and dedicate ourselves throughout the entire American nation. To your Son Jesus Christ we pledge to serve His teaching, His church, and to work for His kingdom on earth. O Mary, to you do we flee for protection.

Surround the American family with your maternal care; enfold us in your arms. Give to this American land, built on the blood and tears of so many faithful forebears, a peaceful and praiseworthy existence in truth, love, justice, and freedom. 

O Mary, we submit to you as the Patroness of our beloved country. O Mary, Help of Christians, enfold the Holy Father and the Catholic Church within your protective cloak; be our shield in the days ahead. Give to the Church true holiness and freedom. Obtain for our leaders holy zeal, the ability to face the truth, and the courage to correct all abuses. Stop the flood of atheism, greed, heresy, impurity, lukewarmness, materialism, and selfishness that threaten our nation. Show to those who have strayed from the Church the way to Our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Mother of God, accept our personal consecration to you and, through you, bind us forever to the Holy Trinity. Gather us all into your Immaculate Heart and unite us forever with Jesus. O Mary, we love you.

Amen.

O you, who more than any other human being
have been consecrated to the Holy Spirit,
help your Son’s Church to persevere
in the same consecration,
so that she may pour out upon all men
the ineffable benefits of redemption
and of sanctification
for the liberation of the whole of creation [cf. Rom 8:21].
You, who were with the Church in the beginning of her mission,
intercede for her in order that,
going all over the world,
she may continually teach all the nations
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.
May the Word of Divine Truth
and the Spirit of Love
find an opening in the hearts of men,
who, without this truth
and without this love
really cannot live the fullness of life. 

You, who have known in the fullest way
the power of the Holy Spirit,
when it was granted to you
to conceive in your virginal womb
and to give birth to the Eternal Word,
obtain for the Church
that she may continue to give new birth
through water and the Holy Spirit
to the sons and daughters
of the whole human family,
without any distinction of language,
race, or culture,
giving them in this way
the “power to become children of God” [Jn 1:12].

You, who are so deeply 
and maternally bound to the Church, 
preceding the whole People of God 
along the way of faith, 
hope and charity, 
embrace all men who are on the way, 
pilgrims through temporal life 
towards eternal destinies, 
with that love which the Divine Redeemer himself, 
your Son, poured into your heart from the Cross. 
Be the Mother of all our earthly lives, 
even when they become tortuous, 
in order that we may all find ourselves, 
in the end, in that large community 
which your Son called the fold, 
offering his life for it as the Good Shepherd.

You, who are the first handmaid 
of the unity of the body of Christ, 
help us, help all the faithful, 
who feel so painfully 
the drama of the divisions of Christianity, 
to seek with constancy the way 
to the perfect unity of the Body of Christ 
by means of unconditional faithfulness 
to the Spirit of Truth and Love, 
which was given to them by your Son 
at the cost of the cross and of death. 

You, who have always wished to serve! 
You who serve as mother of the whole family 
of the children of God, 
obtain for the Church that, 
enriched by the Holy Spirit 
with the fullness of hierarchical 
and charismatic gifts, 
she may continue with constancy 
towards the future along the way 
of that renewal which comes from 
what the Holy Spirit says 
and which found expression in the teaching of Vatican II, 
assuming in this work of renewal everything 
that is true and good, 
without letting herself be deceived 
either in one direction or in the other, 
but discerning assiduously 
among the signs of the times 
what is useful for the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Mother of men and peoples, 
you know all their sufferings 
and their hopes. 
You feel in a motherly way 
all the struggles between good and evil, 
between the light and the darkness 
which shakes the world 
accept our cry addresses 
to the Holy Spirit 
directly to your heart 
and embrace with the love of the Mother 
and the Handmaid of the Lord 
the peoples who await this 
embrace the most and likewise the peoples 
whose consecration you, too, 
are particularly awaiting. 
Take under your motherly protection 
the whole human family 
which we consecrate to you, O Mother, 
with affectionate rapture. 
May the time of peace and freedom, 
the time of truth, 
justice and hope, 
approach for everyone.

O you,
who through the mystery of your particular holiness,
free of all stain from the moment of your conception
feel in a particular deep way that
“the whole creation has been groaning in travail.” [Rom.8:22],
while, “subjected to futility,”
it hopes that it will be
“set free from its bondage to decay” [Rom.8:20-21],
You contribute unceasingly
to the “revealing of the sons of God,”
for whom “the creation waits with eager longing.” [Rom. 8:19],
to enter the freedom of their joy [cf. Rom.8:21].

O Mother of Jesus,
now glorified in heaven in body and in soul,
as the image and beginning of the Church,
which is to have its fulfillment
in the future age here on earth,
until the day of the Lord comes [cf. 2 Pet. 3: 10],
do not ceases to shine
before the pilgrim people of God
as a sign of sure hope and consolation (cf. Lumen Gentium 68).

Holy Spirit of God,
Who are worshipped and glorified
with the Father and the Son!
Accept these words of humble consecration
addressed to You in the heart of Mary of Nazareth,
Your bride and mother of the Redeemer,
who the Church too calls her mother,
because right from the Upper Room at Pentecost
she has learned from her own motherly vocation!
Accept these words of the pilgrim Church,
uttered amid toils and joys,
fears and hopes,
words which are the expression
of humble and confident trust,
words with the Church,
forever consecrated to You,
Spirit of the Father
and of the Son,
in the Upper Room at Pentecost,
does not cease to repeat together with you
to her divine Bridegroom.
Come!

“The Spirit and the Bride say to the Lord Jesus
‘Come…” [cf. Rev. 22:17].
“Thus the Church is seen to be
a people brought into unity of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit” (Lumen Gentium, 4).
Thus we repeat today:
“Come”, trusting in your motherly intercession,
O Clement, O Loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. 

Pope John Paul II 
Prayed before the icon of Our Lady,
in Salus Populi Romani, on December 8,1990.

O most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thou didst reveal to the blessed Margaret Mary Thy desire to rule over Christian families; behold, in order to please Thee, we stand before Thee this day, to proclaim Thy full sovereignty over our family. We desire henceforth to live Thy life, we desire that the virtues, to which Thou hast promised peace on earth, may flower in the bosom of our family; we desire to keep far from us the spirit of the world, which Thou hast condemned. Thou art King of our hearts by our love of Thee alone, with which our hearts are on fire and whose flame we shall nourish by frequent reception of the Holy Eucharist. Be pleased, O Sacred Heart, to preside over our gathering together, to bless our spiritual and temporal affairs, to ward off all annoyance from us, to bless our joys and comfort our sorrows. If any of us has ever been so unhappy as to fall into the misery of displeasing Thee, grant that he may remember, O Heart of Jesus, that Thou art full of goodness and mercy toward the repentant sinner. And when the hour of separation strikes and death enters our family circle, whether we go or whether we stay, we shall all bow meekly before Thine eternal decrees. This shall be our consolation, to remember that the day will come, when our entire family, once more united in heaven, shall be able to sing of Thy glory and Thy goodness forever. May the immaculate Heart of Mary and the glorious Patriarch Saint Joseph vouchsafe to offer Thee this our act of consecration, and to keep the memory thereof alive in us all the days of our lives.

Glory to the Heart of Jesus, our King and our Father!

Amen.

Oh most Sacred Heart of Jesus, 
we come to you as a family 
and consecrate ourselves to Your Sacred Heart. 
Protect us through Your Most Precious Blood 
and keep us pure and holy.

Oh Dear Jesus, 
we are so far away from Your most pure and Sacred Heart.
As a family we need Your help. 
Heal all the quarrels that exist 
in our family due to our unforgiveness 
and lack of love for You. 
Heal our unbelieving and unconverted hearts 
and lead us to Your Sacred Heart with love. 
Unite us as a family 
and remove all stain of sinfulness from our souls. 
Help us to be a prayerful and loving family, 
so that through our example 
we may lead other souls to Your Most Sacred Heart.

We give You our hearts Dearest Jesus, 
and consecrate our family through the fourth generation. 
Through the prayers of our Dearest Mother Mary,
may we live this consecration every day of our lives. 

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, 
have pity on us.

Amen.