PRAYER CORNER

My Lord Jesus Christ, for the love which You bear to men, You remain night and day in this Sacrament full of compassion and of love, awaiting, calling, and welcoming all who come to visit You. I believe that You are present in the Sacrament of the Altar: I adore You from the abyss of my nothingness, and I thank You for all the graces which You have bestowed upon me and in particular for having given me Yourself in this Sacrament, for having given me your holy Mother Mary for my advocate, and for having called me to visit You in this chapel. I now salute
Your most loving Heart: and this for three ends:
1. In thanksgiving for this great gift;
2. To make amends to You for all the outrages which You receive in this Sacrament from all Your enemies;
3. I intend by this visit to adore You in all the places on earth in which You are the least revered and the most abandoned.
My Jesus, I love You with all my heart. I grieve for having so many times offended Your infinite goodness. I promise with Your grace never more to offend You in the future.
Now, miserable and unworthy though I be, I consecrate myself to You without reserve;
I give You my entire will, my affections, my desires, and all that I possess. From now on dispose of me and of all that I have as You please. All that I ask of You and desire is Your holy love, final perseverance, and the perfect accomplishment of Your will. I recommend to You the souls in purgatory; but especially those who had the greatest devotion to the most Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. I also recommend to You all poor sinners.
My dear Saviour, I unite all my affections with the affections of Your most loving Heart; and I offer them, thus united, to Your eternal Father, and beseech Him in Your name to vouchsafe, for Your love, to accept them.
Amen.
- by St. Alphonsus Liguori
 

Immaculate Heart of Mary,
Help us to conquer the menace of evil, which so easily takes root in the hearts of people today,
and whose immeasurable effects already weigh down our modern world and seem to block the
paths toward the future.
From famine and war, deliver us.
From nuclear war, from incalculable self-destruction, from every kind of war, deliver us.
From sins against human life from its very beginning, deliver us.
From hatred and from the demeaning of the dignity of the children of God, deliver us.
From every kind of injustice in the life of society, both national and international, deliver us.
From readiness to trample on the commandments of God, deliver us.
From attempts to stifle in human hearts the very truth of God, deliver us.
From the loss of awareness of good and evil, deliver us.
From sins against the Holy Spirit, deliver us.
Accept, O Mother of Christ, this cry laden with the sufferings of individual human beings, laden
with the sufferings of whole societies.
Help us with the power of the Holy Spirit to conquer all sin: individual sin in all its
manifestations.
Let there be revealed once more in the history of the world the infinite saving power of
redemption: the power of merciful love.
May it put a stop to evil.
May it transform consciences.
May your Immaculate Heart reveal for all the light of hope.
Amen
‐ Saint Pope John Paul II

Oh my God, in your infinite wisdom, You have inspired men and women to forge this great nation. If ever a nation was founded upon, "the Word of God", it is the United States. No other nation has given it's people the power and the privilege to effect and influence the lives of so many. Please grant us with your Graces to be aware of the many gifts and responsibilities that come with this freedom. We ask You to touch the hearts of our leaders, soldiers and all Your people. Fill them with Your presence that thay may see what is right. Oh Jesus, grant us the wisdom and the courage to be Your disciples, the strength to work Your will in exercising our civic duties. Blessed Lady of the Immaculate Conception, patron of this great nation, please fill our hearts with love and reverence. Please intercede for us, that we may be enkindled by the Holy Spirit with the grace to know what is right and the conviction to ensure that God's will be done. For Your many blessings, we thank You, O Lord. For Your glory, not ours, let us go forth. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Amen!

Loving and faithful God, through the years the people of our archdiocese have appreciated the prayers and love of Our Lady of Prompt Succor in times of war, disaster, epidemic and illness. We come to You, Father, with Mary our Mother, and ask You to help us in the battle of today against violence, murder and racism. We implore You to give us Your wisdom that we may build a community founded on the values of Jesus, which gives respect to the life and dignity of all people. Bless parents that they may form their children in faith. Bless and protect our youth that they may be peacemakers of our time. Give consolation to those who have lost loved ones through violence. Hear our prayer and give us the perseverance to be a voice for life and human dignity in our community. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Our Lady of Prompt Succor, hasten to help us. Mother Henriette Delille, pray for us that we may be a holy family.

August Queen of Heaven!  Sovereign Mistress of the angels!  Thou who from the beginning has received from God the power and mission to crush the head of Satan, we humbly beseech thee to send thy holy legions, that, under thy command and by thy power, they may persue the evil spirits, encounter them on every side, resist their bold attacks and drive them hence into the abyss of eternal woe. Amen!

Meditation - "Night truly blessed when heaven is wedded to earth."

"I had a dream recently in which Jesus seemed to say to me, 'What do I want? Now I only want a deep love between us. I want you to tell me over and over again that you love me.' It has taken me half a lifetime to know in the core of my being that God is only interested in love. I have kept myself a safe distance from God by labeling, judging, and analyzing myself. I have shut God out by self-absorption and self-protection. But God isn't interested in remembering all that. He just rings my doorbell and say, 'Now the winter is past. My only interest is in you loving me.' "

How do we so easily get it wrong? We think Christianity is about keeping the rules, repenting of breaking them, resolving to abide by them. But we instinctively know that rule-keeping isn't what it's all about. The Fathers of the Church knew it. They said God came into this world for a marriage. The night of the resurrection is proclaimed in the Exsultet as a night truly blessed, for heaven is wedded to earth. The joy in marriage celebrations, the love between bride and groom, overpowers lesser loves, self-loves. This love for a lifetime needs to be tended. It doesn't just happen. It cost Jesus His life to establish a covenant in which we would begin to live no longer for ourselves but for Him and for one another. He is the bridge between heaven and earth, Creator and creature. In Jesus, God has cast His fortunes with us. And He asks me, "Will you tell me that you love me? " It's that simple.

What would happen if the sacrament of Reconciliation was about reconciling lovers? The greatest sin is having forgotten to love, being too busy to love, being too important to love, refusing to love. When we really know deep inside how much we have been loved, we will be too eager to tell Jesus of our desire to love Him to stay away from the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.

PRAYER: Jesus, in the center of my being, I am aware of a new thirst for you, for love, aware of a trembling hope that at last what I have found might be true: I am loved and all you want is my love. Let us jump into each other's arms, trust this love, renewing it moment by moment, day by day for a lifetime. Amen.

CONTEMPLATION: The winter is past. Today I begin to love You.

1.) Gratitude: Begin by thanking God in a personal dialogue for whatever you are most grateful for today.
2.) Awareness: Revisit the times in the past twenty-four hours when you were and were not the best version of yourself. Talk to God about these situations and what you learned from them.
3.) Significant moments: Identify something you experienced in the last twenty-four hours and explore what God might be trying to say to you through that event (or person).
4.) Peace: Ask God to forgive you for any wrong you have committed (against yourself, another person, or Him) and to fill you with a deep and abiding peace.
5.) Freedom: Speak with God about how He is inviting you to change your life, so that you can experience the freedom to be the best version of yourself.
6.) Others: Lift up to God anyone you feel called to pray for today, asking God to bless and guide them.
7.) Pray the Our Father.

O most blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy, at this most critical time, we entrust the United States of America to Your loving care. Most Holy Mother, we beg you to reclaim this land for the glory of you Son. Overwhelmed with the burdent of the sins of our nation, we cry to you from the depths of our hearts and seek refuge in your motherly protection. Look down with mercy upon us and touch the hearts of our people. Open our minds to the great worth of human life and to the responsibilities that accompany human freedom. Free us from the falsehoods that lead to the evil of abortion and threaten the sanctity of family life. Grant our country the wisdom to proclaim that God's law is the foundation on which this nation was founded, and that He alone is the true source of our cherished rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. O merciful Mother, give us the courage to reject the culture of death and the strength to build a new culture of life. Amen!

God, you have created every person in your image.
Help us recognize this gift
by rejecting fear and rejecting
the sin of racism, so we can welcome and include all our brothers and sisters as members of the human family.
 
Guide us through the works of our Church leadership.
Open our hearts and our minds
to discern how we can live together in harmony and in unity.
 
Forgive us our sins,
What we have done
and what we have not done.
Make us active bridge builders,
to be witnesses
to your Word,
to the diversity
You have created and blessed
Amen.
 
Peace and Justice Ministry
 

Most mournful heart of Jesus, in Your mercy, grant me the grace of discerning good from evil. Through this grace help me to see through the guile of every leader, most especially if he is using his power to transgress human dignity, condone any type of sin or to presume authority or power he does not have. Do not allow me to place title above truth. Dear Jesus, please remind me that You are the authority that I must follow first and foremost. Amen!

O God, bless our family and all its members and friends; bind us together by your love. Give us kindness and patience to support each other; and wisdodm in all we do. Let the gift of Your peace come into our hearts and remain with us. May we rejoice in Your blessings for all our days. Amen.

O my God, I thank you for this cross you have allowed me to carry.  Please give me the strength and faith to persevere so that I may bring glory to Your name while withstanding the burden of its weight.  Thank you for offering me a share in your suffering.  I know that you have always been, are now, and ever will be, at my side every step of the way.  Thank You also for every "Simon" that You have sent to help me bear this cross.  I have prayed so often that this thorn in my flesh would be removed, but I trust that your grace is sufficient.  Change my heart's troubled cry of: "How long, O lord?", into words of trust:  "However Long, O Lord".  May I seek only to do your Will and to unite my sufferings with Your passion.  Help me to not get lost in my own self concerns, but may I find in these trials a way to greater virtue, a call to prayer and a path to trust in You alone.  Permit me not to waste my pain, but to make of these struggles a sacrificial offering for others.  Lord, when I am weary and I fall, exhausted under the weight of this cross, please give me the courage to press on as You did.  Lord Jesus, I embrace with love my cross as a share in Your own.  By Your grace, may I carry it all the way to the vision of Your glory.  I abandon myself totally to Your will.  Christ Jesus, I trust in You!  Amen! 

Holy Spirit, I ask you for the gift of Wisdom to better know You and Your divine perfections, for the gift of Understanding to clearly discern the spirit of the mysteries of the holy faith, for the gift of Counsel that I may live according to the principles of this faith, for the gift of Knowledge that I may look for counsel in You and that I may always find it in You, for the gift of Fortitude that no fear or earthly preoccupations would ever separate me from You, for the gift of Piety that I may always serve Your Majesty with a filial love, for the gift of the Fear of the Lord that I may dread sin, which offends You, O my God.

Lord, guard and guide the men who fly and those who on the ocean ply;
Be with our troops upon the land, and all who for their country stand;
Be with these guardians day and night and may their trust be in thy might.

O God, Who wish all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of Your truth: send, we beg You, laborers into Your harvest, and grant them grace to speak your word with all boldness; so that Your word may spread and be glorified, and all nations may know You, the only God, and Him Whom You have sent, Jesus Christ Your Son, Our Lord, Who lives and reigns world without end. Amen.