To Blessed Mother Mary and all our beautiful female Saints
Lord, make me an instrument of peace: Bless all women who daily strive to bring peace to their communities, their homes and their hearts. Give them strength to continue to turn swords into plowshares.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love: We pray for all women who face prejudice, inequality and gender disparities. Help us see and to face the discrimination against women in all the many forms it may take.
Where there is injury, pardon: Comfort all women who suffer from the pain of war, violence, and abuse. Help them to become instruments of their own reconciliation and peace.
Where there is division, unity: Forgive all women and men who let differences breed hate and discrimination. Let your example of valuing all of creation help us to see that we are equal partners in the stewardship of your world.
Where there is darkness, light; where there is untruth, truth: Comfort all women who struggle in the darkness of abuse, poverty, and loneliness. May we stand with them in light to acknowledge their suffering and strive to remove the burdens of shame or embarrassment.
Where there is doubt, true faith: We pray for all women who live in fear of their husbands, fathers, and forces that control their lives. Help them to be empowered to be their true selves through your everlasting love and faith.
Where there is despair, hope: We pray for all women who live in the despair of poverty, violence, trafficking, slavery, and abuse. May the light of your love bring them hope.
Where there is sadness, new joy: Help us to see the strength and goodness in all women and men. Transform our hearts to celebrate the love and grace of all people.
And may we be blessed with the courage of St Clare of Assisi to follow our own path of love for you and all sisters and brothers.
Prayer by Deborah Hirt
"If we struggle daily to become Saints, each of us in his own situation in the world... I assure you that God will make us into instruments that can work miracles.."
---Saint Josemaria Escriva
Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer y Albás was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest. He founded Opus Dei, an organization of laypeople and priests dedicated to the teaching that everyone is called to holiness by God and that ordinary life can result in sanctity. Wikipedia
Born: January 9, 1902, Barbastro, Spain
Died: June 26, 1975, Rome, Italy
Patronage: Opus Dei; People with diabetes
Feast: 26 June
Siblings: Santiago Escriva
Parents: María de los Dolores Albás y Blanc, José Escrivá y Corzán
Prayer for the Intercession of St. Josemaria Escriva
O God, through the mediation of Mary our Mother,
you granted your priest Saint Josemaria countless graces,
choosing him as a most faithful instrument to found Opus Dei,
a way of sanctification in daily work and in the fulfillment
of the Christian’s ordinary duties.
Grant that I too may learn to turn all the circumstances
and events of my life into occasions of loving you
and serving the Church, the Pope and all souls
with joy and simplicity, lighting up the pathways
of this earth with faith and love.
Deign to grant me, through the intercession of Saint Josemaria,
the favor of … (make your request). Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.
SAINT OF THE DAY
St John of God
Feast Day: March 8
Pray for us!
THE LIFE OF SAINT JOHN OF GOD
Religious
(1495-1550)
Nothing in John's early life foreshadowed his future sanctity. He ran away as a boy from his home in Portugal, tended sheep and cattle in Spain, and served as a soldier against the French, and afterwards against the Turks.
When about forty years of age, feeling remorse for his wild life, he resolved to devote himself to the ransom of the Christian slaves in Africa, and went thither with the family of an exiled noble, which he maintained by his labor. On his return to Spain he sought to do good by selling holy pictures and books at low prices.
At length the hour of grace struck. At Granada a sermon by the celebrated John of Avila shook his soul to its depths, and his expressions of self-abhorrence were so extraordinary that he was taken to the asylum as one mad. There he employed himself in ministering to the sick.
On leaving he began to collect homeless poor, and to support them by his work and by begging. One night St. John found in the streets a poor man who seemed near death, and, as was his wont, he carried him to the hospital, laid him on a bed, and went to fetch water to wash his feet. When he had washed them, he knelt to kiss them, and started with awe: the feet were pierced, and the print of the nails bright with an unearthly radiance. He raised his eyes to look, and heard the words, "John, to Me thou doest all that thou doest to the poor in My name: I reach forth My hand for the alms thou givest; Me dost thou clothe, Mine are the feet thou dost wash." And then the gracious vision disappeared, leaving St. John filled at once with confusion and consolation.
The bishop became the Saint's patron, and gave him the name of John of God. When his hospital was on fire, John was seen rushing about uninjured amidst the flames until he had rescued all his poor.
After ten years spent in the service of the suffering, the Saint's life was fitly closed. He plunged into the river Xenil to save a drowning boy, and died, 1550, of an illness brought on by the attempt, at the age of fifty-five.
✝️Prayer for Lenten Simplicity:
Free me, Lord Jesus, from anything that obstructs my way to you. Clear away the clutter of petty grudges.
Remove smudges of resentment and bitterness. Cleanse me of thoughts filled with anger, envy, or self-pity.
Create space in my life for more kindness and less spitefulness, greater generosity and few self-centered needs, stronger compassion and weakened judgement of others.
Enlarge my heart with a spirit of gratitude this Lent, so that I recognize the simple gifts that lay in abundance all around me.
In your sacred name, I pray.
Amen
PRAYER TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY O Mary, Virgin most powerful and Mother of mercy, Queen of Heaven and Refuge o...
