NINETEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
SAINTS OF THE DAY ~ FEAST DAY: AUGUST 17, 2024
Greetings, beloved family and Happy Saturday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time.
On this feast day, as our children and children all over the world begin the new school year, with special intention through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, and the Saints, we pray for their safety and well-being, especially those beginning the new school year. May God grant them the courage to face new challenges and wisdom to make good choices. We pray for wisdom, knowledge, and understanding and for God’s guidance and protection upon them during this school year and always. We pray for safe travels, to and from school. We also pray for all teachers, staff and parents, and guardians. May the good Lord provide for those in need. And we continue to pray for peace, love, and unity in our families and our world. May God keep us all safe andh well. Amen 🙏
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” ~ Proverbs 3:5-6
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” ~ James 1:5
We continue to pray for the sick and dying. We especially pray for our loved ones who have recently died and we pray for the repose of their gentle souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, may the Lord receive them into the light of Eternal Kingdom. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon them. May their gentle souls through the mercy of God rest in perfect peace with our Lord Jesus Christ… Amen 🙏 ✝️🕯✝️🕯✝️🕯
PRAYER FOR THE DEAD: In your hands, O Lord, we humbly entrust our brothers and sisters. In this life you embraced them with your tender love; deliver them now from every evil and bid them eternal rest. The old order has passed away: welcome them into paradise, where there will be no sorrow, no weeping or pain, but fullness of peace and joy with your Son & the Holy Spirit forever & ever. Amen🙏
Watch “Holy Mass and Holy Rosary on EWTN on YouTube | August 17, 2024 |
Watch “Holy Mass from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | August 17, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary from Lourdes, France” |August 17, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | August 17, 2024 |
Pray “The Chaplet of Divine Mercy | from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | August 17, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary ALL 20 Mysteries VIRTUAL🌹JOYFUL🌹LUMINOUS🌹SORROWFUL🌹GLORIOUS” on YouTube |
Memorare Chaplet | Prayer in Difficult Times (Powerful Prayer) |
Today’s Bible Readings: Saturday August 17, 2024
Reading 1, Ezekiel 18:1-10, 13, 30-32
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 51:12-13, 14-15, 18-19
Gospel, Matthew 19:13-15
NOVENA TO SAINT MONICA: Tomorrow begins the Novena to Saint Monica (especially prayed for wayward children). Traditionally prayed every day from August 18–26 (Or any time of year).
Memorial of Saint Monica is August 27
Memorial of Saint Augustine is August 28
Saint Monica was the mother of Saint Augustine. She is credited for being a holy and faith-filled mother whose prayers brought about the conversion of her son, Augustine. This novena can be prayed for any intention, especially for wayward children.
Dear Saint Monica, you were once the mournful mother of a prodigal son. Your faithfulness to prayer brought you and your son so close to God that you are now with him in eternity. By your intercession and God’s grace, your son St. Augustine became a great and venerable Saint of the Church. Please take my request to God with the same fervor and persistence with which you prayed for your own son. (Mention your intentions here)
With your needs, worries and anxieties, you threw yourself on the mercy and providence of God. Through sorrow and pain, you constantly devoted yourself to God. Pray for me that I might join you in such a deep faith in God’s goodness and mercy. Above all, dear Saint Monica, pray for me that I may, like your son, turn from my sin and become a great Saint for the glory of God.
Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory be… Amen 🙏
SAINTS OF THE DAY: MEMORIAL OF SAINT HYACINTH, CONFESSOR; SAINT JOAN OF THE CROSS (JEANNE DELANOUE), RELIGIOUS; SAINT LIBERATUS AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS; SAINT NICHOLAS POLITI, RELIGIOUS; SAINT BEATRICE OF SILVA, RELIGIOUS AND BLESSED MARIE ELIZABETH TURGEON, RELIGIOUS ~ FEAST DAY – AUGUST 17TH: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Hyacinth, Confessor; Saint Joan of the Cross (Jeanne Delanoue), Religious; Saint Liberatus and his Companions, Martyrs; Saint Nicolas Politi, Religious; Saint Beatrice of Silva, Religious and Blessed Marie Elisabeth Turgeon, Religious. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for all marriages, we pray for peace, love, and unity in our marriage, our families and our world. We pray for the safety and well-being of our children and children all over the world. We pray for the sick and dying, especially those who are sick and suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. We pray for the poor and needy in our world. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Bishops, the Clergy, for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for the Church, for persecuted christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world.🙏
SAINT HYACINTH, CONFESSOR: St. Hyacinth, Apostle of Poland (1185-1257) was born of noble lineage and reared in a Polish castle. His parents took great care of the development of his mind and soul, entrusting his education to his uncle, a priest who became the Bishop of Krakow. He was well educated and excelled in his studies and was sent to the best universities in Europe, earning a Doctorate of Canon Law and Divinity. After earning two doctorates, he visited Rome in 1220 and met St. Dominic, who had recently received papal approval for the founding of the Order of Preachers. St. Hyacinth became one of the first Dominican friars and receiving the Dominican habit from St. Dominic himself, who sent him to preach and establish the order in Poland. He was so effective in his preaching for the salvation of souls that he also preached in many other countries including Austria, Prussia, Lithuania, Bohemia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Russia, China and Tibet. He founded many monasteries and Churches, Convents, and Catholic communities and multitudes were converted to the faith through his astounding miracles, even the extraordinary feat of raising a dead boy to life. One day, while saying Mass in Kiev, the enemy Tartars invaded and attacked the city. After he finished the Mass, he took the ciborium containing the Holy Eucharist, but he stopped when he heard a voice from a statue of the Virgin Mary asking that he take her with him. Although the statue was much too heavy to carry, he found that it became so light that he lifted it with ease. He took the beloved statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and fled, leading the people to the deep river Dnieper. When he came to the Dnieper river with the Holy Eucharist and the Blessed Mother in his arms, he, along with his companions, walked dry-shod across the river as they fled from the Tartars, infuriating the pursuing Tartars who could not follow them. It’s said that St. Hyacinth’s footprints remained on the water and could be seen for centuries afterward. Worn out by his constant labors and vast journeys, Hyacinth spent the last few months of his life in a convent he had founded at Cracow. There on the Feast of St. Dominic, 1257, he fell sick with a fever that was to terminate his earthly life. On the eve of the feast of the Assumption, he was warned of his coming death. In spite of his condition, he celebrated Mass on the feast day, as a dying man. He was anointed at the altar, and died the same day on the feast of Assumption on August 15, 1257. He was canonized in 1594 by Pope Clement VIII. St. Hyacinth is the Patron Saint of those in danger of drowning, Poland, Lithuania, UST-College of Tourism and Hospitality, Basilica of St. Hyacinth, Krakow, and Poland. His feast day is August 17th.
Saint Hyacinth, Confessor ~ Pray for us 🙏
SAINT JOAN OF THE CROSS (JEANNE DELANOUE), RELIGIOUS: St. Joan of the Cross (1666-1736), Joan Delanoue was a holy woman who gave up her business in service to the poor and needy, following an encounter with a beggar. St. Joan remained open to the message of God, seeing in the poor woman she encountered the personage of Christ, giving all she had in service, and founding the order of the Congregation of Saint Anne of Providence to continue her charitable mission. St. Joan was born at Anjou, France, in 1666, the youngest of twelve children in Saumur, France. Her parents, who identified as Catholic, were not especially devout, and the faith was presented to Joan as a part of life, rather than a mystery to behold and contemplate. The family worked long hours as shopkeepers, supporting the 14 members of the household as best they could. St Joan’s mother, however, was also generous, giving alms and food to any beggars who came to the door of the shop. As the youngest of twelve children, Joan was forced to take over her mother’s religious goods store when the latter died in 1691. For a time, St. Joan’s sole preoccupation seemed to be making money. However, when she was about thirty years old, she met Frances Souchet, a widow, and changed her whole life. In 1698, St. Joan closed her shop and volunteered to help with orphans. After six years, in 1704, St. Joan, her niece, and two companions adopted the religious life, forming a community called the Sisters of St. Anne of the Province of Saumur. After two years, Joan professed vows, and with help from St. Louis Grignion de Montfort as well as the Oratorians, she continued her work with orphans. In 1709, the Bishop of Angers gave St. Joan’s community canonical approval, and by 1721, her community had spread to other towns in France. St. Joan continued to live a life of austerity, while also suffering painful ailments. Worn out by her labours, St. Joan Delanoue died on August 17, 1736 at Fencet, France, of natural causes. At the time of her death, there were twelve communities of her Sisters spread throughout France, serving the poor and needy. The order St. Joan founded was renamed Congregation of St. Anne of Providence on December 3, 1964. St. Joan was beatified in 1947 by Pope Pius XII an canonised in October 1982 by Pope John Paul II. Today the congregation she founded numbers about 400 sisters and serves the poor in France, Madagascar and Sumatra. St. Joan became widely known for healings obtained through her intercession. St. Joan died on August 17, 1736. She was beatified in 1947 by Pope Pius XII and canonized in 1982 by Pope John Paul II.
PRAYER: God, You showered heavenly gifts on St. Joan. Help us to imitate her virtues during our eartly life and enjoy eternal happiness with her in heaven. Amen 🙏
SAINT LIBERATUS AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS: Abbot Liberatus and six monks of the Augustinian–inspired monastery of Gafsa (Saints Liberatus, Boniface, Servus, Rusticus, Rogatus, Septimus, Maximus), the youngest of whom was Maximus, were living in a monastery near Capsa. They were at that time summoned to Carthage and imprisoned under the African Vandal king Huneric who in the seventh year of his reign in Africa, published new edicts against the Catholics, and ordered that all their monasteries be demolished. St. Liberatus and his Companions were imprisoned for refusing to abandon either their Catholic faith or their monastery. They were first tempted with great promises, but as they remained constant in their confession of the Trinity and of one Baptism, they were charged with irons and thrown into a dark dungeon. The faithful by bribing the guards were able to visit the Saints, and did so day and night to be instructed by them. All mutually encouraged one another to suffer for the faith of Christ. The king, learning of this, commanded them to be more closely confined, loaded with heavier irons, and tortured with a cruelty never heard of before that time. Soon after, he condemned them to be put into an old ship and burnt with it at sea. The martyrs walked cheerfully to the shore, indifferent to the insults of the Arians as they passed by. Particular endeavors were used by the persecutors to gain the young monk Maximus; but God, who makes the tongues of children eloquent in His praises, gave him strength to withstand all their efforts. He boldly told them that they would never be able to separate him from his holy Abbot and his brethren, with whom he had borne the labors of a penitential life for the sake of everlasting glory. They were bludgeoned to death in the year 484 after an old boat on which they were to be burned alive had failed to ignite. An old vessel was filled with dry branches, and the seven martyrs were placed on board and bound tightly to the wood. Fire was put to it several times but went out immediately, and all endeavors to kindle it were vain. The tyrant, in rage and confusion, gave orders that the martyrs’ brains should be dashed out with oars, which was done, and their bodies cast into the sea, whose waves carried them all to the shore. The Catholics interred them honorably in a monastery at Bigua. Their long-standing cult was confirmed by the Church in 1671. The seven died for the sake of Christ, united in their faith and Augustinian fraternity.
Saint Liberatus and his Companions, Martyrs ~ Pray for us 🙏
SAINT NICHOLAS POLITI, RELIGIOUS: St . Nicholas Politi, (1117-1167) was born into nobility in the twelfth century in Sicily in the city of Adrano, an only child of aged parents. He received a good cultural and religious education. He was a pious child with a devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and contemplation of the Passion of Christ, and was early drawn to a life consecrated to God. Wed at age 17 in an arranged marriage; the wedding was a crisis point in his discernment of a vocation, and he fled to become a lay monk with the Basilian monastery of Santa Maria Del Rogato. He retired to become a cave hermit on Mount Calanna, Arcaria, Sicily. He lived a life of severe asceticism, but returned to the monastery of Rogato every weekend to go to Confession and receive Communion. He remained a virgin in mind and body with prayer, penance and hermit life for some time on the slopes of Etna and then at the Calanna in the Nebrodi Mountains at Alcara li Fusi. Anchorite and Hesychast, he enriched his existence weekly by participating in the cenobitic life at the Byzantine monastery of the Holy Mother of God at the Rogato Monastery, confessing and feeding on the Holy Eucharist. After having given his sweet soul to Heaven, his body was found on his knees by a good man named Leone Rancuglia on August 17, inside a cavern between the slopes of Monte Calanna, near Alcara li Fusi. Two women gave testimony of him who some time before his death had met him begging for some pears that they carried along the way. Portentous prodigies accompanied his death, his discovery and the transport of his body to the land of Alcara and the decision, by divine will, to place it at the Rogato church. The categumeno (Italian-Greek abbot monk) Cusmano Theologian, who was honored to have known the great penitential fervor of the saint during his life, composed a hymn in Greek to celebrate his virtues, faith, heroism, miracles and holiness. A contemporary monk extensively narrated his life. The sanctity was also celebrated in some liturgical passages of the Italo-Greek office of the twelfth century. On the occasion of his powerful patronage, which took place on May 10, 1503 with numerous prodigies, conversions and miraculous healings, his fame spread greatly.
Saint Nicolas Politi, Religious ~ Pray for us 🙏
SAINT BEATRICE OF SILVA, RELIGIOUS: St. Beatrice of Silva (1424-1492), also known as Beatriz da Silva y de Menezes and as Beatriz de Menezes da Silva, was a noblewoman of Portugal, who became the foundress of the monastic Order of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady in Spain. St. Beatrice was born in Campo Mayor, Portugal, around 1424 to Portuguese nobility, daughter of Count of Viana, Rodrigo Gómez de Silva and Isabella de Meneses, who had eleven children in all. Both were descendants of noble families, related to the royal houses of Spain and Portugal. One of their children, the fifth in the order of birth, was Blessed Amedeo de Silva, founder of the Amadeites, a reformed branch that later rejoined the Order of Friars Minor. St. Beatrice spent her childhood and adolescence in Campo Mayor, where her father had moved from Ceuta before her birth. Her mother, very fond of the Friars Minor, wanted some of them to take care of the education of her children. At the same time, they taught the boys a special devotion to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. St. Beatrice was raised in the household of the future Queen Isabel of Portugal and spent some time in her royal court in Castile following the Queen’s marriage to John II. She soon got tired of the empty life at court and joined a Cistercian convent in Toledo. She lived at the convent until 1484, when she answered a summons from God to found a religious order. The Congregation of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was begun, and with the help of the Queen, she founded a house outside of Toledo where she lived and served as superior until her death on September 1, 1492. Saint Beatrice was Beatified on July 28, 1926, Rome, Kingdom of Italy, by Pope Pius XI and Canonized on October 3, 1976, Vatican, by Pope Paul VI.
Saint Beatrice of Silva, Religious ~ Pray for us 🙏
BLESSED MARIE ELIZABETH TURGEON, RELIGIOUS: Bl. Marie Elisabeth Turgeon, was born on February 7, 1840, in Beaumont (Quebec), the fifth of a family of ten children. A gifted student, she wanted to continue her education, but the death of her father when she is only fifteen, lead her to help her mother to bring up her four younger sisters. When she was twenty years old, Elisabeth was allowed to go to the Ecole Normale in Laval to prepare to become a teacher. She obtained her diploma and in 1863 became the principal of a school near her family home. Her bad health forced her to quit at the end of the school year, in 1872. She then opened a private class in Saint Roch, but once again was unable to continue. She therefore turned to Saint Anne and promised to teach for free if Saint Anne heals her. As she fulfilled this promise, Father Langevin, who was named Bishop of Rimouski, asked her to direct the small community of teachers that was being formed in his diocese. She hesitated because of her poor health, but ended up accepting because she believed it is God’s will for her to enter religious life. With other young women she formed the first group of the Soeurs des Petites Ecoles, dedicated to the education of the poor children of the surrounding countryside. On September 12, 1879, Elisabeth and twelve other sisters took their vows. Marie-Elisabeth was made superior and committed herself to establish the community of sisters and regularized its status (civil charter, constitutions, rule). She founded the community’s first mission on January 2, 1880 and two others the following September, in outlying and poor parts of the Diocese of Rimouski. Then she opened a private school in Rimouski, where the novices had their first teaching experience. Charity was the unifying principle in Elisabeth’s life. She offered love to everyone, especially to her sisters, by being very attentive with them and always filled with goodness. Despite her poor health, she showed extraordinary strength: she worked day and night and overcame difficulties with patience and joy. She died on August 17, 1881, only 41 years old. She was beatified on April 26, 2015.
Blessed Marie Elisabeth Turgeon, Religious ~ Pray for us 🙏
SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS:
Bible Readings for today, Saturday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB | https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading
Gospel Reading ~ Matthew 19:13-15
“Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these”
“Children were brought to Jesus that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” After he placed his hands on them, he went away.”
In today’s Gospel reading, parents bring children to Jesus so that He may lay His hands on them and pray for them. Parents always want what is best for their children and, recognizing Jesus as a man of God, they wanted to open their children up to God who was at work through Jesus. It is strange that Jesus’ disciples would try to prevent this from happening, turning the children away. Clearly their attitude towards children and Jesus’ attitude towards children differed. The disciples may have felt that children were not important enough for Jesus to bother with. In the time of Jesus, children were way down the pecking order; they were without rights or status. Perhaps the disciples thought that these children were not ‘worthy’ of Jesus’ attention. If so, they had a great deal to learn about the values of the kingdom of God that Jesus came to proclaim. Jesus insisted on allowing the children come to Him. He identifies them as those to whom the kingdom of God belongs in a special way. In the upside down world of God’s kingdom present in Jesus, those who have little or no status or importance in this world have a special place in the kingdom of God. St Paul was true to the teaching and actions of Jesus when he stated in his first letter to the Corinthians, ‘God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong’. In the previous chapter of Matthew’s Gospel to today’s reading, Jesus had told His disciples that they would not enter the kingdom of God unless they become like little children. Jesus seems to be saying that when it comes to our relationship with God, those who appear to have least of what the world considers important can have most to teach us. Even though the disciples may have felt that children were not important enough for Jesus to bother with. Yet, Jesus’ words show that He wanted children to be at the centre of the life and prayer of the community of disciples, ‘Let the children alone, and do not stop them coming to me’. Not only did He want children to be at the centre of the church’s life but He also declared that adults within the community have a great deal to learn from them, ‘it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs’. Children’s instinctive openness and trusting nature models for us how we are to relate to God. It is to those with an open heart and a trusting spirit that will be able to receive the gift of the kingdom from God.
In our first reading today from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel, the Lord’s words reminded and exhorted His people, the Israelites who were by then living in the exile in the lands far away from their homeland to turn away from their wickedness and the sins that their ancestors and predecessors had once committed so that they all could be freed from their predicament and sufferings, because all that they had experienced and endured, their sufferings and tribulations were caused from their own offences against the Lord and also their sins and mistakes against their fellow brethren. Their disobedience and wickedness brought them to their doom, all of their greed and injustice against their fellow men and women, all of which led them to fall into the trap of sin and destruction. But the Lord also reassured them all at the same time, that if they were to turn away from their sins and wickedness, then in the end, they would again receive God’s grace and love, and they would be blessed once again, and be assured of the glorious inheritance and the great and wonderful things which God would grant to them all. The Lord is ever merciful and kind to His people, to those whom He loves, like that of a father who may be strict on his children, and yet, loved them all the same. What God does not want to happen to any of us is that He does not want any one of us to fall into the path of sin and darkness because of our disobedience and inability to follow the Law and the rules which He has provided to us to help us in our journey and path in life.
As we reflect on the words of the Sacred Scriptures today, we are all once again reminded that each and every one of us are God’s children, truly precious and beloved to Him, and at the same time, He is also a God Who is all holy and perfect, without blemish or taint of sin, and our own attitudes, actions and sinfulness in life in this world are the things which often prevented us from being able to reach out to the Lord and embrace Him fully and wholeheartedly. Yet, God is also ever forgiving and merciful towards us, and He extends towards us His mercy and forgiveness at all times, desiring us all to return back to Him, to embrace once again the fullness of His love and grace, which He has meant for us from the very beginning but which we have squandered out of our disobedience. Let us all continue to discern carefully our path and journey in life so that we do not end up falling into the trap of sin and evil, of all the worldly desires and all the temptations around us. Let our lives be truly faithful to God, exemplary in our every deeds, actions and interactions with everyone around us. Let our works, actions and commitments be truly sincere and filled with God’s grace, love and truth, so that everyone who witness us and interact with us may come to know the Lord and experience Him through what we have done and through our genuine love and desire to serve the Lord and to walk ever more courageously and faithfully in His path, in each and every moments of our lives. May the Lord, our most loving God and Father continue to care for us and to be patient with us, we all who are sinners and are His wayward children, followers and disciples, who have disappointed Him many times through our unfaithfulness and inability to resist the temptations and coercions of sin and evil around us. May He continue to guide us to the right path, and help us with the strength and courage to resist the temptations of sin and evil at every step of our journey in life, reminding us that we need to be truly faithful to Him, and to discard from our hearts and minds, all the obstacles that have prevented us to come to Him, that we may truly be pure in our faith like that of little children, and come towards our loving Father, to love Him and to be with Him forever. May God in His infinite grace and mercy, grant us the grace to be receptive, and share what we receive from Him with each other. May God be with us always and may He bless our every good efforts and works, all of our actions and dealings, our way of life. Amen 🙏
DEVOTION OF THE MONTH OF AUGUST:
MONTH OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY: August is the Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary! The Church dedicates the month of August to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is a dogma of the Catholic faith that Mary is the Immaculate Conception; that is, in preparation for the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity in her womb, she was conceived without the corruption of sin through the foreseen and infinite merits of her Son, Jesus Christ. Over the centuries, as saints and theologians reflected on how Mary pondered and treasured the sacred events from the life of Christ in her holy heart, as attested in Scripture, her pure heart was recognized as something to be imitated. Devotion to Our Lady’s purity of heart began to flower—so much so that in the 17th century, St. John Eudes promoted it alongside the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The devotion rose to a new level after the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, when Mary revealed an image of her Immaculate Heart to Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco.
THE POPE’S MONTHLY INTENTIONS FOR 2024: FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST – FOR POLITICAL LEADERS: We pray that political leaders be at the service of their own people, working for integral human development and for the common good, especially caring for the poor and those who have lost their jobs.
https://www.usccb.org/prayers/popes-monthly-intentions-2024
PRAYER FOR PEACE ~ POPE FRANCIS:
Lord God of peace, hear our prayer!
We have tried so many times and over so many years to resolve our conflicts by our own powers and by the force of our arms. How many moments of hostility and darkness have we experienced; how much blood has been shed; how many lives have been shattered; how many hopes have been buried… But our efforts have been in vain. Now, Lord, come to our aid! Grant us peace, teach us peace; guide our steps in the way of peace. Open our eyes and our hearts, and give us the courage to say: “Never again war!”; “With war everything is lost”. Instill in our hearts the courage to take concrete steps to achieve peace. Lord, God of Abraham, God of the Prophets, God of Love, you created us and you call us to live as brothers and sisters. Give us the strength daily to be instruments of peace; enable us to see everyone who crosses our path as our brother or sister. Make us sensitive to the plea of our citizens who entreat us to turn our weapons of war into implements of peace, our trepidation into confident trust, and our quarreling into forgiveness. Keep alive within us the flame of hope, so that with patience and perseverance we may opt for dialogue and reconciliation. In this way may peace triumph at last, and may the words “division”, “hatred” and “war” be banished from the heart of every man and woman. Lord, defuse the violence of our tongues and our hands. Renew our hearts and minds, so that the word which always brings us together will be “brother”, and our way of life will always be that of: Shalom, Peace, Salaam! Amen 🙏🏾
During this Ordinary Time, please let us all continue to pray for peace all over the world, particularly in Africa, Nigeria, the Middle East, for an end to the current war in Israel-Palestine, and the Ukraine-Russia conflicts and for peace in our families and throughout our divided and conflicted World. Amen 🙏🏾
Prayers for Peace | https://mycatholic.life/catholic-prayers/prayers-for-peace/
PRAYER INTENTIONS: During this season of the Ordinary Time, through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and all the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for our children and children all over the world, we pray for their health, safety and well-being, we particularly pray for those who have no one to care for them and those who are terminally ill, we pray for God’s Divine healing upon them. We pray for all mothers, wives, those going through challenges in their marriages, Victims of verbal and spousal abuse, we pray for peace, love and unity in our families and our world. Every life is a gift. We pray for God’s deliverance from impossible causes or situations. We pray for the souls in Purgatory and the repose of the gentle soul of our beloved family members who recently passed away and the souls of all the faithful departed, may the Lord receive them into the light of Eternal Kingdom. For all widows and widowers. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Bishops, the Clergy and all those who preach the Gospel. We pray for Vocation to the Priesthood and Religious life. We particularly pray for all Youths and all Seminarians, with special intention for those Seminarians who will be ordained into Priesthood. For the Church, for persecuted Christians, for all the innocent who suffer violence due to political or religious unrest, for the conversion of sinners and Christians all over the world. Amen 🙏🏾
Let us pray:
My tender Lord, You welcome all people to share in Your grace. You welcome every child and every child of God to share in Your loving embrace. Please extend that welcome to me and help me to accept this gift of Your infinite love. And help me to become a better instrument of Your love toward others, never interfering or preventing them from turning to You. Jesus, I trust in You ~ Amen 🙏
Save Us, Savior of the World. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and Most Precious Blood of Jesus, have mercy on us. Our Most Blessed Mother Mary, Saint Hyacinth; Saint Joan of the Cross (Jeanne Delanoue) and Saint Liberatus and his Companions; Saint Nicolas Politi; Saint Beatrice of Silva and Blessed Marie Elisabeth Turgeon ~ Pray for us🙏
Thanking God for the gift of this day and praying for justice, peace, love and unity in our families and our world and for God’s Divine Mercy and Grace upon us all. Have a blessed, safe, grace-filled, and relaxing weekend🙏
Blessings and Love always, Philomena💖