Prayer for the First Week of Lent Devotion

[This prayer is designed to be said within the family before a Crucifix during the first week of Lent.]

Mother or a child:
From the words of St. Paul [2 Cor. 6:1-2].

Dearly beloved, we entreat you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says: "In an acceptable time I have beard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

Father:
This time of fasting has opened to us the gates of paradise. Let us accept it, praying and beseeching.

Family:
That on the day of resurrection we may be glorified in the Lord.

Father:
Let us pray.
Through the observance of Lent, O Lord, You purify Your Church every year. See to it that Your children lead a better life and so obtain the graces they are striving to acquire by doing penance. This we ask of You through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son.

Family:
Amen.
Favour this dwelling, Lord, with Your presence. Far from it repulse all the wiles of Satan. Your holy angels, let them live here, to keep us in peace. And may your blessing remain always upon us. This we ask of you through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son.

Father:
Let us bless the Lord.

Family:
Thanks be to God.

Father:
May the almighty and merciful Lord, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, bless and keep us.

Family:
Amen.

Country Prayer for Lent Devotion

Dear Lord, we are now in the holy season of Lent. 

We begin to realize anew that these are the days of salvation, these are the acceptable days. 

We know that we are all sinners. 

We know that in many things we have all offended Your infinite majesty. 

We know that sin destroys Your life in us as a drought withers the leaves and chokes the life from the land, leaving an arid, dusty desert. 

Help us now, Lord, in our feeble attempts to make up for past sin. 

Bless our efforts with the rich blessing of Your grace. 

Make us realize ever more our need of penance and of mortification. 

Help us to see, in our ordinary difficulties and duties, in the trials and temptations of every day, the best opportunity of making up for past infidelities. 

Every day we are so often reminded in field and wood, in sky and stream, of Your own boundless generosity to us. 

Help us to realize that You are never outdone in generosity, and that the least thing we do for You will be rewarded, full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and flowing over. 

Then we shall see, in our own souls, how the desert can blossom, and the dry and wasted land can bring forth the rich, useful fruit that was expected of it from the beginning. 

Amen.

The Mercy of Purification

Lord, help me to see my soul as You see it. Help me to let Your merciful gaze cleanse me of every sin. In Your compassion, dear Lord, replace the sin in my life with Your Mercy. And help me to never run from You. Jesus, I trust in You.

Imagine if you could see your soul as God sees it. What would you see? How might God see your soul? 

Certainly He sees His precious child and looks at you with the greatest of love. But He also sees your sin, even the slightest sin. 

These sins, even the smallest imperfection, must be purged from within by His burning love. The Mercy of God becomes deeply "painful" in a spiritual way as it purifies. But this purification is necessary and is freeing. 

Purification must take place either now or through Purgatory. Choose the purification of God's merciful love now and you will not regret it.

Reflect, today, upon God's love coming to you to purify your soul of every sin, even the smallest imperfection you may have. 

See this as an act of abundant Mercy. Be ready to feel the sweet pain of being purified and do not run from this. Your purification fills the Heart of our Lord with immense joy!

A True Letter of Our Saviour Jesus Christ

(from the Pieta Prayer Book)

Consecrating the Drops of Blood which Our Lord Jesus lost on His way to Calvary.

Copy of a letter of the Oration found in the Holy Sepulchre of

Our Lord Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, preserved in a silver box by his Holiness and by the emperors and empresses of the Christian faith. St. Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary, with St. Matilda and St. Bridget, wishing to know something of the Passion of Jesus Christ, offered fervent and special prayers, upon which there appeared to them Our Lord Jesus Christ who spoke to them in the following manner:

I descended from Heaven to the Earth in order to convert you.

In olden times people were religious and their harvests were abundant; at present, on the contrary, they are scanty.

If you want to reap an abundant harvest you must not work on Sunday, for on Sunday you must go to church and pray to God to forgive your sins.  He gave you six days in which to work and one for rest and devotion and to tender your help to the poor and assist the Church.

Those people, who brawl against my religion and cast slurs on this Sacred Letter, shall be forsaken by me.

On the contrary, those people who shall carry a copy of this letter with them shall be free from death by drowning and from sudden death.  They shall be free from all contagious diseases and lightning; they shall not die without confession, and shall be free from their enemies and from the hand of wrongful authority, and from all their slanderers and false witnesses.

Women in peril at child-birth will, by keeping this Oration about them, immediately overcome the difficulty.  In the houses where this Oration is kept no evil thing will ever happen; and forty days before the death of a person who has this Oration about him or her, the Blessed Virgin will appear to him or her. So said St. Gregorius.

To all those faithful who shall recite for 3 years, each day 2 Paters (Our Fathers), Glorias and Aves, in honor of the drops of blood I lost, I will concede the following 5 graces:

1. The plenary indulgence and remittance of your sins.

2. You will be free from the pains of Purgatory.

3. If you should die before completing the said 3 years, for you it will be the same as if you had completed them.

4. It will be upon your death the same as if you had shed all your blood for the Holy Faith.

5. I will descend from Heaven to take your soul and that of your relatives, until the fourth generation.

Be it known that the number of armed soldiers were 150; those who trailed me while I was bound were 23.  

The executioners of justice were 83; the blows received on my head were 150; those on my stomach, 108; I was beaten on the body 6666 times;  beaten on the head, 110 times.  

I was roughly pushed, and at 12 o'clock was lifted up by the

hair; pricked with thorns and pulled by the beard 23 times;  received 20 wounds on the head; thorns of marine junks, 72; pricks of thorns in the head, 110; mortal thorns in the forehead, 3.  

I was afterwards flogged and dressed as a mocked king; wounds in the body, 1000.  

The soldiers who led me to the Calvary were 608; those who watched me were 3, and those who mocked me were 1008; the drops of blood which I lost were 28,430.

Benedetta DA S.S., Pope Leo XIII, In Roma 5 Aprile 1890

Jesus Crucified To The Heart Of The Christian.

"Son, for thy sake I have sacrificed my life on a cross, amidst the most fearful sufferings and tortures; can I then be requiring too much when I ask thee sometimes to remember all I have done for thee; sometimes to call to mind my Passion? 

Can a Father ask less of thee, O son? — a Father who for love of thee has suffered and died, was most cruelly transfixed with nails, and breathed his last, plunged in a sea of sorrows? 

I ask thee not for thy blood, although I shed every drop of mine for the love of thee. 

I ask thee not to endure the scourge, to which also I submitted for thy sake.

I ask thee not for the sacrifice of thy life, although I laid down my own with infinite love, for the salvation of thy soul. 

No, my son. I ask thee but to pause for a moment, to
contemplate me suffering, covered with wounds, and dying on the Cross; to contemplate me in the state to which I am reduced by my ardent desire for thy salvation. 

I ask of thee a thought, a feeling of love, a sigh, a tear of compassion at the sight of my countless sufferings. 

Can thy heart, O my son be so hardened and unfeeling as to refuse thy tender Father, thy loving Redeemer, this slight tribute of gratitude — the occasional recollection of my Passion? 

Canst thou so liberally bestow thy thoughts and affections upon the world, upon creatures, and upon thy own interests, and yet refuse me even a sigh, or a feeling of love and sympathy? 

Ah, son! I beseech thee to satisfy my desires, and not to refuse what I ask of thee. 

Remember ail my sufferings, my wounds, and my death, compassionate and love me. 

At least, let thy first thoughts each day be devoted to the remembrance of some one of my bitter sufferings; let at least one sigh be given to thy Crucified Saviour as the hours speed on their course; and let the last emotion of thy heart, after all the cares of the day are over, be a feeling of compassion for thy Redeemer expiring on a Cross."

"Ah, my son I forget not how much thy salvation has cost me; forget not at how dear a rate I have ransomed thy soul, how much blood I have shed, and how many sufferings I have endured in order to atone for thy sins! 

If thy find is continually occupied with such thoughts, and if thou dost often meditate upon my Passion, never, never more wilt thou so barbarously crucify me again by wilful sins."

Do You Still Worry?

"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:6"

Devotion : The children of God are the light of the world; hence the world looks up to them to know the ways of God. 

As a child of God, you are exhorted by the Word of God not to worry about anything.

Why is it so important that you don't worry? 

The opening scripture gives you the reasons not to worry: You have tools called prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving.

Supplication is to ask humbly and earnestly. 

Therefore, don't look down on your prayers; God is waiting for you to lay your entire burden on Him in humble prayer and thanksgiving. 

Show appreciation to Him for what He has already done for you, what He is doing, and what He is about to do for you.

 Continue in thanksgiving, and your anxious mind will give way to a sound mind, which will prepare you to receive the answers to your prayers. 

Praise the Lord!

A Prayer to God My Rock

Based on Psalm 18

God you are my rock!

I depend on your strength.

You save me from the destructive forces in my life.

When I pray, you hear me.

You can do so many incredible things.

I don't understand most of them.

And yet you hear my cry.

You pull me up when I feel like I am drowning.

I feel your hand strongly grasping mine when I reach for you.

You rescue me.

You know what I need.

You give me your laws, which I try to keep.

Those laws keep me close to you, where your strength sustains me.

You are God, and you know what is best.

When I realize you are near, I am not afraid.

Nothing holds me back.

The path I walk is safe when I follow you.

You are alive and you are life!

Your strength never fails me.

God you are my rock!

Amen.

David's Prayer for Deliverance

If you ever want a primer for prayer, you can't go wrong with this wisdom book. 

But we chose Psalm 3 because it provides a concise portrait of crying out to God in the midst of great stress. 

David's words are no less relevant to our modern workplace and lifestyle as they were to his battles:

Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!

Many are saying of me,
"God will not deliver him."

But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.

I call out to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.

I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.

I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.

Arise, Lord!
Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.

From the Lord comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.

Interior Suffering – A Path to Mercy

Lord, at times I feel dry and dead inside. 

At times I wonder where You are and if You are with me. 

Help me to have hope and trust in those moments and to see them as a pathway to a deeper faith in You. 

Help me to turn to You in these moments so that Your gates of Mercy may be opened ever more widely. Jesus, I trust in You.

As you grow deeper in your relationship with God you will have many moments of struggle as well as many moments of consolation. 

Do not be afraid of moments of dryness and interior suffering. 

They are necessary and part of God's method of holiness for you. 

In those moments, raise your eyes to Jesus. See Him in His glory and beg for His Mercy.

Honestly look at your soul this day. 

Ponder all that you experience interiorly. 

Ponder, especially, all that only you are aware of. 

Do you find pain and suffering within? 

If it is a result of your own sin then rejoice that you see this. 

If it is the result of God purifying you, then rejoice that He loves you enough to let you go through this spiritual dryness. 

Look to Heaven and give thanks for all that you experience interiorly, for that which is in your soul is the presence of God leading you to Himself.