PRAYER
✥ INTENTIONS
Prayers of the Week
Advent Wreath Prayer
Week Four: All four candles are lit on the fourth Sunday and allowed to burn as before. The prayer said the fourth week is: Priest: Let us pray. Stir up Thy might, we pray Thee, O Lord, and come; rescue us through Thy great strength so that salvation, which has been hindered by our sins, may be hastened by the grace of Thy gentle mercy. Who livest and reignest for ever and ever. All: Amen.
Saturday, December 21 – Advent Prayer
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ever faithful to your promises and ever close to your Church: the earth rejoices in hope of the Savior’s coming and looks forward with longing to his return at the end of time. Prepare our hearts and remove the sadness that hinders us from feeling the joy and hope which his presence will bestow, for he is Lord for ever and ever. Amen.
Sunday, December 22 – Advent Prayer
O shepherd of Israel, hearken, O guide of the flock of Joseph! Rouse your power, and come to save us. O Lord of hosts, restore us, if your face shine upon us, then we shall be safe. O Lord of hosts, how long will you burn with anger while your people pray? You have fed them with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink in ample measure. You have left us to be fought over by our neighbors, and our enemies mock us. O Lord of hosts, restore us, if your face shine upon us, then we shall be safe.
Monday, December 23 – Christmas Prayer
God of love, Father of all, the darkness that covered the earth has given way to the bright dawn of your Word made flesh. Make us a people of this light. Make us faithful to your Word, that we may bring your life to the waiting world. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Tuesday, December 24 – Christmas Prayer
Lord, in this holy season of prayer and song and laughter, we praise you for the great wonders you have sent us: for shining star and angel’s song, for infant’s cry in lowly manger. We praise you for the Word made flesh in a little Child. We behold his glory, and are bathed in its radiance. Be with us as we sing the ironies of Christmas, the incomprehensible comprehended, the poetry made hard fact, the helpless Babe who cracks the world asunder. We kneel before you shepherds, innkeepers, wisemen. Help us to rise bigger than we are. Amen.
Wednesday, December 25 – Christmas Prayer
Lord God, we praise you for creating man, and still more for restoring him in Christ. Your Son shared our weakness; may we share his glory, for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Thursday, December 26 – Rosary Prayers
O my Jesus, have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Take all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy. Amen. (said after every Glory Be to the Father)
Friday, December 27 – Glory be to the Father
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
INTENTIONS OF POPE FRANCIS ~ DECEMBER 2024
We pray that this Jubilee Year strengthen our faith, helping us to recognize the Risen Christ in our daily lives, and that it may transform us into pilgrims of Christian hope.
Christmas Prayer
Merry Christmas! Glory to God in the highest!
My precious Lord, Jesus, I adore You with profound love and rejoice in the celebration of Your birth. Your love for us is unfathomable, it is glorious transforming, awe-inspiring, and deeply personal. You chose to come and dwell among us, being born into poverty, rejection and humility. Yet Your mother knew whom she bore, Her heart was filled with the tenderest love as she adored her Child and her God.
Help me, dear Lord. to come to love You with the heart of Your mother. Invite me to adore You with St. Joseph and the poor shepherds. Reveal to me the glorious power of Your birth and change my life on account of this perfect gift of Yourself. I love You, dear Lord Jesus. Help me to love You with all my heart. Newborn Savior of the World, I trust in You.
Mother Mary and St. Joseph, Pray for me and for all. Amen.
Advent Candles: Hope, Peace, Joy, Love
1.
The first week of Advent is all about hope.
One purple candle is lit.
Gracious God, As the Advent season begins, we cry out to you. We come to you looking for hope. When everything else we rely on fails us, our only hope is in you. When we do not understand what has happened, we hope in you. We can hope for better days because we trust you. We know you and we know you are here with us no matter what we are facing. Some of us see only darkness this time of year. Some of us find life overwhelming. Some of us are filled with Advent joy. Wherever we find ourselves today, Loving God, remind us that our hope is in you. Be with us on this journey. Amen.
2.
For the second week in Advent, we focus on peace.
Two purple candles are lit.
Prince of Peace, reveal yourself to us today. We need peace in our lives, our homes, our families, our church, and our whole world. Help us to slow down and seek out the peace you provide, so we may become peacemakers for ourselves and others. In your name, Prince of Peace, we pray. Amen.
3.
During the third week in Advent, we spend time thinking about joy.
Two purple candles and one pink candle are lit.
Too often, we think joy is something big, O God. A brass band or a parade can certainly bring us joy. Just as easily and far more often, we can feel joy in a hug or the squeeze of hand, we can see joy in a smile or hear it in laughter. Help us to not overlook the simple joys that peak into our lives daily. This week in our Advent journey, open our eyes to the joy that surrounds us. Amen.
4.
In this final week of Advent, our attention is on love.
Three purple candles and one pink candle are lit.
God, we have learned to love from being loved by you. And so today, let us enact that love. Let us live that love. We know that what the world needs now is more love. We need to remember how much you love each one of us and we must share that love with others. Amen.
Christmas
Merry Christmas! Today is the day we have been preparing for throughout Advent. Jesus is born. All five candles are lit.
We have been waiting for this day, Loving God. We have prepared ourselves for this special day. On this Christmas Day, let us live as those who let hope, peace, joy, and love reign in our lives. As the candles burn brightly and light our path, let us live as those who have the Christ’s light burning inside us today and everyday. Amen.
The Month of DECEMBER
… is dedicated to The Immaculate Conception. The first 24 days of December fall during the liturgical season known as of Advent and are represented by the liturgical color purple — a symbol of penance, mortification and the sorrow of a contrite heart.
PRAYER OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, didst prepare a worthy dwelling place for thy Son, we beseech thee that, as by the foreseen death of this, thy Son, thou didst preserve her from all stain, so too thou wouldst permit us, purified through her intercession, to come unto thee.
November month dedicated to the Holy Souls
All Saints and all Holy Souls
“November begins with two beautiful days . . . the Feasts of All Saints and All Souls. Holy Mother Church remembers all of her children, to whom she has given the life of Jesus through Baptism …We all know that during this whole month we give them extra love and care, by praying to them and for them.”
St. Teresa of Calcutta
“Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.”
Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe:
November 24 2024
PRAYER: Almighty ever-living God, whose will is to restore all things in your beloved Son, the King of the universe, grant, we pray, that the whole creation, set free from slavery, may render your majesty service and ceaselessly proclaim your praise. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. AMEN
The Holy Rosary
Until about the 15th century hundreds of mysteries were part of the Rosary devotion then the 15 mysteries that we know today were definitively fixed as “the Mysteries of the Rosary.” Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, in 2002 added the five Luminous Mysteries.
Through the meditations of the complete Rosary one recalls and has impressed on his mind, the Popes tell us, “the chief mysteries of the Christian religion,” “the mysteries of our Redemption,” “the great mysteries of Jesus and His Mother united in joys, sorrows, and triumphs.” The twenty mysteries are divided into four equal groups, known as “The Joyful,” “The Sorrowful,” “The Glorious,” and “The Luminous Mysteries.”
September is the Month
of Our Lady of Sorrows
“Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” Luke 2:34-35
The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin is the earliest known altarpiece by Albrecht Dürer. The central panel depicts the sorrowful Mother after the Crucifixion. Around her are seven panels with detailing the scenes from the life of the Christ that make up the Seven Sorrows of Mary (from top left): The Circumcision and Prophecy of Simeon; the Flight into Egypt; Loss of Child Jesus for Three Days, Jesus on his Way to Calvary; the Crucifixion, Body of Christ and Lamentations; the Burial of Christ
World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation Sunday, September 1, 2024
In 2015, Pope Francis declared September 1 as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. Coinciding with a celebration instituted by the Orthodox Church, it is also a day of ecumenical prayer and unity. Gatherings for prayer are encouraged in parishes. “Hope and Act with Creation” is this year’s theme of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. The theme is drawn from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans (8:19-25), where the Apostle explains what it means for us to live according to the Spirit and focuses on the sure hope of salvation that is born of faith, namely, newness of life in Christ.