Raised Catholic...can you tell?: January 2014

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

a new year

A new year brings with it all sorts of resolutions, and in that I am no different from anyone else. But this year I have one very important resolution--the one I want to accomplish even if I fail at all the others--I want to learn to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, and make it a part of my daily life.

A Wife's Prayer

Lord, I come into your presence to say a special prayer for my husband.

Thank you for the blessing of a godly life companion. I pray that You would continue to grow in him a deep and abiding love for You.

Guide him, I pray, as he guides this family; give him wisdom and understanding. Invigorate him with the knowledge of Your grace, and refine him with Your truth.

I pray that I would be a helper, a source of encouragement; and I pray that he would find this home to be a place of rest and refreshment.

Amen.

St. Paul, pray that America follows in your footsteps.

Because our country needs to undergo a great conversion, one as great as the one St. Paul experienced!

Novena Prayer

O glorious St. Paul, after persecuting the Church you became, by God's grace, Her most zealous Apostle. To carry the knowledge of Jesus, our Divine Savior, to the uttermost parts of the earth.

You joyfully endured prison, scourgings, stonings, and a shipwreck, as well as all manner of persecutions, culminating in the shedding of the last drop of your blood for Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Obtain for us the grace to labor strenuously to bring the Faith to others and to accept any trials and tribulations that may come our way. Help us to be inspired by your Epistles and to partake of your indomitable love for Jesus, so that after we have finished our course we may join you in praising Him in heaven for all eternity.

Amen.