O Lord my God,
I believe in you,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Grant that I may always and ardently
seek out your countenance.
Here I am before you
with my firmness and my infirmity.
Preserve the first and heal the second.
Here I am before you
with my strength and my ignorance.
Where you have opened the door to me,
Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and left that night for Egypt, where they stayed until the death of Herod. (Mt: 2.14) The image of Joseph, Mary and Jesus sitting in the shade of a tree with their donkey tethered to a branch outside some Egyptian town all those years ago is repeated almost daily in newscasts.
Hear, O Blessed Virgin,
the prayers which we address you,
Our Lady of Rest,
as we are mindful of that maternal love
in which you receive your children.
God, my Father,
You have promised to remain forever with those
who do what is just and right.
Help me to live in Your presence.
The loving plan of Your Wisdom was made known when
Jesus, your Son, became man like us.
I want to obey His commandment of love
and bring Your peace and joy to others.
Keep before me the wisdom and love
Father in Heaven,
when the Spirit came down upon Jesus
at His Baptism in the Jordan,
You revealed Him as Your own Beloved Son.
Keep me, Your child,
born of water and the Spirit,
faithful to my calling.
May I, who share in Your Life
as Your child through Baptism,
follow in Christ's path of service to people.
O Lord Jesus, like Saint Paul,
may I count everything as loss
in comparison with the supreme advantage of knowing you.
I want to know you and what your passion and resurrection can do.
I also want to share in your sufferings
in the hope that if I resemble you in death
I may somehow attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Father of Heaven and earth,
hear my prayer and show me the way to peace.
Guide each effort of my life
so that my faults and my sins
may not keep me from the peace You promised.
May the new life of grace You give me
through the Eucharist and prayer
make my love for You grow
and keep me in the joy of Your Kingdom.
O Divine Spirit,
Who have so often enlightened my soul
with the light of Your beams,
I thank You with all my heart.
O Divine Spirit, who have sent me
so many holy inspirations and good desires,
I thank You with all my heart.
O Divine Spirit, who sustain my weakness
by Your sovereign virtue,
I thank You with all my heart.
Almighty and everlasting God,
You have given to Your servants grace
for professing the true faith
and acknowledging the glory of the eternal Trinity
and in the power of Your majesty to worship the Unity;
grant that by steadfastness in the same faith
we may forever be defended from all adversities.
Through Christ our Lord.
I used to really find it difficult to understand that my father and my mother loved me for who I am. I struggled growing up because I always feel I have to prove myself that I am the best son they could ever have. And the irony is that I am the only son. I felt I had to put up my best in everything I do or say. I should do this, and I should do that.