Spirituality | Spirituality |
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It is our greatest desire that we will all become closer to God. We have included a few suggestions which you may find helpful to assist you and your family on the path to sanctity: * Sacred Heart Enthronement for the Family * Have your home blessed * Have a family altar * Pray the Rosary * Attend Mass more frequently (daily Mass) * Attend Eucharistic Adoration (bring the whole family!) * Watch Eternal Word Television Network - EWTN We have included some prayers which our family has found to be most helpful: Family Consecration Family Prayer Prayer to the Holy Family Prayer to Saint Joseph 30 Day Prayer to Saint Joseph To learn about praying; The Holy Rosary, Chaplet of Divine Mercy and The Angelus please go to EWTN (www.ewtn.com ). Family Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary By St. Alphonsus de Liguori Most Blessed Virgin, Immaculate Queen and our Mother Mary, refuge and consolation of all miserable creatures; prostrate before your throne, with our whole family, we choose you for Our Lady, Mother and Advocate with God. We consecrate ourselves, with all who belong to us, forever to your service, and beseech you, O Mother of God, to receive us into the number of your servants, by taking us all under your protection, helping us in life, and still more at the hour of death. O Mother of Mercy, we appoint you as Lady and Ruler of our whole house, of our relatives, of our interests, and of all our affairs. Disdain not to take charge of them: dispose of all as it pleases you. Bless us, then, and all our families, and do not permit that any of us should offend your Son. Defend us in temptations, deliver us from dangers, provide for us in our necessities, counsel us in our doubts, comfort us in our afflictions, assist us in our infirmities, and especially in the sorrows of death. Never allow the devil to glory in having in his chains any of us who are now consecrated to you; but grant that we may go to heaven to thank you, and together with you to praise and love Jesus our Redeemer for all eternity. Amen. Family Prayer God made us a family. We need one another. We love one another. We forgive one another. We work together. We play together. We worship together. Together we use God’s Word. Together we grow in Christ. Together we love all people. Together we serve our God. Together we hope for heaven. These are our hopes and ideals. Help us to attain them, O God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Prayer to the Holy Family (Pope Leo XIII) Most Loving Jesus, by your sublime and beautiful virtues and by the example of Your family life you blessed with peace and happiness the family chosen by you on earth. Graciously look on this family humbly kneeling before You and imploring Your mercy. Remember that we belong entirely to You, for it is to You we have in a special way dedicated and devoted ourselves. Look on us in Your loving kindness, preserve us from dangers, and give us the grace to persevere to the end in the imitation of Your Holy Family. After revering and loving You faithfully on earth, may we bless and praise You eternally in heaven. Mary, our dearest Mother, to your intercession we have recourse, knowing that your divine Son will hear your prayers. Glorious patriarch, St. Joseph, assist us by your powerful mediation, and offer by the hands of Mary our prayers to Jesus. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, enlighten us, assist us, save us. Amen. Prayer to Saint Joseph Oh, St. Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my interest and desires. Oh, St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession, and obtain for me from your divine Son all spiritual blessing, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So that, having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers. Oh, St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating you, and Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine head for me and ask Him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath. St. Joseph, Patron of departing souls - Pray for me. Thirty Day Prayer to St. Joseph To obtain a happy death and other good intentions. Ever blessed and glorious Joseph, kind and indulgent Father, and compassionate friend of all in sorrow, through that bitter grief with which thy heart was saturated when thou didst behold the sufferings of the Infant Savior, and in prophetic view didst contemplate his most ignominious passion and death, take pity, I beseech thee, on my poverty and necessities; counsel me in my doubts; and console me in all my anxieties. Thou art the good father and protector of orphans, the advocate of the defenseless, the patron of those who are in need and desolation. Do not disregard the petition of thy poor child; my sins have drawn upon me the just displeasure of my God, and hence I am surrounded with sorrows. To thee, O amiable guardian of the poor neglected family of Nazareth, do I fly for shelter and protection. Listen, then, I entreat thee, with a father’s solicitude, to the earnest prayer of they poor supplicant, and obtain for me the objects of my petition. I ask it by the infinite mercy of the eternal Son of God; which induced Him to assume our nature, and be born in this world of sorrow. I ask it by the grief which filled thy heart, when ignorant of the mystery wrought in they Immaculate Spouse, thou didst fear thou shouldst be separated from her. I ask it by that weariness, solicitude and suffering which thou didst endure when thou soughtest in vain at the inns of Bethlehem a shelter for the Sacred Virgin and a birthplace for the Infant, God, and, when being everywhere refused, thou wert obliged to consent that the Queen of Heaven should give birth to the world’s Redeemer in a wretched stable. I ask it by that most sad, painful duty imposed on thee, when, the divine Child being eight days old, thou wert obliged to inflict a deep wound on his tender body, and thus be the first to make flow that sacred blood which was to wash away the sins of the world. I ask it by the sweetness and power of that sacred name, Jesus, thou didst confer on the adorable Infant. I ask it by that mortal anguish inflicted on thee by the prophecy of holy Simeon, which declared the child Jesus and his holy Mother, the future victims of their love and our sins. I ask it through that sorrow and anguish which filled thy soul when the angel declared to thee that the life of the Child Jesus was sought by His enemies, from whose impious designs thou wert obliged to fly with Him and His blessed Mother into Egypt. I ask it by all the pains, fatigues and toils of that long and perilous pilgrimage. I ask it by all the sorrows thou didst endure, when in Egypt thou wert not able, even by the sweat of thy brow, to procure poor food and clothing for thy most poor family. I ask it by all the grief thou didst feel each time the divine Child asked for a morsel of bread, and thou hadst it not to give Him. I ask it by all the solicitude to preserve the sacred Child and the immaculate Mary during thy second journey when thou wert ordered to return to thy native country. I ask it by the peaceful dwelling in Nazareth, in which so many joys and sorrows were mingled. I ask it by thy extreme affliction, in being three days deprived of the company of the adorable Child. I ask it by the joy at finding him in the temple and by the ineffable consolation imparted to thee in the cottage of Nazareth, with the society of the little Jesus. I ask it by that wonderful condescension by which He subjected Himself to thy will. I ask it through that dolorous view, continually in thy mind, of all thy Jesus was to suffer. I ask it by that painful contemplation, which made thee foresee the divine little hands and feet, now so active in serving thee, one day to be pierced with cruel nails; that head, which rested gently on thy bosom, crowned with sharp thorns; that delicate body, which thou didst tenderly fold in thy mantle and press to thy heart, stripped and extended on a cross. I ask it by that heroic sacrifice of thy will and best affections, by which thou didst offer up to the Eternal Father the last awful moment, when the Man of God was to expire for our salvation. I ask it by that perfect love and conformity with which thou didst receive the Divine order to depart from this life, and from the company of Jesus and Mary. I ask it by that exceeding great joy which filled thy soul when the Redeemer of the world, triumphant over death and hell, entered into possession of His Kingdom, and conducted thee also into it with especial honors. I ask it through Mary’s glorious assumption, and through that interminable bliss, which with her, thou wilt eternally derive from the presence of God. O, good Father, I beseech thee, by all thy sufferings, sorrows and joys, to hear me, and to obtain the grant of my earnest petitions (Here name or reflect on them). Obtain for all those who have asked thy prayers all that is useful to them in the designs of God. And finally, my dear protector, be thou with me and all who are dear to me, in our last moments, that we may eternally chant the praises of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Amen. Hail Mary. Sign of the cross. |