Tag: prayer

March Devotion: St Joseph

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Growing up, my school was under the charge of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. Yes, the Josephites of St Mary MacKillop. These sisters took to their work with the courage and charity of St Joseph, and with the way they chose not to shy away from challenges, just like their patron saint – the very same saint who the Church gives us for the month of March.

I remember being part of one of their anniversary celebrations and specifically delivering the line to a room full of hundreds of sisters and the line was “You are challenged” (and later “You have been challenged”). There was also a little dance and some sparkly costumes, that was kind of fun as a kindergartener.

But I want to focus on that spirit of St Joseph. The courage and love we read about in the Bible. And of course, his willingness to take whatever challenges he faced in his stride.

We don’t have much information on St Joseph, but from what we know, with the way God worked through Mary, St Joseph’s life was not made simpler. He would have had to look after Mary and Jesus, though it was not his own plan. Above and beyond the usual caretaking, Joseph had to flee with his young family and start a life in Egypt. From these stories, we also know that Joseph listened to God and did what God told him to do, when He spoke to him in his dreams through His angels.

It’s funny, he was a simple family man. He didn’t do anything particularly heroic or noteworthy that is recorded for the annals of history. He looked after his family with faithfulness, humility, and love, just as we are called to do, no more and no less.

Because of this, St Joseph is a wonderful saint to ask for intercession in the daily tumult of family life. He shows us that we can face our challenges, big and small, with courage. He is an example of caring for our families with great love – and with very few words, which is something I am still learning to do.

I like to think St Joseph is a bit of a Swiss Army Knife of saints, so to speak, particularly when it comes to my intentions for my family. I call on him when anyone is travelling and requires some prayers for protection (St Joseph, protector of travellers), when my husband or I have a big day of work ahead of us (St Joseph the Worker), and when any one of us is sick (St Joseph, hope of the sick), which unfortunately seems to be happening most weeks, lately. For a saint with a sum total of zero recorded words, he sure can do a lot of praying for us!

Having lived a quiet life with his family, we believe St Joseph passed away peacefully, in the arms of Mary and Jesus. We can only hope for so happy a passing from this life, so he is also patron saint for a happy death.

I can only believe, my grandmother who had a special devotion to St Joseph, often asked for his intercession. With the challenges of raising five children, I imagine this happened more often than not! So, much like I think she would have done, let me put those words down here:

St Joseph, pray for us!

Do you have any particular devotion to St Joseph? Has he come through for you in the past? I would love to hear your stories! Share them in the comments.

Advent: Not Yet Christmas!

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When I was growing up, December 1st (or the weekend after) was the day we would exhume all our Christmas decorations and arrange them joyfully around the home. I loved those days! They were days where I could be creative and make things look pretty, all while listening to Christmas music and spending time with my family!

Today, in the early hours of the second of December, I look around my home. There are some decorations up, some partly done (the tree is up but bare), and some still lying in wait. I know I have much more to do before Christmas comes, but that is okay. I will go to sleep without feeling like today’s job is finished.

In our priest’s homily, he spoke about how expectant parents begin to prepare for the arrival of their child once the arrival date is calculated. Those of you who have had children (and many of you who haven’t) understand that this preparation does not all happen in one day. There is a reason God gives us nine-ish months before the baby is born!

Parents, especially first time parents, take some time to prepare for the arrival of their child. They must figure out what the new sleeping arrangements will be, they must find out the guidelines for infant care, first-timers even need to learn important procedural tips for labour and delivery! And the list goes on.

Advent is a time of preparation. It is okay, and perfectly normal, to take some time to prepare. There must be planning and effort. And that takes time.

Our priest also spoke about Advent as a time to prepare our hearts for Jesus’ arrival at Christmas. I am reminded of that hymn, My Heart is a Stable. Yet instead of the animals, hay, and swaddling bands, perhaps our hearts should be lined with the spiritual virtues we need to grow in. How can we build these virtues and make our hearts fit for Christ’s arrival? Well, just like Lent, Advent is a time of repentance. And just like at Lent, we can use the pillars of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to ready our hearts to receive Jesus. And just like decorating, we don’t have to do it all in one day! We can take a little time each day to say an extra prayer. We can sacrifice something small here and there just as St Therese of Lisieux invites us to, offering it up to the Lord. We can put aside a little to give away, from time to time, over the course of December, all the way up to Christmas.

Anyway, every time you do a little more decorating, you can use the time to think of Jesus!

What are your decorating traditions? What memories do you have from decorating as a child? What are your tips for preparing your heart Let me know in the comments

Until next time, let’s pray for each other. And remember, we can do Mom things through Christ who strengthens us!

October devotion: The Holy Rosary

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This month is devoted to the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The rosary is widely recognised to be a Catholic prayer, and the beads themselves are a well known Catholic symbol. However, this powerful prayer can be prayed by anyone wishing to reflect on the life and kingship of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The rosary that we pray today came about in the 1400s, and it was in development for many hundreds of years before that, from monks praying the psalms in sets of 50 on their prayer beads in the 4th Century. Many believe that St Dominic was given the rosary in a very similar form to the rosary we pray today by an apparition of the Blessed Virgin in 1208.

The modern Rosary offers four sets of mysteries: Joyful, Sorrowful, Luminous, and Glorious. These mysteries lead the person praying to meditate on the life and person of Christ – even mysteries which seem like they are more about Mary at first glance, such as the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in reality point to Christ’s kingship and power! I find the rosary to be a rich way to meditate on the life of our Lord and the Gospel of our Salvation. I know it helps me to grow in holiness and I highly recommend it!

The Rosary is a very versatile prayer and can be prayed in many different ways. Today I’d like to share with you some of my favourite resources for praying the rosary.

To start, I really like Bishop Barron’s rosary series available on Spotify and other streaming services. I find his reflections to be deep and the music to be very fitting. These pray-along tracks inspire different thoughts in me pretty much every time I use them for my prayer. I often go back to these because they are so well-made. They are a little longer than a standard rosary, each being about half an hour long (you can normally get through a rosary in about 15 minutes), but if you can set aside the time, it is well worth it.

If you find the music to be distracting, or if you are more visual, Ineffabilis deus has a couple of rosary playlists on YouTube. These videos set sacred art to the mysteries, and there is one set with music and one without. Sacred art can inspire interesting reflections, and these are no exception! We are lucky enough to have the Joyful and Glorious mysteries painted on the ceiling of our church, and when our prayer group meets on Wednesdays, I love pointing out each mystery to my child as it is announced! Sacred art really is a wonderful way to teach our children about God!

And speaking of our local church prayer group, remember to check out your own local church! There is probably a prayer group there, or you could join with members of the Legion of Mary for their prayers. Praying the rosary with other people and aloud is powerful (and is also helpful if you’re still learning how to do it!).

Of course, you can always pray the rosary without all the bells and whistles. If you don’t know where to begin, those Pray the Rosary booklets are usually available in pretty much any piety store (if not with all the other leaflets at the back of the church!). There is also this guide from Hallow that I think is very helpful. 

Do you pray the rosary? What are some of your experiences with this prayer? What is your favourite rosary story? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Until next time, let’s pray for each other. And remember, we can do Mom things through Christ who strengthens us!

October Requests

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Wow, September is coming to a close which means it’s time to prepare for October. Already?! I can’t believe how quickly this month has gone by! 

Personally, looking back on this month and reflecting on what to change in the coming weeks, I realise that I am having a hard time balancing paid work, this passion project, and my work as a mother, as you can probably tell by the tardiness in posting this monthly prayer request post, the missing post this week (oops), and my missing Joys posts (though I have had many joys!). So, I would appreciate if you would pray for the Lord to guide me as I navigate that.

It also occurs to me that I need to learn how tolead my life as a wife and mother with more grace. I have wonderful examples all around me, but I know that in my own life, I need more patience (didn’t I write a post about that last year? Yes, I think I did…) and gentleness. Come Holy Spirit!

I know with the arrival of fall weather, changes in temperature as well as generally being a little cooler, sicknesses abound – we have certainly already had to push through our own health issues. So, please pray for my family’s health!

This month, as you pray for me and for anyone else in the Mom Things Through Christ community, I also ask you to keep the Holy Father’s intentions in your prayers. This month, we join Pope Francis in praying for a shared mission:

We pray that the Church continue to sustain in all ways a Synodal lifestyle, as a sign of co-responsibility, promoting the participation, the communion and the mission shared among priests, religious and lay people.

That’s more requests than I usually post. I’m leaning on my prayer warriors, but feel free to lean right back! How has the month been for you? Has the return to school impacted much on your daily life? Are there new crosses for you to bear? Anything coming up that we can pray for? Feel free to let me know how I can pray for you this month in the comment section!

Until next time, let’s pray for each other. And remember, we can do Mom things through Christ who strengthens us!

A little prayer: The Jesus prayer

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Today’s little prayer is a simple but beautiful one. It is often prayed by our brothers and sisters in the Orthodox Church, but some Catholics are also familiar with this prayer (and definitely a lot of Eastern Catholics!). It is short so it is easy to remember, but even in its brevity, it glorifies Jesus’ holy name and magnifies Him as the Son of God, our Lord, and the Christ, and humbles us as sinners in need of His mercy.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.

That’s it!

The prayer is biblically sound, as the scriptures reveal Jesus to be our Lord, the Son of God, and the anointed one, or the Christ. The last part of this prayer harken to the words of the tax collector in the parable Jesus tells in the Gospel of Luke, 18:9-14. Unlike the proud pharisee who relies on his own merits before God and boasts about all he has done to win God’s favour, the tax collector is acutely aware of his sinfulness and he humble begs for God’s mercy. The difference in posture towards God is one we must be careful to check in our own hearts, and this prayer is a simple way to get our heart’s dispositions in order.

This prayer can be used in different ways. One way to use it is to pray it repeatedly and meditate on the words. Another powerful use of the prayer is to invoke the mercy of God when we are tempted to sin. -call out to the Lord in those times and allow Him to mercifully save you from the temptation!

Of course, those paragraphs you have just read may go well over the heads of some of our younger ones, but that’s mostly fluff. The point is, this is a beautiful prayer with deep historical and Biblical roots. It may seem quite solemn, but I think solemnity is sometimes called for in life, and children don’t need to be sheltered from it. What I like about this prayer as a parent, is that it is easy to teach little ones because it is so short, but it remains a solid foundational prayer that can easily become a touchstone for them throughout their spiritual journey.

For the littles, I would suggest breaking the prayer down into four parts as follows:

  1. Lord Jesus Christ
  2. Son of God 
  3. Have mercy on me
  4. A sinner

Each of these lines announces something different and important within the prayer. The first line Invokes Jesus and His God-appointed lordship, the second acknowledges His divinity and our acceptance into God’s family, the third names our request and the last line identifies our place before God. Most of these lines are also made up of familiar wordings that can be found in other prayers, which can make it easier to remember.

Have you heard of the Jesus prayer before? What do you think about it? Is this a prayer you would teach your child? Why or why not? How would you teach it to your little ones? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Until next time, let’s pray for each other. And remember, we can do Mom things through Christ who strengthens us!

July Prayers

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I admit, have had another short break, but here I am! I come bearing an opportunity to pray. Well, my usual post tagline asks us to pray for each other, and we can’t do that unless we actually pray for each other! So… here we go!

As usual, I’ll be looking at the comment section for the entire month of July and I’ll be praying for any intentions you pop in there as the month moves along. And as always, if you have intentions you’d rather not share publicly, just say you have a personal intention (no need to divulge details, the Lord will know what it is if I mention it like that!).

As well as bringing the requests people might leave in the comments to God in your own prayers, I would also ask that you pray for the Papal intention for July:

For The Pastoral Care of The Sick: Let us pray that the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, bestows the Lord’s strength to those who receive it and to their loved ones, and that it may become for everyone an ever more visible sign of compassion and hope.

As for me, we finalise our home purchase and then the house move, which is coming up in July, so please pray that everything goes smoothly!

Until next time, let’s pray for each other. And remember, we can do Mom things through Christ who strengthens us!

Book review: Bless My Child: A Catholic Mother’s Prayer Book

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Bless My Child: A Catholic Mother’s Prayer Book
Julie Cragon
Cover art: Rose Walton
ISBN-10: 1594710147
ISBN-13: 978-1594710148
UPC: 033500021060

This book review is on a book of prayers for Moms! I actually bought it for myself while I was pregnant, having discovered it when I purchased the grandparents’ version as a gift to my own mother in celebration of her first grandchild. There is a lot of overlap between the two, but I don’t think it hurts to have more than one person praying for the same thing!

This thoughtful collection of prayers can be used for many stages of your child’s life, from gestation into adulthood, including for the sacraments!

The prayers themselves are quite modest in their language, without pretense or ostentation (haha, the irony of this review!), and seem to have been written from the heart. They relate to our daily parenting life, the joys, struggles, milestones, and everything in between, and they resonate well with the yearnings of a mother’s heart – some have definitely brought a tear to my eye! Perhaps the best thing about this book is that it also reminds us to pray for ourselves as moms, asking for God’s help and guidance in raising our little saints.

I acknowledge that it is difficult to write prayers for an individual without knowing their gender (that he/she can get a bit clunky and impersonal!). Cragon’s prayers address this by cycling through the use of masculine and feminine pronouns, so some prayers are written using he/him, and other prayers with she/her, but can be prayed for a child of either sex. This may be a stumbling block to some, but I find it easy enough to replace pronouns that didn’t apply with the appropriate ones for my child – I simply think about my child while I read each prayer, and correct as I go along.

There is a Catholic spin on it, hence the title. This is mainly because of the prayers written for receiving the sacraments, as I mentioned earlier. There are also prayers to patron saints of various issues our children may encounter on life’s journey, though neither of these are strictly Catholic things. Aside from these categories of prayer, the book contains many other prayers that could be applied to parents across denominations.

I have the paperback edition, although it is also available as an e-book for Kindle. The satin finish book cover has a sleek feel to it, with just enough grip to be easily held. The paperback book itself is fairly light, and isn’t too big, so it won’t take up too much space on your bedside table or in your bag.

This prayer book would make a great addition to any Catholic mother’s repertoire! It would be a touching gift for any faith-filled mother to celebrate a pregnancy, new birth, baptism, or just because!

Until next time, let’s pray for each other. And remember, we can do Mom things through Christ who strengthens us!

Reflections on Parenting: Prayers for patience

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As parents, how many times are we taught the virtue of patience? I remember hearing a homily once with the basic message of “be careful what you ask for”, because usually, if you ask for more patience, God, in His wisdom, will give you opportunities to practice patience!

Still, it’s so important for us to grow in patience. With our children, because they need it, and in all other times, because God calls us to it!

Do you pray for help when parenting gets challenging (and when you find yourself getting impatient at other times)? Any favourite prayers? I’d love to read them in the comments!

My personal go-to seems to be “God help me”, usually uttered under my breath right in the moment. There are, however, many more prayers for patience, some simple, some more complex, depending on the situation. Below are some prayers for when you need a little help keeping calm and patience.

For the virtue of patience

Come Holy Spirit, and grant me the virtue of patience.

Lord, may your patience

Lord, may your patience with me be a motivation and a source of growth in my patience with others.

The Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

Teach me, my Lord, to be sweet and gentle in all the events of my life, in disappointments, in the thoughtlessness of others, in the insincerity of those I trusted, in the unfaithfulness of those on whom I relied.

Let me forget myself so that I may enjoy the happiness of others. Let me always hide my little pains and heartaches so that I may be the only one to suffer from them. Teach me to profit by the suffering that comes across my path. Let me so use it that it may mellow me, not harden or embitter me; that it may make me patient, not irritable; that it may make me broad in my forgiveness, not narrow or proud or overbearing.

May no one be less good for having come within my influence; no one less pure, less true, less kind, less noble, for having been a fellow traveler with me on our journey towards eternal life.

As I meet with one cross after another, let me whisper a word of love to You. May my life be lived in the supernatural, full of power for good, and strong in its purpose of sanctity. Amen

Prayer to Our Lady of Consolation

Blessed Mary, Mother of Consolation, pray with me for the virtue of patience. There are so many times when my lack of patience keeps me from becoming the kind of person God wants me to be.

Guide my thoughts to you and the example we have in your own life. Help me to become patient, as you were patient. Through your guidance, may I become more accepting of others around me. Assist me to welcome difficult times with a patient heart.

May I be patient, Mary, as was your beloved husband, Joseph. His quiet acceptance of the will of Our Loving Father should be an example for me always. His patience was most wonderful in the eyes of God.

Pray for me, dear Mother of God, that I will allow the Father to come into my heart and help me grow in patience. Amen.

From the Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation, Carey, OH

Hope these can be helpful for you! Until next time, let’s pray for each other. And remember, we can do Mom things through Christ who strengthens us!

Saint of the Month: St Ignatius of Loyola

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St Ignatius of Loyola
Feast day: July 31
Patron of Dioceses of San Sebastian and Bilbao, Biscay & Gipuzkoa, Basque Country, Military Ordinariate of the Philippines, Society of Jesus, Soldiers, Educators and Education.

This month, we celebrate St Ignatius of Loyola. The founder of the Jesuit order, which was important in the wake of the Reformation, he is patron of a number of communities and educational institutions throughout Spain and the Philippines, and well-known Loyola University in Baltimore MD, educators/education in general, soldiers and spiritual retreats, as well as the order he founded (SJ).

I chose to look at St Ignatius of Loyola this month because I think his Imaginative Prayer, or Ignatian Contemplation, is something we can introduce to our little ones to get them praying about the Gospels. This form of prayer lends itself so well to young minds!

I would introduce it by saying something like, “today we’re going to be in a Bible story! We’ll read it together first, and then pretend we are part of it to imagine what it might have been like for us personally”

Below is a description of how to engage in imaginative prayer.

  1. Choose a bible story – one that really has a story feel. Probably not from anything like Leviticus, Psalms, Proverbs, or the Epistles. Children’s Bibles are a great resource for this, as they tend to be much more story-oriented. There are also a few audio and a video contemplations on this website (you’ll have to scroll down a little to get to the good stuff).
  2. Ask for the guidance of the Holy Spirit as you join in the story
  3. One person reads through the story aloud in prayer
  4. Act out the story using prompts, or for older children (or yourself!), you can simply have some silent prayer thinking about the story (in traditional Ignatian contemplation, you might choose a character or an object in the story and think about experiencing the story from their point of view) and then discuss it. It is important to consider what message God is sending them through this exercise.
  5. Read the story aloud again, but this time, ask your children to bear in mind (or act out) the new details they were able to see from the imaginative time.

Try it out and let me know how it goes!

St Ignatius of Loyola, pray for us!

Until next time, let’s pray for each other. And remember, we can do Mom things through Christ who strengthens us!

June Prayer Intentions

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Alright Moms, it’s time once again to advocate for one another! This post is dedicated to your special intentions for the month of June. Just put your prayer requests into the comments, even as they come up throughout the month, and keep each other in your prayers – that’s all you need to do!

As usual, the pope’s monthly intention is below for us to include in our prayers.

June: for the abolition of torture
We pray that the international community may commit in a concrete way to ensuring the abolition of torture and guarantee support to victims and their families.

Let’s send those prayers up and bring down the blessings!

Until next time, let’s pray for each other. And remember, we can do Mom things through Christ who strengthens us!