June
Consecration of the Family to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
SACRED Heart of Jesus, You made clear to Saint Margaret Mary Your desire of being King in Christian families. We today wish to proclaim Your most complete kingly dominion over our own family. We want to live in the future with Your life. We want to cause to flourish in our midst those virtues to which You have promised peace here below. We want to banish far from us the spirit of the world which You have cursed. You shall be King over our minds in the simplicity of our faith, and over our hearts by the wholehearted love with which they shall burn for You, the flame of which we will keep alive by the frequent reception of Your divine Eucharist.
May the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the glorious patriarch Saint Joseph present this consecration to You, and keep it in our minds all the days of our life. All glory to the Heart of Jesus, our King and our Father!
A Prayer for the Wheat (Feast of Corpus Christi)
DEAR Lord, in many broad fields of this vast country of ours, the wheat is growing now. Some is still young and green, some is headed out, and all, before very long, will be golden ripe.
Most of it, dear Lord Jesus, will go to feed the hungry. In countless loaves of bread and in cereals, it will find its way to tables in city and country almost all over the world.
Some of it will be used at another table. It will be ground into fine flour and used to make the hosts, the altar-breads for Holy Mass. Priests will take it into their anointed hands and pronounce over it the words of consecration, and it will cease to be ordinary bread, and will become the Bread of angels. It will look as it did before, but we know and believe that it will be the Body and Blood, the Soul and Divinity of You, Lord Jesus Christ, there really present, under the appearances of bread.
O Jesus, bless the broad, rich fields of wheat in our whole land. Protect them from hail and beating rains, from blight and rust, from windstorms and drought. Let them be full and rich, so that the hungry may be fed, and may praise You and thank You as You deserve. And may all the Holy Masses that will be said with hosts made of this wheat hasten the day when at last there will be enough reapers working in Your harvest, which is ripe and ready now, waiting only to be gathered home. Amen.
July
A Prayer on Our Nation’s Independence Day (July 4)
Almighty and eternal God, Your Son Jesus Christ has revealed Your glory to all nations. Preserve the works of Your mercy, that Your Church, being spread through the whole world, may illuminate our hearts, minds and souls.
We pray You, O God of might, wisdom, and justice, to assist with Your holy spirit of counsel and fortitude the President of the United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness, and be eminently useful to Your people over whom he presides.
Let the light of Your divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and government, so that they may preserve the peace, promote national happiness, increase industry and knowledge, and perpetuate the blessing of equal liberty.
We pray for the governors of our states, for all the legislative members, for all judges, magistrates, and other officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare, that they discharge the duties of their respective stations with honesty and ability.
We recommend likewise to Your unbounded mercy all fellow citizens throughout the United States, that they may be preserved in union and in Your merciful peace which the world cannot give. Amen.
Prayer on St. Kateri’s Feast Day (July 14)
O God, who desired the Virgin St. Kateri Tekakwitha to flower among Native Americans in a life of innocence, grant, through her intercession, that when all are gathered into your Church from every nation, tribe and tongue, they may magnify you in a single canticle of praise. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
A Prayer for Rain
ALMIGHTY God, we are in need of rain. We realize now, looking up into the clear, blue sky, what a marvel even the least drop of rain really is. To think that so much water can fall out of the sky, which now is empty and clear! We place our trust in You. We are sure that You know our needs. But You want us to ask You anyway, to show You that we know we are dependent on You. Look on our dry hills and fields, dear God, and bless them with the living blessing of soft rain. Then the land will rejoice, and the rivers will sing Your praises, and the hearts of men will be made glad. Amen.
Prayer of Saint Ignatius for Generosity (Feast, July 31)
DEAREST Lord, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve You as You deserve: to give, and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labor and not to ask for reward, except that of knowing that I am doing Your will.
August
Prayer to Saint John Vianney, the Parish Priest of Ars, for the Pastor and Parish (Feast, August 4)
SAINT John Vianney, we pray you to bless and help our pastor so that he may love dearly in this life and be richly rewarded in the next. Obtain for him the grace always to be kind and generous, self-sacrificing and zealous. Watch over the people of our parish, and keep them free from all evils. Help them to be loyal and generous in the support of our pastor.
Help us particularly always to give him the respect and honor due him as a priest. Except for him we should not have the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, or Your presence among us, or the other sacraments that we so dearly love and need. From his anointed hands we receive the food of our souls, the most precious Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. From his lips we hear the word of God. By the power given to him our sins are forgiven, and we are given all blessings. And it is he who will anoint us when we are dying, and will offer the Holy Sacrifice for us when we are dead. Help us, dear Saint, to see Christ in him, and to cooperate with him in all his work for the good of our souls. Amen.
A Prayer on the Feast of Mary’s Assumption (Feast, August 15)
HOLY Mother Mary, we all rejoice with you today on the feast of your glorious Assumption into heaven. Long ago in the Garden of Eden, our first parents, Adam and Eve, were told that they would have to earn their bread in the sweat of their brow and that the earth would be cursed, bringing forth thorns and thistles. Now, after Christ our Redeemer has come, and taught us how to make use of the thorns and thistles of this life, and turn them into blessings, you, like Him, have been taken up body and soul into heaven. There, with your divine Son, you await our coming, and prepare a place for us. Mother Mary, it is a great comfort to us to realize that your precious body, the tabernacle of the infant Christ, is now in heaven with Him. Your being taken into heaven is also, like the resurrection of Christ’s body, a pledge to us of the resurrection of our own bodies. It is wonderful to think that these hands, with which we earn our bread now in the sweat of our brow, will, because of the merits of Christ, one day, with our bodies, be glorified forever in heaven. O most pure Virgin Mary, help us to realize this as we go about our work from day to day. Help us to have great respect for these bodies of ours, and for those of others because we recognize in them the temple of the Holy Spirit, and because we look forward to seeing each other, body and soul, with you and your Son Jesus Christ forever in heaven. Amen.
A Prayer to the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Feast, August 22)
HEART of Mary ever Virgin, you are full of grace. You are the dearest daughter of the heavenly Father, the tabernacle of the Word made Flesh, and the beloved home of the Holy Spirit. You are the wonder and delight of angels, of saints, and of men. I offer you my deepest reverence. With great love and thanksgiving I consecrate myself, body and soul, to you this day, and will never take back my word.
You are the marvel of God’s creation; a Virgin’s heart, yet a Mother’s too, with a mother’s love of Jesus and of men. Dear Mother, fashion in my heart a child’s true love of you. Fill me with your own bright virtues: simplicity and innocence, meekness and courage, and unfailing devotedness to Jesus Christ.
Since I belong to you then, holy Mother, save me from my enemies, from the world, from Satan, from myself. Keep me always in your sinless Heart to make my poor heart more and more like your Heart and the Heart of Jesus.
Dear, merciful Mother, look with a mother’s love and pity on the poor, sinful, suffering children of the whole human family. Our Holy Father Pius XII has consecrated them to your Immaculate Heart. Do not turn them away. Remember the cruel pain your heart suffered for their salvation with Jesus Christ on Calvary. Save them by His precious Blood. Draw them out of the darkness and despair of their sin and misery into the light, peace, and holiness of the Church.
Then with the angels and saints, may they join us in singing the everlasting Magnificat of praise, gratitude, and love to your tender and Immaculate Heart, and to the adorable and merciful Heart of Jesus. Amen.
