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In its fullness, prayer is an encounter with God that transforms the way we see and interact with the world. As so many saints have suggested, it is like a bright light that reveals what we otherwise do not see.
As John Paul II explained, the repeated prayers in the rosary help us get more in touch with the deepest desires in our souls for God.
This writer and chaplain guides us through one of the holiest sites in Church history.
“Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there” (Lk 9:2-5).
Saint Bridget of Sweden longed from an early age to become a nun. But she was obedient to her prominent family’s desire that she marry a prince. Their marriage was happy and produced eight children (including one, Catherine, who would go on to be a saint herself). After her husband’s death, Bridget followed the call of her youth.
There are different seasons to our lives, as Bridget found. Her example shows us that God knows what’s best for each season; all we have to do is listen.
Most of my family are members of Scripture-alone groups. They say that praying to Mary is fruitless and that the Eucharist is not really Jesus’ body and blood. How can I respond?
For 800 years before Martin Luther, Christians had clarified that they adore God but venerate saints; that’s a big difference.
Her kidnappers gave her the name Bakhita, meaning “fortunate. ” Her life in captivity wasn’t quite so. Born in Darfur in 1869, Josephine Bakhita was taken by Arab slave traders when she was 9.
By loving his children, the pilgrims, and all those who approached him, Padre Pio united himself more intimately with God. Those who were rehabilitated by Padre Pio’s union with eternal love could not be amorphous creatures; they had to be dynamic. Padre Pio’s spiritual children could be distinguished from other Catholics by their spirit of altruism, by their disposition to righteousness, by their public and private prayers, by their sacrifices which were known only to God, by their professional honesty, by their serenity and wholesome joy.
O God, who created beings both visible and invisible, we praise you for the service and protection of your angels. Through the intercession of your archangel Raphael, guide us on our journey and guard us on our way. We pray for your merciful cure upon those mst in need of the care of your angel Raphael, and we implore your healing from all our afflictions in body, mind, and spirit. May we rejoice with all your angels and saints as we praise your glory forever. Amen.
Saint John Vianney taught that we should imitate the angels in their consciousness of the presence of God. In his “Sermon on Holy Communion,” he said, “We ought to ask the Blessed Virgin, the angels, and the saints to pray for us that we may receive the good God as worthily as it is possible for us to receive Him.”
Ponder these words and pray that your own guardian angel will enlighten you and guide you on the path to heaven. Here is a simple prayer:
