Novena to Pray for our Grandparents and the Elderly

Lord Jesus,
you were born of the Virgin Mary,
the daughter of Saints Joachim and Anne.
Look with love on grandparents and the elderly all over the world.
Protect them! They are a source of enrichment
for families, for the Church, and for all of society.
Support them!  As they grow older,
may they continue to be for their families and loved ones
strong pillars of Gospel faith,
guardians of noble domestic ideals,
living treasuries of sound religious traditions.
Make them teachers of wisdom and courage,
that they may pass on to future generations the fruits
of their mature human and spiritual experience.

Lord Jesus,
help families and society to value 
the presence and role of grandparents and the elderly.
May they never be ignored or excluded,
but always encounter respect and love.
Help them to live serenely and to feel welcomed
in all the years of life which you give them.
Mary, Mother of all the living,
keep grandparents and the elderly constantly in your care,
accompany them on their earthly pilgrimage,
and by your prayers, grant that all families
may one day be reunited in our heavenly homeland,
where you await all humanity
for the great embrace of life without end.  Amen!

Based on the Prayer for Grandparents by Pope Benedict XVI

Month for God's creation

All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe and in the smallest of your creatures.

You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.

Pour out upon us the power of your love,

that we may protect life and beauty.

Fill us with peace, that we may live

as brothers and sisters, harming no one.

O God of the poor,

help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth, so precious in your eyes.

Bring healing to our lives,

that we may protect the world and not prey on it,

that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.

Touch the hearts

of those who look only for gain

at the expense of the poor and the earth.

Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,

to be filled with awe and contemplation,

to recognize that we are profoundly united

with every creature as we journey towards your infinite light.

We thank you for being with us each day.

Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle

for justice, love and peace.

Let us pray for the Church

O Immaculate Virgin,
Mother of the True God
and Mother of the Church!
You, who from this place reveal your clemency and your pity
to all those who ask for your protection;
hear the prayer that we address to you with filial trust,
and present it to your Son Jesus, our sole Redeemer.
Mother of mercy,
Teacher of hidden and silent sacrifice,
to you, who come to meet us sinners,
we dedicate on this day all our being and all our love.
We also dedicate to you our life, our work,
our joys, our infirmities and our sorrows.
Grant peace, justice, and prosperity to our people;
for we entrust to your care
all that we have and all that we are,
Our Lady and Mother.
We wish to be entirely yours
and to walk with you
along the way of complete faithfulness to Jesus Christ in His Church:
hold us always with your loving hand.
Virgin of Guadalupe,
Mother of the Americas,
we pray to you for all the bishops,
that they may lead the faithful
along paths of intense Christian life,
of love and humble service of God and souls.
Contemplate this immense harvest, and intercede with the Lord
that he may instill a hunger for holiness
in the whole People of God,
and grant abundant vocations of priests and religious,
strong in the faith and zealous dispensers of God's mysteries.
Grant to our homes
the grace of loving and respecting life in its beginnings,
with the same love with which you conceived in your womb the life of the Son of God.
Blessed Virgin Mary,
Mother of Fair Love,
protect our families,
so that they may always be united,
and bless the upbringing of our children.
Our hope, look upon us with compassion,
teach us to go continually to Jesus
and, if we fall,
help us to rise again,
to return to him, by means of the confession of our faults and sins
in the Sacrament of Penance,
which gives peace to the soul.
We beg you to grant us
a great love for all the holy Sacraments,
which are, as it were,
the signs that your Son left us on earth.
Thus, most holy Mother,
with the peace of God in our conscience,
with our hearts free from evil and hatred,
we will be able to bring to all
true joy and true peace,
which come to us from your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ,
who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit,
lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.

🎁 A joint gift for the Holy Father - 50 years of priesthood

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.


Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

O God of forgiveness, Father of mercy, 
free us from the painful memories of the past,
...that bruise our common Christian identity.
 
Guide us towards reconciliation
so that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, 
we can defeat hate with love,
anger with kindness,
and mistrust with confidence.
 
Make that, enlightened by your Word, we may walk on your path.
May our churches be able to hope
and desire the unity for which your Son prayed on the eve of his Passion.
 
Teach us to trust you.
Make us true disciples of your Son.
 
Give us the strength to build compassionate relationships, 
of solidarity and harmony.
 
In our sincere search for your truth,
purify our judgments about others.
 
Give us a spirit of generosity towards all
as we journey together towards Christian unity.
 
We ask this in the name of your Son
who reigns with you and with the Holy Spirit. 
Amen


Novena to St. John Paul II to Defend Human Dignity

O Mary,
bright dawn of the new world,
Mother of the living,
to you do we entrust the cause of life
Look down, O Mother,
upon the vast numbers
of babies not allowed to be born,
of the poor whose lives are made difficult,
of men and women
who are victims of brutal violence,
of the elderly and the sick killed
by indifference or out of misguided mercy.

Grant that all who believe in your Son
may proclaim the Gospel of life
with honesty and love
to the people of our time.

Obtain for them the grace
to accept that Gospel
as a gift ever new,
the joy of celebrating it with gratitude
throughout their lives
and the courage to bear witness to it
resolutely, in order to build,
together with all people of good will,
the civilization of truth and love,
to the praise and glory of God,
the Creator and lover of life.