October 2024: Prayers and Reflections

The Pope’s Monthly Intention

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.

 

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Little Way Prayer to St Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897) | Memorial 1 October

O Little Thérèse of the Child Jesus, please pick a rose for me from the heavenly gardens and send it to me as a message of love.
O little flower of Jesus, ask God today to grant the favours I now place with confidence in your hands (mention your requests …).
St Thérèse, help me to always believe, as you did, in God’s great love for me, so that I might imitate your ‘Little Way’ each day.
Amen.

 

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Prayer to our Guardian Angel | Memorial 2 October

Angel sent by God to guide me,
be my light and walk beside me;
be my guardian and protect me;
on the paths of life direct me.
Amen.

 

 

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St Pope John XXIII (1881-1963) |  Memorial 11 October

Already dying and in response to many who had asked him for the secret of his priesthood, Pope John, XXIII said. ‘I had the supreme grace of being born into a modest and poor but God-fearing Christian family, and of being called to the priesthood. Since I was a child I have thought of nothing else, I have desired nothing else. My earthly day is at its end, but Christ lives on, the Church continues. And what other word is more suitable, then, than to exhort you to never take your eyes off the Cross of
Jesus …? Look at the cross, beloved children, in your sufferings. This bed is an altar, the altar needs a sacrifice: here I am. I am ready. I offer my life for the Church, the continuation of the Ecumenical Council, the peace of the world, the unity of Christians. The secret of my priesthood lies in the crucifix that I wanted to place in front of my bed, he looks at me and I speak to him … Those outstretched arms say that he died for everyone; no one is rejected by his love for him, by his forgiveness …’

From the life of St John XXIII

 

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Parent’s Prayer for children returning to school

Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the gift of my child/children. Please watch over them as they begin a new school year. Bless their teachers, school administrators, bus drivers, school support staff, friends and classmates.
Keep them safe every day. I pray they may feel Your presence and know that You are always with them. Help them recall my loving words of support for them. Give them wisdom to make good choices, and an openness to learn new things. Fill them with knowledge and positive thinking. Help them overcome obstacles and shield them from negativity.
Surround my child/children with good friends who also know and love You. Help them treat each other with kindness, fairness, and respect. May they treat each person they encounter as another child of God. Grant them the Grace to place their trust in You so they may know Your peace. Amen
 

www.saintpaulcatholicchurch.com

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Prayer of St Teresa of Avila (1515-82) | Memorial 15 October

Let nothing disturb you,
let nothing frighten you,
all things will pass away.

God never changes;
patience obtains all things,
whoever has God lacks nothing.
God alone suffices. Amen.

 

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St John Henry Newman (1801-1890) |  Memorial 9 October

Fragrance Wherever I Go:

Dear Lord, help me to spread your fragrance wherever I go.
Flood my soul with your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly
that all my life may only be a radiance of yours.
Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with
may feel your presence in my soul.

Let them look up and see no longer me, but only you, O Lord!
Stay with me and then I will begin to shine as you do;
so to shine as to be a light to others.
The light, O Lord, will be all from you; none of it will be mine.
It will be you shining on others through me.

 

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The Motorist’s Prayer

Grant me a ready hand, a watchful eye,
That none may suffer hurt as I pass by.
Thou givest life – I pray no act of mine
May take away or mar that gift of thine.
Should those, dear Lord, who bear me company.
From fools and fire and all calamity.
Teach me to use my car for others’ need,
Nor miss through lack of wit or love of speed,
The beauty of Thy world – that this I may,
With joy and courtesy go on my way.

Geraldine Binnall