Morning Prayers

  MORNING PRAYER

Manual for The Children of Mary

As soon as you awake, bless yourself with the sign of the Cross & say:
O my God, I give myself wholly to Thee.

Bless me, O Lord; defend and govern me this day and for ever, and after this short and miserable pilgrimage, bring me to everlasting happiness with thee.

O God, my Creator and Redeemer, look graciously on thy servant, the work of thy hands; and mercifully grant that all my thoughts, words, and actions, may be directed to the praise and honor of thy name, and the salvation of my own soul. Amen.  

Place yourself in the presence of God.

Most holy and august Trinity, one God in three Persons, I believe that thou art here present; I adore thee with sentiments of the most profound humility, and render thee, with all my heart, the homage which is due to thy Sovereign Majesty.

Thank God, and offer yourself to Him.

My God, I thank thee most humbly, for all the favours thou hast bestowed upon me; it is thy goodness which has brought me to the beginning of this day, which I desire to employ only in thy service.

I consecrate to thee all my thoughts, words, actions, and sufferings; bless them, O Lord, that they may be animated by thy love, and tend only to promote thy greater glory.

Resolve to avoid sin, and to practice holiness.

Adorable Jesus, Divine Model of that perfection to which we should aspire, I will endeavour this day, after thy example, to be mild, humble, chaste, zealous, patient, charitable, and resigned; and I will strive particularly to avoid those faults to which I am most subject, and which I sincerely desire to correct.  

Beg the necessary grace.

My God, thou knows my weakness; I can do nothing without the assistance of thy holy grace; do not refuse it to me. O my God, but proportion it to my wants; give me sufficient strength to avoid what thou hast forbidden, to practice the good thou expectest of me, and to suffer patiently all the crosses thou mayest be pleased to send me.

The Lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name: thy kingdom come: thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. Amen.

The Hail Mary.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.

The Apostles' Creed

I BELIEVE in God the Father Almightly, Creator of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell, the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Catholic Church; the communion of Saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

Act of Faith

MY God, I most firmly believe in thee, and in all that thou hast revealed to thy holy Catholic Church; because thou art truth itself, who neither canst deceive, nor be deceived. Amen.

Act of Hope

MY God, I most firmly hope in thee, because of all thy promises; and I trust that thou wilt give me eternal life, and all the graces necessary to obtain it, through the merits of my Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Act of Charity

MY God, I love thee with my whole heart and above all things, because thou art the Sovereign Good, and for thy own perfections most worthy of all love; and for thy sake I love my neighbour as myself. Amen.

The "Angelus Domini."

The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary;
And she conceived by the Holy Ghost.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Behold the handmaid of the Lord,

Be it done to me according to thy word.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.

 

And the Word was made flesh,

And dwelt amongst us.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.

 

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God,
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

HAIL! Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy; our Life, our Sweetness, and our Hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve, to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn, then, most gracious Advocate, thy merciful eyes towards us; and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed Fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement! O loving! O sweet Virgin Mary!

V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Our Lady's Litany

 

I opened my window to the gentle rain and said my prayers there.  

My Mother's Litany

LITANY OF LORETO

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us. Christ graciously hear us.
God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, Pray for us.
Holy Mother of God, Pray for us.
Holy Virgin of virgins, Pray for us.
Mother of Christ, Pray for us.
Mother of divine grace, Pray for us.
Mother most pure, Pray for us.
Mother most chaste, Pray for us.
Mother undefiled, Pray for us.
Mother unviolated, Pray for us.
Mother most amiable, Pray for us.
Mother most admirable, Pray for us.
Mother of our Creator, Pray for us.
Mother of our Redeemer, Pray for us.
Virgin most prudent, Pray for us.
Virgin most venerable, Pray for us.
Virgin most renowned, Pray for us.
Virgin most powerful, Pray for us.
Virgin most merciful, Pray for us.
Virgin most faithful, Pray for us.
Mirror of justice, Pray for us
Seat of wisdom, Pray for us.
Cause of our joy, Pray for us.
Spiritual vessel, Pray for us.
Vessel of honor, Pray for us.
Singular vessel of devotion, Pray for us.
Mystical rose, Pray for us.
Tower of David, Pray for us.
Tower of ivory, Pray for us.
House of gold, Pray for us.
Ark of the covenant, Pray for us.
Gate of heaven, Pray for us.
Morning star, Pray for us.
Health of the sick, Pray for us.
Refuge of sinners, Pray for us.
Comforter of the afflicted, Pray for us.
Help of Christians, Pray for us.
Queen of Angels, Pray for us.
Queen of Patriarchs, Pray for us.
Queen of Prophets, Pray for us.
Queen of Apostles, Pray for us.
Queen of Martyrs, Pray for us.
Queen of Confessors, Pray for us.
Queen of Virgins, Pray for us.
Queen of all Saints, Pray for us.
Queen conceived without original sin, Pray for us.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord!
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, Graciously hear us, O Lord!
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, Have mercy on us, O Lord!.
Christ, hear us, Christ, graciously hear us.
Lord have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.


Anthem:  We fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God, despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us from all dangers, O ever glorious and blessed Virgin.
   V.  Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.
   R.  That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us Pray

   Pour forth, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy grace into our hearts, that we to whom the incarnation of Christ thy Son has been made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and cross be brought to the glory of His resurrection; through the same Christ, our Lord.  Amen.
   V.  Pray for us, O holy Joseph.
   R.  That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

LET US PRAY

   We beseech thee, O Lord, that we may be assisted by the merits of the Spouse of thy most holy Mother; so that what we are unable to obtain of ourselves, may be granted us through His intercession;  Who livest and reignest world without end.  Amen

The Holy Rosary, Francis J. Kaib, New York, D.&J. Sadlier & Co. Barclay Street - 1881

The Jesus Prayer

(The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple)

“As you breathe in,” he told him, say, ‘Lord Jesus Christ,’ and as you breathe out, say, ‘Have mercy on me.”

More About the Jesus Prayer

By Bishop Robert Barron

I’m in the process of re-reading a spiritual classic from the Russian Orthodox tradition: The Way of a Pilgrim. This little text, whose author is unknown to us, concerns a man from mid-nineteenth century Russia who found himself deeply puzzled by St. Paul’s comment in first Thessalonians that we should “pray unceasingly.” How, he wondered, amidst all of the demands of life, is this even possible? How could the Apostle command something so patently absurd?

His botheration led him, finally, to a monastery and a conversation with an elderly spiritual teacher who revealed the secret. He taught the man the simple prayer that stands at the heart of the Eastern Christian mystical tradition, the so-called “Jesus prayer.” “As you breathe in,” he told him, say, ‘Lord Jesus Christ,’ and as you breathe out, say, ‘Have mercy on me.”  When the searcher looked at him with some puzzlement, the elder instructed him to go back to his room and pray these words a thousand times. When the younger man returned and announced his successful completion of the task, he was told, “Now go pray it ten thousand times!” This was the manner in which the spiritual master was placing this prayer on the student’s lips so that it might enter his heart and into the rhythm of his breathing in and out, and finally become so second nature to him that he was, consciously or unconsciously, praying it all the time, indeed praying just as St. Paul had instructed the Thessalonians.

In the power of the Spirit, the young man then set out to wander through the Russian forests and plains, the Jesus prayer perpetually on his lips. The only object of value that he had in his rucksack was the Bible, and with the last two rubles in his possession, he purchased a beat-up copy of the Philokalia, a collection of prayers and sayings from the Eastern Orthodox tradition. Sleeping outdoors, fending largely for himself, relying occasionally on the kindness of strangers, reading his books and praying his prayer, he made his way. One day, two deserters from the Russian army accosted him on the road, beat him unconscious and stole his two treasures. When he came around and discovered his loss, the man was devastated and wept openly: how could he go on without food for his soul? Through a fortuitous set of circumstances, he managed to recover his lost possessions, and when he had them once again, he hugged them to his chest, gripping them so hard that his fingers practically locked in place around them.

I would invite you to stay with that image for a moment. We see a man with no wealth, no power, no influence in society, no fame to speak of, practically no physical possessions—but clinging with all of him might and with fierce protectiveness to two things whose sole purpose is to feed his soul. Here’s my question for you: What would you cling to in such a way? What precisely is it, the loss of which would produce in you a kind of panic? What would make you cry, once you realized that you no longer had it? And to make the questions more pointed, let’s assume that you were on a desert island or that you, like the Russian pilgrim, had no resources to go out and buy a replacement. Would it be your car? Your home? Your golf clubs? Your computer? To be honest, I think for me it might be my iPhone. If suddenly I lost my ability to make a call, my contacts, my music, my GPS, my maps, my email, etc., I would panic—and I would probably cry for sheer joy once I had the phone back, and my fingers would close around it like a claw. What makes this confession more than a little troubling is that, ten years ago, I didn’t even own a cell phone. I lived my life perfectly well without it, and if you had told me then that I would never have one, it wouldn’t have bothered me a bit.

What I particularly love about the Pilgrim is that he was preoccupied, not about any of the passing, evanescent goods of the world, but rather about prayer, about a sustained contact with the eternal God. He didn’t care about the things that obsess most of us most of the time: money, power, fame, success. And the only possessions that concerned him were those simple books that fed his relationship to God. Or to turn it around, he wasn’t frightened by the loss of any finite good; but he was frightened to death at the prospect of losing his contact with the living God.

So what would you cling to like a desperate animal? What loss would you fear? What do you ultimately love?