Forty Hours Devotion
Our annual Forty Hours Devotion begins on Friday, November 8 at the 7:30 AM Mass. It will close on Sunday, November 10 at the Noon Mass. Forty Hours was the original opportunity for the parish to gather for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Come pray before Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament during these three special days. Details in the Grotto News.
Prayer for Priestly Vocations
Jesus, Eternal High Priest,
give us men willing to sacrifice and serve.
Make their hearts after your own Sacred Heart.
Holy Spirit, Everlasting Love between the Father and Son,
strengthen, inspire, and set men on fire with divine charity.
Grant them the courage to say yes to their vocation.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, Mother of priests,
comfort and protect your sons as they discern their call.
With Saint Joseph, may they know your love and companionship
as they deepen their relationship with Jesus.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.
St. Anne, pray for us.
St. John Vianney, patron saint of priests, pray for us.
A Prayer to Our Lady of Lourdes
O Holy Mary, Mother of God, / who deigned to appear at Lourdes to reanimate the faith of the world / and draw it to your divine Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; / you who have chosen a humble child to be the messenger of your mercies, / in order to manifest more clearly your maternal tenderness and to render our hearts more confiding; / you who have said: “I am the Immaculate Conception,” / in order to teach us the infinite value of innocence and pledge of the friendship of God; / you, who, in the course of eighteen apparitions, did not cease, / by your acts and your words / to recommend prayers and penance, alone capable to move heaven and avert the blows of justice; / you, whose touching appeal, sent out to the entire universe, / have assembled before the miraculous grotto throngs unnumbered of your children; / O sweet Lady of Lourdes, behold us prostrate at your feet, / in the firm hope of obtaining by your all-powerful intercession, / the blessing and graces of God. / Those who love you, O Mother of Jesus Christ and divine Mother of all, / desire above all things to serve God faithfully in this world, / and thus to obtain the happiness of loving him eternally in heaven.
While we pour forth our hearts in prayer at your feet, O sweet Lady of Lourdes, O Immaculate Virgin, / we cannot forget our Holy Father the Pope, / and in his person the whole Catholic Church, / which your Divine Son has charged him to lead in the paths of eternal salvation. / As we place in you all our trust, so also does he; / protect him, bless him, be his support and his consolation in the midst of his trials / by helping him to spread the kingdom of God.
O Mother of the Prince of Peace, / bless our country, placed under the patronage of your Immaculate Conception. / Bless all our rulers, both spiritual and temporal, / so that peace and happiness may continually dwell within our borders.
We entreat you to take under your protection also our parents, our friends, our benefactors, / and among them in a special manner all those who have abandoned the practice of their duties as Christians: / may they be converted and become again your faithful servants.
Hear the supplication with which we address you today; / defend us against the enemies of our salvation and against our own weaknesses; / and with the pardon for our sins, / obtain for us perseverance in the resolution never to fall into them again.
O Mother of mercy, be for us all the “cause of our joy,” / and show unto us Jesus Christ as your gift in this life and in eternity. Amen.