In Honor of Nativity of St. John the Baptist

This traditional prayer in honor of St. John the Baptist has three parts, corresponding to the three stages of his life: his decision to go into the wilderness to practice a life of penance and mortification; his preaching to those who followed him into the wilderness, preparing their hearts for the coming of Christ; and his martyrdom at the order of King Herod.

Note the attributes of John the Baptist that are included in the prayer: He is, as Christ Himself said, the "greatest prophet born of woman"; he was freed from Original Sin in his mother's womb at the time of the Visitation of Saint Mary to Saint Elizabeth; and he is the forerunner of Christ, preparing the way of the Lord.

I. O glorious Saint John the Baptist, greatest prophet among those born of woman, although thou wast sanctified in thy mother's womb and didst lead a most innocent life, nevertheless it was thy will to retire into the wilderness, there to devote thyself to the practice of austerity and penance; obtain for us of thy Lord the grace to be wholly detached, at least in our hearts, from earthly goods, and to practice Christian mortification with interior recollection and with the spirit of holy prayer.

* Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be

II. O most zealous Apostle, who, without working any miracle on others, but solely by the example of thy life of penance and the power of thy word, didst draw after thee the multitudes, in order to dispose them to receive the Messias worthily and to listen to His heavenly doctrine; grant that it may be given unto us, by means of thy example of a holy life and the exercise of every good work, to bring many souls to God, but above all those souls that are enveloped in the darkness of error and ignorance and are led astray by vice.

* Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be

III. O Martyr invincible, who, for the honor of God and the salvation of souls didst with firmness and constancy withstand the impiety of Herod even at the cost of thine own life, and didst rebuke him openly for his wicked and dissolute life; by thy prayers obtain for us a heart, brave and generous, in order that we may overcome all human respect and openly profess our faith in loyal obedience to the teachings of Jesus Christ, our divine Master.

* Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be

V. Pray for us, Saint John the Baptist
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray.

O God, who hast made this day to be honorable in our eyes by the commemoration of blessed John the Baptist, grant unto Thy people the grace of spiritual joy, and direct the minds of all Thy faithful into the way of everlasting salvation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

~From the richness of Catholic Prayers~

Father, grant that I may be a bearer of Christ Jesus, Your Son.
Allow me to warm the often cold,
impersonal scene of modern life with Your burning Love.
Strengthen me by Your Holy Spirit
to carry out my mission of changing the world
or some definite part of it for the better.
Despite my lamentable failures,
bring home to me that my advantages
are Your blessings to be shared with others.
Make me more energetic in setting right
what I find wrong with the world instead of complaining about it.
Nourish in me a practical desire to build up
rather than tear down,
to reconcile instead of polarize,
to go out on a limb rather than crave security.
Never let me forget that it is far better to light one candle
than to curse the darkness,
and to join my light, one day, with Yours.Amen

Prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

O most Holy Heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing, I adore You, I love You, and with lively sorrow for my sins I offer You this poor heart of mine.
Make me humble, patient, pure and wholly obedient to Your will.
Grant, Good Jesus, that I may live in You and for You.
Protect me in the midst of danger. Comfort me in my afflictions. Give me health of body, assistance in my temporal needs, Your blessing on all that I do, and the grace of a holy death. Amen.

Novena to Sacred Heart of Jesus ~Day 9~

Christ of the Sacred Heart, Christ of the Blessed Sacrament--these two are identical.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart is inseparably linked to devotion to the Holy Eucharist.
Love for the Sacred Heart must inevitably lead to the tabernacle.
Host and Heart are equally manifestions of the Love of the Saviour for Saints and sinners.
The impulse of Love in the Heart of the Saviour made inevitable the promise of the Eucharist, which climaxed the love feast of the loaves and the fishes.
Love in the wonderful evening before His Passion, when Love was the sole subject of His speech, and Love inevitably passed beyond words and became bread made Flesh and wine made Blood, with the guarantee that never would He leave us orphans.
That is why in His revelation to Saint Margaret Mary, Christ speaks of Holy Communion, that close union of the human soul with the divine.
That is why He asks that on the first Friday we come to welcome Him.
That is why He begs that on our knees before His loving Presence in the tabernacle we find the historicL Christ in the Eucharistic Christ and remember that the love of Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Before the Eucharistic Heart of Christ, we kneel and pray:

O God, Who in the heart of Thy Son, wounded by our sins, dost deign mercifully to bestow upon us the infinite treasures of Thy love, grant, we beseech Thee, that we who now pay Him the devout homage of our piety, may also perform the duty of worthy satisfaction. Through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Who livest and reignest with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

Novena to Sacred Heart of Jesus ~Day 8~

"Behold the Heart that has loved men so much and that has been loved so little in return."
It is upon the second half of the Saviour's statement that the loving Christian focuses his attention.
We have known always the Love of God. We have tried not to remember the lovelessness of men and women. With love for everyone and for everything, now as on the first Christmas, no love remains for Christ. With love walking in a thousand cheap disguises, as it did even during the climax of love on Calvary, love passes by without a nod to the victim of love.
That is why the Saviour Himself asked loving souls for a little reparation. "Make up," He pleads, "for the millions who do not love Me. Tell Me at least that you wish sinners would stop their sin, and the faithful in name would become faithful in fact, and the sins committed in the ugly travesty on love would cease to kill the human power of love. Consecrate yourself," He begs, "to my Heart. Dedicate your homes and your children to My loving protection. Spend at least an occasional hour with Me."
We consecrate ourselves to the loving Christ and pray:

O God, Who in the Heart of Thy Son, wounded by our sins, dost deign mercifully to bestow upon us the infinite treasures of Thy love, grant, we beseech Thee, that we who now pay Him the devout homage of our piety, may also perform the duty of worthy satisfaction. Through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Who livest and reignest with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

Novena to Sacred Heart of Jesus ~Day 6 ~~

As the symbol of Love, our Lord Jesus Christ had chosen the Heart, the favorite symbol of human speech. It was His human Heart, still pierced with the spear of Calvary, still open to welcome returning sinners.
Around that Heart was twined the crown of thorns; for though Christ is indeed King, He is a King Who won His kingdom along the bloody course of Love. From the Heart leap up living flames. They are like the tongues of fire that descended upon the apostles when the Spirit of Love came to inflame them for the apostolate. These flames are restless, as Love is always restless; but while, like fire, they warm and light, they do not burn or destroy or even smudge. A tiny Cross, that unfailing symbol of God's Love even unto death, surmounts the Heart. Poetry has known that a sequence of sonnets could not say what a single glimpse of this Heart reveals! Catholics everywhere have looked upon the Heart of the Saviour and have known that it was offered to them. God's Heart was theirs for the asking, theirs if only they would give their own worthless hearts in exchange.
Before the symbol of the Sacred Heart, we pray:

O God, Who in the Heart of Thy Son, wounded by our sins, dost deign mercifully to bestow upon us the infinite treasures of Thy Love, grant, we beseech Thee, that we who now pay Him the devout homage of our piety, may also perform the duty of worthy satisfaction. Through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Who livest and reignest with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

Novena to Sacred Heart of Jesus ~~ Day 4 ~~

The Heart of the Saviour broke during the course of the Passion.
The paschal moon that shone with fierce brilliance over the garden was like a searchlight beating upon the sins of the parading world.
Christ saw that world, knew its horror and vileness, and broke into a bloody sweat.
Yet that Heart held Him captive when the traitor came and made Him call the betrayer "friend."
Upon the loving Saviour, bound, not with cords and chains, but by His heartstrings, fell the blows of the scourging, the mockery of the mob, the spittle of the soldiers, the awful humiliation of public rejection.
It was His Heart rather than His Head that was crowned with thorns.
Upon the cross, it was His Heart that held Him fast.
He loved us and delivered Himself for us.
He bore our bruises and our infirmities.
Greater love than this no man hath, that He die for His executioners. And that the last drop of love might flow out and the lowest and meanest of His sinners might find safe entrance to His Heart.
He offers that Heart to the lance of the centurion.
In the cleft of His Heart, as in the cleft of a rock, the penitent world has found warmth, safety, and protection.
Before the suffering Christ of Love, we pray:

O God, Who in the Heart of Thy Son, wounded by our sins, dost deign mercifully to bestow upon us the infinite treasures of Thy Love, grant, we beseech Thee, that we who now pay Him the devout homage of our piety, may also perform the duty of worthy satisfaction. Through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Who livest and reignest with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

Blessed Feast of Corpus Christi everyone , God bless !

Let us pray
to the Lord who gives Himself in the Eucharist
that this sacrament may bring us Salvation and Peace .
Lord Jesus Christ,
You gave us the Eucharist
as the memorial of Your suffering and death.
May our worship of this sacrament of Your Body and Blood
help us to experience the salvation You won for us
and the peace of the kingdom
where You live with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
( prayer taken from New Saint Joseph Sunday Missal )

Each year, Holy Church celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. This feast recognizes that the Body and Blood of Jesus are divine Food given for our salvation.
Each of the four Gospels in the New Testament share how Jesus shared a final meal with his apostles prior to his betrayal and death. At this meal, referred to as The Last Supper, Jesus broke bread saying that it was his Body. He also blessed wine and shared it as his Blood and a sign of the New Covenant God was entering into with his people.
Today, our Catholic priests repeat the words Jesus spoke at The Last Supper as they consecrate bread and wine. Catholic Christians believe that these sacred words, spoken by ordained men, transform the bread and wine into divine food, the Body and Blood of Jesus. In this way, the command issued by Jesus in the Gospel of John is fulfilled: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”
The origins of Corpus Christi can be traced to St. Juliana of Mount Cornillon. Born in 1193 in Belgium, St. Juliana developed a deep devotion to the Eucharist, the term for the consecrated bread and wine turned Body and Blood of Jesus. After reportedly receiving a vision from God, St. Juliana advocated for a solemnity devoted to the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist.

Let us faithfully pray : Pange Lingua (written by St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, this hymn is considered the most beautiful of Aquinas' hymns and one of the great seven hymns of the Church. )

Sing my tongue, the Savior's glory,
of His flesh the mystery sing;
of the Blood, all price exceeding,
shed by our immortal King,
destined, for the world's redemption,
from a noble womb to spring.
Of a pure and spotless Virgin
born for us on earth below,
He, as Man, with man conversing,
stayed, the seeds of truth to sow;
then He closed in solemn order
wondrously His life of woe.
On the night of that Last Supper,
seated with His chosen band,
He the Pascal victim eating,
first fulfills the Law's command;
then as Food to His Apostles
gives Himself with His own hand
Word-made-Flesh, the bread of nature
by His word to Flesh He turns;
wine into His Blood He changes;-
what though sense no change discerns?
Only be the heart in earnest,
faith her lesson quickly learns.
Down in adoration falling,
Lo! the sacred Host we hail;
Lo! o'er ancient forms departing,
newer rites of grace prevail;
faith for all defects supplying,
where the feeble sense fail.
To the everlasting Father,
and the Son who reigns on high,
with the Holy Ghost proceeding
forth from Each eternally,
be salvation, honor, blessing,
might and endless majesty.
Amen. Alleluia.

Novena to Sacred Heart of Jesus ~~ Day 2 ~~

Our Lord is a gracious God of Love, of that there is no slightest doubt. God the Father created the world lovingly and tenderly. The long passages of the ages--a flash of God's eternity--were spent in the preparation of a beautiful, convenient, well-stocked earth to be man's dwelling place. The newly made creatures, made to the image and likeness of the Heavenly Father, He adopted as His sons and daughters. When in dark rebellion, these sons and daughters revolted, "God so loved the world, as to give His only-begotten Son that...the world may be saved."
The love story of God is written anew in the star of Bethlehem, the smile of the Child Jesus, His hidden life of service to Mary and to the villagers of Nazareth, the miracles and parables of His public life, the death by which Christ laid down His life for His friends. Then, on the wings of wind and in the symbolic form of flame, the Spirit of love came to dwell in human souls, divine love taking up its residence in the men and the women that God had loved into life, loved unto death, loved to their own sanctification. Before the three Persons of the Trinity, Who love us with a divine love, we kneel and pray:

O God, Who in the heart of Thy Son, wounded by our sins, dost deign mercifully to bestow upon us the infinite treasures of Thy love, grant, we beseech Thee, that we who now pay Him the devout homage of our piety, may also perform the duty of worthy satisfaction. Through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Who livest and reignest with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus - Day 1 -

The word "heart" is a strong word and a beautiful one. "Take heart!" we say, when we want a man to pick up courage. "He gave her his heart," we say, when a man gives to a woman his pure love. With perfect understanding, we talk of a motherly heart...of a man who puts heart into his work...of the innocent heart of a child...of the pulsing heart of a city.
What more natural then, that when Christ the Saviour revealed Himself once more to humanity, He should borrow our word, knowing that it would ring with complete familiarity? "Behold the heart that hath loved men so much," He cried, indicating His Own Heart. And men of good heart and of loving heart answered, "Indeed, we know how much You have loved us." To the Saviour who revealed Himself to the world that needs love, we pray:

O God, Who in the heart of Thy Son, wounded by our sins, dost deign mercifully to bestow upon us the infinite treasures of Thy love, grant, we beseech Thee, that we who now pay Him the devout homage of our piety, may also perform the duty of worthy satisfaction. Through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Who livest and reignest with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen