Heavenly Father
we thank you for your many blessings
and for the devout men and women
we will celebrate on All Saints Day.
Help us to use their lives as a model
for how to live in your honor and glory.
Protect all children involved tonights
Halloween events.
Keep them safe and free from harm
today and always.
In your name we pray.
October 31, 2018
October 30, 2018
Sanctify, O Lord,
our souls, minds, and bodies.
Touch our minds
and search out our consciences.
Cast out from us every evil thought,
every unseemly word,
every lie, every deceit,
every worldly temptation,
all greed, all wickedness,
all anger, and malice
that is alien to the will of your holiness.
Enable us to turn to You.
October 29, 2018
I always enjoy returning to my home parish of St. Joseph's, New Plymouth, in New Zealand over the Christmas period. There is something refreshing and nourishing about going back to familiar places and meeting again with friends. Each time I visit, there are fewer familiar faces, and many of those faces have a couple more wrinkles!
October 29, 2018
Make us realize, dear Mother,
that there are no people who are so bad
that we cannot say something good about them.
Teach us to speak of the good things people do,
instead of the evil.
And when we must speak of the evil deeds,
let us condemn the deed,
and not the doer.
You, Mary, are the Mother of Divine Love;
October 28, 2018
O God, all that I am
and all that I have is from You.
You have given me my gifts of body and soul.
You have numbered me among your favored children.
You have showered me with countless graces and blessings.
From all eternity You have thought of me and loved me.
I want to return this love
with all the powers of my soul.
October 27, 2018
My God,
I firmly believe that You are everywhere present
and see all things.
You see my nothingness,
my inconstancy, my sinfulness.
You see me in all my actions.
I bow down before You,
and worship Your Divine majesty with my whole being.
Cleanse my heart from all vain,
wicked, and distracting thoughts.
October 26, 2018
The preaching of Jesus and His compassion for the poor and the outcasts was at the heart of the Kingdom of God. He uplifted their human dignity and restored them in the "image and likeness of God."
October 26, 2018
O Jesus! You have given us in the Holy Eucharist
Your Body and Blood to be our spiritual nourishment,
through which we may have life everlasting.
Would that I were now prepared to approach the Holy Table
to be united with You in the Blessed Sacrament!
I desire, with all my heart,
to receive this living Bread
which came down from Heaven.
October 25, 2018
Hear O Blessed Virgin the prayers which we address you,
Our Lady of Rest as we are mindful of that
maternal love in which you receive your children.
The Columbans are a society of missionaries, including priests and lay people, who minister to people of various cultures as a way of witnessing to the universal love of God.