RB: Prologue 8-13
Mass: 1 Jn 2:22-28; Resp Ps 98; Jn 1:19-28
All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.
Welcome to the second day of 2019. How are you doing on your New Year's Resolution? I was prompted by an article to renew my commitment to beginning each new day with the Catholic practice of praying a 'Morning Offering'. There are many ways to go about this. One way is to compose your own prayer. Another is to turn to one or more of the great saints for suggestions. I pass along two prayers, handed on to me some years ago.
My God, I offer You all that I do today for the intentions and the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I want to sanctify every beat of my heart, my thoughts and my simplest works by uniting them to His infinite merits. I want to repair for my faults by casting them into the furnace of His merciful love.
O my God! I ask you for myself and those dear to me the grace to fulfill perfectly Your holy will and to accept for love of You the joys and sorrows of this passing life so that one day we may be reunited in Heaven for all eternity.
(St Thérèse of the Child Jesus)
Lord, show me your way and make me willing to follow it.
Amen.
Lord, God, for whom nothing is impossible, who can do everything, give me the power to do good and to persevere.
Mary, Mother of Peace, Light, and Love who gave birth to the Savior on earth, ask Jesus to show me the way on my pilgrimage to eternal life.
(St Bridget of Sweden)
The main thing, dear friends, is to keep praying. We must be about 'praying without ceasing'. We invoke today's saints to intercede for our families, loved ones, colleagues, those who are suffering, afraid, hurting, ill, dying, the forgotten, abandoned, and lonely. Help us, merciful and loving God, to be people of mercy and love.
SAINT BASIL THE GREAT, SAINT GREGORY OF NAZIANZEN,
PRAY FOR US.
Our God needs nothing: in prayer He asks only that we keep open a channel of communication with Him so we can recognize we are always His beloved children. Because He loves us so much.
(Pope Francis, General Audience, January 2, 2019)
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