Pray for Priests

Through our "Under Our Lady's Mantle Prayer Apostolate," our Community members not only pray for those in need who make requests for prayer, we also pray for priests. Each month, we pray for one particular Discalced Carmelite priest and one particular Diocesan priest from the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire.

We do this in imitation of St Therese of Lisieux (pictured above performing her sacristant duties) and in the tradition established by Our Holy Mother St. Teresa of Avila who exhorted her nuns to pray always for holy priests that they may draw all to God.  

In our prayers we pray for the intentions of these priests as well as for the intentions listed in the beautiful prayer below.  We encourage all to pray for priests.  We need our priests. We love our priests.  Pray for priests!

St Therese’s Prayer for Priests

O Jesus, eternal Priest,
keep your priests within the shelter 

of Your Sacred Heart,

where none may touch them.

Keep unstained their anointed hands,
which daily touch Your Sacred Body.

Keep unsullied their lips,
daily purpled with your Precious Blood.

Keep pure and unearthly their hearts,
sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood.

Let Your holy love surround them

and shield them from the world's contagion.

Bless their labors with abundant fruit

and may the souls to whom they minister 

be their joy and consolation here 

and in heaven their beautiful and everlasting crown.      

Amen.　

Blessed Virgin Mary & St Joseph  Community, OCDS - Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, Concord, NH

Land of Carmel

"Those who wear the Scapular are thus brought into the land of Carmel, so that they may "eat of its fruits and its good things" (cf.Jer 2:7), and experience the loving and motherly presence of Mary in their daily commitment to be clothed in Jesus Christ and to manifest him in their life for the good of the Church and the whole of humanity (cf. "Formula of Enrollment in the Scapular",cit.)."

Excerpt from the book The Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Catechesis and Ritual, Prepared under the direction of the North American Provincials of the Carmelite Orders. Printed by Community of Teresian Carmelites, Worcester, MA

Blessed Virgin Mary & St Joseph  Community, OCDS - Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, Concord, NH

Mirror of Humility and Purity

"The Scapular is a mirror of the humility and purity of Mary:  through her simplicity she invites us to live modestly and in purity.  By wearing the Scapular day and night, it becomes a sign of our constant prayer and of our special dedication to the love and service of the Virgin Mary."

- Excerpt from the book The Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Catechesis and Ritual, Prepared under the direction of the North American Provincials of the Carmelite Orders. Printed by Community of Teresian Carmelites, Worcester, MA.

Blessed Virgin Mary & St Joseph  Community, OCDS - Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, Concord, NH

The Seven Penitential Psalms

Incorporating Lectio Divina and
Intentions Relating to the Seven Capital Sins

For centuries, the Seven Penitential Psalms have been a source of prayer and reflection for Christians.  They invite us to recognize our sin, express our sorrow to God, and seek forgiveness and mercy.  The Seven Psalms that were designated together as a group in the 6th century include Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143.

To learn how they were traditionally prayed and for ideas on how you could include them in your prayers this lent, click on the link below.  There you will find a great free download on incorporating lectio divina and how to relate the Penitential Psalms to the seven capital sins.

Free download from Come into the Word with Sarah Christmyer

to see Sarah Christmyer's wonderful blog:

  Come into the Word with Sarah Christmyer

Blessed Virgin Mary & St Joseph  Community, OCDS - Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, Concord, NH

The Morning Offering Anew

Pope Pius XII recommended the daily offering of the Apostleship of Prayer to the faithful and many are in the habit of making this offering daily. But like many things, sometimes we lose site of the meaning and risk beginning to say prayers without really meaning what we say. Not only saying this prayer daily, but renewing it throughout the day and embracing all that comes to you during the day is an excellent means of uniting yourself to Jesus and growing in love for Him. Fr Killian Healy, in an attempt to stress the importance of not just saying the prayer but meaning it and actually giving our thoughts and actions to God, wrote in his book, Awakening Your Soul to the Presence of God, that "... it is insincere to make the offering and then to complain about the weather, lack of sleep, or the hundred and one other inconveniences that plague our waking hours."

If you are not in the habit of saying the Morning Offering or, if you do but feel you don't fully understand all that is being said in the prayer, you might benefit from an excellent short video  entitled "The Meaning of the Daily Offering" which can be found by clicking the following link:

Meaning of the Morning Offering

There are a variety of versions of the Morning Offering. Perhaps reading a different version of the prayer will help you to renew your offering with greater depth and meaning. Below we share a Morning Offering prayer that St Therese of Lisieux composed 'for someone in the world.' It was actually composed at the request of St Therese's sister, Sr Marie of the Sacred Heart, who requested it for her friend, Edith. May it help you to embrace anew this most admirable practice of the Morning Offering.

Morning Offering Composed by

St Therese of Lisieux

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.

Amen

Quote of Fr Healy taken from Awakening Your Soul to the Presence of God, How to Walk with Him Daily and Dwell in Friendship with Him Forever, Fr Kilian J.Healy, Sophia Institute Press, Manchester, New Hampshire, 1999. Originally published in 1948 by the Declan X. McMullen Compay, New York, under the title Walking with God.

Blessed Virgin Mary & St Joseph Community, Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites (OCDS), Concord, NH

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