A Prayer for Emigrants
Bless all those who have left our country and now live in other lands.
Give them a strong faith so that they will always put their trust in you and make you known by the example of their lives.
Console those who are lonely because they are seperated for from those they love.
Help all missionaries who are working far from home to make you love known.
Bless our people overseas who are sick or in prison.
We pray for foreigners living in our country that they may experience our hospitality.
Grant your eternal welcome to our emigrants who have died and to all the dead. Amen.
Lúireach Phádraig Saint Patrick’s Breastplate
Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of everyone
who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone
who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
Prayer for Lent
Father in heaven, throughout Lent,
Let your Spirit guide us in your commandments.
Let your Spirit open our voices to proclaim your love.
Let your Spirit fill us with new energy and life.
Let your Spirit come to us in mercy and forgiveness.
Celtic Prayer
May God make safe to you each step. May God make open to you each pass. May God make clear to you each road, and may He take you in the clasp of his own two hands.
Providence Prayer
Gracious God, you surround us all our days. We walk and work in the light of your world and sleep and dream in the gentle dark you created. Now that our working and dreaming are done, give us rest and a place to call home, within the great city of your love. Through Jesus Christ Our Lord, Amen.
Blessed John Henry Newman’s First Prayer for the Departed
May He support us all the day long, till the shadows lengthen and the evening comes and the busy world is hushed and the fever of life is over and our work is done - then in His mercy - may He give us safe lodging and a holy rest and peace at the last.
Blessed John Henry Newman’s Second Prayer for the Departed
O Jesus, lover of souls, we recommend to you the souls of all those your servants who have deported with the sign of faith and sleep the sleep of peace. We beseech you, O Lord and Saviour, that, as in your mercy to them you became man, so now you would hasten the time, and admit them to your presence above. Remember, O Lord, that they are your creatures, not made by strange gods, but by you, the only Living and True God; for there is no other God but you, and none that can equal your works. Let their souls rejoice in your light, and impute not to them their former iniquities, which they committed through the violence of passion, or the corrupt habits of their fallen nature. For, although they have sinned, yet they always firmly believed in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and before they died, they reconciled themselves to you by true contrition and the Sacraments of your Church.
Suffering
I pray today for all who suffer depression, pain, illness or disease. May they be strengthened as they join themselves to Christ in his suffering for the salvation of the world.
