Patron Saint of the Day

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God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus help me to Trust you More today then I did Yesterday..
Litany to the Sacred Heart
Jesus promised: For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst. "Matthew 18:20

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
thank you for Your unconditional love, compassion. Your endless forgiveness and immeasurable grace that You pour down upon us and through Your Mother. Immaculate Heart of Mary...please stay with me always, Mother hold my hand...walk me closer to Jesus everyday. Amen
Love, Prayerflowers

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Most Immaculate Heart of Mary
Mother of God

Novena of Grace
Our Lady Of The Holy Rosary Novena Prayer
At the Cross: "Jesus said to his mother: "Woman, this is your son". Then he said to the disciple: "this is your mother" Jn.19:26-27.

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Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

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Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

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Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Home Jesus Holy Spirit Holy Eucharist Blessed Mother Divine MercyRosary Site Map
54 Day Miracle RosarySt. Michael Chaplet St. Peregrine Prayer Request Light a Candle Prayer Request
SaintsPope Special PrayersPrayer Garden ForumAbout Prayer Forum Prayerflowers Blog
Morgantown Magnificat Catholic Bible for prayer

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Home Jesus Holy Spirit Holy Eucharist Blessed Mother Divine MercyRosary Site Map
54 Day Miracle RosarySt. Michael Chaplet St. Peregrine Prayer Request Light a Candle Prayer Request
SaintsPope Special PrayersPrayer Garden ForumAbout Prayer Forum Prayerflowers Blog
Morgantown Magnificat Catholic Bible for prayer

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Home Jesus Holy Spirit Holy Eucharist Blessed Mother Divine MercyRosary Site Map
54 Day Miracle RosarySt. Michael Chaplet St. Peregrine Prayer Request Light a Candle Prayer Request
SaintsPope Special PrayersPrayer Garden ForumAbout Prayer Forum Prayerflowers Blog
Morgantown Magnificat Catholic Bible for prayer

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Home Jesus Holy Spirit Holy Eucharist Blessed Mother Divine MercyRosary Site Map
54 Day Miracle RosarySt. Michael Chaplet St. Peregrine Prayer Request Light a Candle Prayer Request
SaintsPope Special PrayersPrayer Garden ForumAbout Prayer Forum Prayerflowers Blog
Morgantown Magnificat Catholic Bible for prayer

Welcome toPrayerflowers™
God's Flower Garden
A Garden where your heart and soul are nourished with love and prayer

"A Family That Prays Together Stays Together"

Home Jesus Holy Spirit Holy Eucharist Blessed Mother Divine MercyRosary Site Map
54 Day Miracle RosarySt. Michael Chaplet St. Peregrine Prayer Request Light a Candle Prayer Request
SaintsPope Special PrayersPrayer Garden ForumAbout Prayer Forum Prayerflowers Blog
Morgantown Magnificat Catholic Bible for prayer

Jesus, We Love you!
...Fill us with Your Loving Peace!

More links for
Patron Saint of the Day

October 1, 2009

Feast day of St. Therese the Little Flower of Jesus

October 2
Feast of Guardian Angels

Psalm 91:11

For God commands the angels to guard you in all your ways.

Guardian Angel Prayer
Angel of God my guardian dear,
to whom God's love commits you here,
ever this day be at my side to light and to guard to rule and to guide...Amen

THE HOLY GUARDIAN ANGELS

God does not abandon to mere chance any of His handiworks; by His providence He is everywhere present; not a hair falls from the head or a sparrow to the ground without His knowledge.

Not content, however, with yielding such familiar help in all things, not content with affording that existence which He communicates and perpetuates through every living being, He has charged His angels with the ministry of watching and safeguarding every one of His creatures that behold not His face. Kingdoms have their angels assigned to them, and men have their angels; these latter it is whom religion designates as the Holy Guardian Angels.

Our Lord says in the Gospel, "Beware lest ye scandalize any of these little ones, for their angels in heaven see the face of my Father." The existence of Guardian Angels is, hence, a. dogma of the Christian faith: this being so, what ought not our respect be for that sure and holy intelligence that is ever present at our side; and how great should our solicitude be, lest, by any act of ours, we offend those eyes which are ever bent upon us in all our ways!

Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]

October 4, 2009

St. Francis of Assisi

SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI
(1182-1226)

Saint Francis, the son of a merchant of Assisi, was born in that city in 1182. Chosen by God to be a living manifestation to the world of Christ's poor and suffering life on earth, he was early inspired with a high esteem and burning love of poverty and humiliation. The thought of the Man of Sorrows, who had not where to lay his head, filled him with holy envy of the poor, and constrained him to renounce the wealth and worldly station which he abhorred. The scorn and hard usage which he met with from his father and townsmen when he appeared among them in the garb of poverty were delightful to him. "Now," he exclaimed, "I can say truly, 'Our Father who art in heaven.'"

But divine love burned in him too mightily not to kindle like desires in other hearts. Many joined themselves to him, and were constituted by Pope Innocent III. into a religious Order, which spread rapidly throughout Christendom. St. Francis, after visiting the East in the vain quest of martyrdom, spent his life like his Divine Master—now in preaching to the multitudes, now amid desert solitudes in fasting and contemplation. During one of these retreats he received on his hands, feet, and side the print of the five bleeding wounds of Jesus. With the cry, "Welcome, sister Death," he passed to the glory of his God in 1226.

Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]

          THE PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

October 5, 2009

Feast day of St. Faustina

Daily Revelation

I often feel God's presence after Holy Communion in a special and tangible way. I know God is in my heart. And the fact that I feel Him in my heart does not interfere with my duties. Even when I am dealing with very important matters which require attention, I do not lose the presence of God in my soul, and I am closely united with Him. With Him I go to work, with Him I go for recreation, with Him I suffer, with Him I rejoice; I live in Him and He in me. I am never alone, because He is my constant companion. He is present to me at every moment. Our intimacy is very close, through a union of blood and of life

October 7, 2009

October 7
Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary


The Seven Great Blessings of the Rosary

In The Secret of the Rosary (p. 65), St. Louis De Montfort states:
"The Rosary recited with meditation on the mysteries brings about the following marvelous results:

1. It gradually gives us a perfect knowledge of Jesus Christ;
2. It purifies our souls, washing away sin;
3. It gives us victory over all our enemies;
4. It makes it easy for us to practice virtue;
5. It sets us on fire with love of Our Blessed Lord;
6. It enriches us with graces and merits;
7. It supplies us with what is needed to pay all our debts to God and to our fellow men, and finally, it obtains all kinds of graces for us from Almighty God."

THE ROSARY AND CONVERSION

"If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins you shall receive a never fading crown of glory. Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in Hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practice black magic, and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil, sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and save your soul, if----and mark well what I say----if you say the Holy Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins."

The Memorare
Remember, O most loving Virgin Mary,
that never was it known that anyone
who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, we turn to you, O Virgin of virgins, our Mother. To you we come, before you we stand, sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate,
do not despise our petitions, but in your mercy hear us and answer us.
Amen.
The Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary is honored on October 7.
This was established by Saint Pius V on the anniversary of the naval victory won by the Christian fleet at Lepanto, October 7, 1571. The victory was attributed to the help of the holy Mother of God whose aid was invoked through praying the Rosary. read more

October 13
Pray for Peace
The Message of Our Lady of Fatima

Our Lady of Fatima
The Blessed Virgin Mary is venerated as Our Lady of Fatima following the famous apparition to the three shepherd children -Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco- which took place during the First World War, in the summer of 1917. The Mother of God appeared six times near the town of Fatima, Portugal between May 13th and October 13th 1917 to the three children and told them that She had been sent by God with a message for every man, woman and child living in our century.

Through the children Mary urged prayer for the conversion of sinners and an end to the war, recitation of the Rosary, and works of penance. The message of Fatima included a call to conversion of heart, repentance from sin and a dedication to the Blessed Virgin Mary, especially through praying the Rosary.

Our Lady of Fatima promised that the whole world would be in peace, and that many souls would go to Heaven if Her requests were listened to and obeyed. She told us that war is a punishment for sin; that God would punish the world for its sins in our time by means of war, hunger, persecution of the Church and persecution of the Holy Father, the Pope, unless we listened to and obeyed the command of God.

The message is an anguished appeal of our Heavenly Mother, Who sees us in great danger and Who comes to offer Her help and advice. Her message is also a prophesy, a clear indication of what was about to transpire infallibly in the near future, depending on our response to Her requests. But Mary also confided several "secrets" to the children, some of which Lucy subsequently transmitted.

The Secret actually consists of three parts, the first two of which have been publicly revealed. The first part of the Secret was a horrifying vision of hell where the souls of poor sinners go" and contained an urgent plea from Our Lady for acts of prayer and sacrifice to save souls. The second part of the Secret specifically prophesized the outbreak of World War II and contained the Mother of God's solemn request for the Consecration of Russia as a condition of world peace. It also predicted the inevitable triumph of Her Immaculate Heart following Russia's consecration and the conversion "of that poor nation" to the Catholic Faith.
This article was sent to me by St. Michael Center for the Blessed Virgin Mary

October 15, 2009

Feast St. Teresa of Avila


St. Teresa of Avila
Some quotes of her writings below...

The Lord does not look so much at the magnitude of anything we do as at the love with which we do it. —St. Teresa of Avila

She would say, "Prayer is an act of love, words are not needed. Even if sickness distracts from thoughts, all that is needed is the will to love."

Teresa sympathizes with those who have a difficult time in prayer: "All the trials we endure cannot be compared to these interior battles."

"For mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us. The important thing is not to think much but to love much and so do that which best stirs you to love. Love is not great delight but desire to please God in everything."

She believed in obedience to God more than penance. If you do something wrong, don't punish yourself -- change. When someone felt depressed, her advice was that she go some place where she could see the sky and take a walk.

St. Teresa is the patron saint of Headache sufferers. Her symbol is a heart, an arrow, and a book. She was canonized in 1622.

Prayer by St. Teresa
Prayer to Redeem Lost Time
O my God! Source of all mercy! I acknowledge Your sovereign power. While recalling the wasted years that are past, I believe that You, Lord, can in an instant turn this loss to gain. Miserable as I am, yet I firmly believe that You can do all things. Please restore to me the time lost, giving me Your grace, both now and in the future, that I may appear before You in "wedding garments." Amen. Saint Teresa of Avila

St. Teresa's Bread
Pan De Santa Teresa

2 cups milk
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 good piece of lemon peel
12 slices Italian/French bread (a little stale) 1/2-3/4 inch thick
3 eggs
Pinch of salt
Cinnamon-sugar for sprinkling on the toast
Olive oil for frying

Combine the milk with the sugar, cinnamon, and lemon peel. Simmer gently for 5 to 10 minutes, until the milk has become well flavored. Place the bread in a large flat dish or pan, and strain the milk over it.

Beat the eggs in a shallow bowl with a pinch of salt. With a spatula, lay the slices of bread in the egg, turning them to coat both sides. Beat additional eggs and salt together if necessary to finish coating bread slices. Fry the bread in the olive oil until it is browned and crusty on both sides.

Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar. Yield: 4-6 servings

St. Teresa of Avila's Poem

God alone is enough

Let nothing upset you,
let nothing startle you.
All things pass;
God does not change.
Patience wins
all it seeks.
Whoever has God
lacks nothing:
God alone is enough

- St Teresa Avila

Christ has no body

Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which is to look out
Christ's compassion to the world;
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about
doing good;
Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.

- St Teresa Avila

Let nothing trouble you

Let nothing trouble you.
Let nothing scare you.
All is fleeting.
God alone is unchanging.
Patience
Everything obtains.
Who possesses God
Nothing wants.
God alone suffices.

- St Teresa Avila

Information above found on various sites online and email inspirations received from friends and love ones...

Women for Faith and Family
Quotes from Catholic on line
Prayers from Catholic-forum/saints

October 16, 2009

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Prayer to Saint Margaret Mary
O Holy Visitandine, to hear your name is to recall the Sacred Heart Devotion, especially as practiced on First Fridays and in making reparation for sins. From early youth you dedicated yourself to Jesus and you exhibited fervent love for him in the Eucharist. You became his chosen vessel to spread the devotion to the Sacred heart which has done wonders in modern times. Make all of us realize ever more Christ's words: "Behold this Heart that has so greatly loved people." Amen.

Patronage of devotees of the Sacred Heart; loss of parents; polio patients

October 17, 2009
Saint Ignatius of Antioch

October 17, 2010
Canonization of Brother Andre Bessette

BROTHER ANDRE —1845-1937

Alfred Bessette was born Aug. 9, 1845. At his birth he was so weak that his parents baptized him.

Alfred's father moved the family to Farnhan in 1849 where he hoped to lift them from poverty while working as a lumberman. He died five years later when he was crushed by a falling tree. Alfred was nine at the time. His mother found herself widowed at 40 with 10 children in her care. Three years later she died of tuberculosis, having never fully recovered from the shock of her husband's death. Much later, Brother Andre was heard to say: "I rarely prayed for my mother, but I often prayed to her."

The family was dispersed. At age 12, Alfred was forced to leave school to learn a trade and to look for work. He began thirteen years of wandering from job to job with few belongings and very little reaming; he was barely able to write his name or read his prayer book.

In spite of his physical weakness, Alfred tried to make a living as an unskilled worker. He traveled from job to job as an apprentice and was easily exploited by those stronger than him. For a time, he worked on construction projects. Later, he made his living as a farm boy, tinsmith, blacksmith, baker, cobbler and coachman.

Following the flow of French-Canadian emigrants, he went to the United States and worked four years in the textile mills. Even in poor health, he put his whole heart into his work. "Despite my weak condition, I did not let anyone get ahead of me as far as work was concerned," he said later.    In 1867, he resumed to Canada with thousands of others who were to witness the dawn of the Canadian Confederation.

Three years later, Alfred presented himself as a candidate at the novitiate of the Congregation of Holy Cross in Montreal. Because of his uncertain health, his superiors had doubts concerning his religious vocation. Finally, he was accepted and given the name Brother Andre. He was made porter at Notre Dame college and was known to say: "When I entered the community, my superiors showed me the door, and I remained there 40 years without leaving." He also washed floors and windows, cleaned lamps, brought in firewood, and worked as messenger.

Soon Brother Andre started to welcome the sick and broken-hearted. He invited them to pray to St. Joseph to obtain favors. Before long, many people reported their prayers were being answered. For 25 years, in his small office or in the tramway station across the street from the college, Brother Andre spent six to eight hours a day receiving visitors. He built a chapel with the help of friends and with the money he earned giving haircuts to the students of the college. He was certain that St. Joseph wanted a place on the mountain and he spent his whole life preparing a beautiful shrine in the saint's honor.

In the meantime, there was talk of healings which doctors could not explain. Brother Andre began visiting the sick and earned the reputation of miracle-worker. But he strongly protested: "I am nothing ... only a tool in the hands of Providence, a lowly instrument at the service of St. Joseph." He went even further: "People are silly to think that I can perform miracles. It is God and St. Joseph who can heal you, not I."

His aloofness in the presence of strangers contrasted sharply with the carefree side he showed friends. He loved to tease. He would often say: "You must not be sad; it is good to laugh a little." Brother Andre was always cheerful and tried to communicate his happiness to others, especially to the poor and unfortunate. He used his sense of humor to share his joy and to slip some good advice into a conversation, or to change the subject when a verbal attack on someone was brewing.

He was a man of determination who refused to compromise his principles. His great respect for others was largely responsible for the respect others had for him. He was a very sensitive man. At times, he could be seen crying with the sick or being moved to tears after hearing a particularly sad story from one of his visitors.

During all these years, an immense project was being realized and larger crowds were swarming to the Oratory. The first small chapel had been erected in 1904, but it soon became too small to receive all the people who were coming to the mountain. The chapel was extended in 1908 and again in 1910. Still, a larger church was needed.

In 1917, a new crypt church, able to hold a thousand persons, was inaugurated. This, however, was only the starting point of an even more important endeavor. During his whole life, Brother Andre devoted his efforts to building the Oratory, which was to become the world's greatest sanctuary dedicated to St. Joseph. And yet, Brother Andre never referred to "my project, my work". On the contrary, he said: "God chose the most ignorant one. If there was anyone more ignorant than I am, God would have chosen him instead of me." When crowds came to the Oratory for important celebrations, Brother Andre would go into seclusion. He would hide behind the choir and pray quietly.

The economic crisis of 1931 forced the construction of the basilica to come to a standstill. In 1936, the authorities of the Congregation of Holy Cross called a special meeting to decide if the project should continue, especially since snow and frost threatened to damage the roofless structure. The provincial summoned Brother Andre for his opinion. The aging brother had only a few words for the assembly: "This is not my work, it is the work of St. Joseph. Put one of his statues in the middle of the building. If he wants a roof over his head, he'll take care of it." Two months later, the congregation had the necessary funds to continue working on the construction.

Brother Andre assigned great importance to meeting and greeting people. He spent long hours in the office where thousands came to see him. In the evenings, he visited homes or hospitals accompanied by one of his friends.   In fact, he was so good-natured and put so much humor into these daily outings that some considered him to be an "old gadabout" who liked to travel around in a friend's car. But Brother Andre replied: "There are some who say that it is for pleasure that I visit the sick, but after a day's work, it is far from being for pleasure...."

His kindness and compassion were matched by a sharpness of mind which prompted him to say: "It is surprising that I am frequently asked for cures, but rarely for humility and the spirit of faith. Yet, they are so important...."   On another occasion he said: "If the soul is sick, one must begin by treating the soul." His often repeated questions were well known: "Do you have faith? Do you believe that God can do something for you? Go confess yourself to the priest, go to communion and then come back to see me." These were the words he used constantly when asked for favors and cures.

Brother Andre understood the sense and the value of suffering and spoke with depth when addressing the subject. "People who suffer have something to offer to God. When they succeed in enduring their suffering, that is a daily miracle." To someone who was suffering, he said: "Do not seek to have these trials lifted from you. Instead, ask for the grace to bear them well."    There are people who still claim to have received the gift of healing from Brother Andre and yet he always denied that he had any gift of healing. "I have no gift and I cannot give any."

Generally, he encouraged people to see a doctor for treatment. To doctors, he said: "Your work is good. Your science was given to you by God. You must thank Him and pray to Him."   "God," he said, "is love and he loves us; that is the heart of the Christian faith."   "God gave us the commandments and it is in observing them that we show whether we love God. Pray that you may obtain a true love of God. God loves us so much. He wants us to love Him."

Brother Andre's way of speaking about God helped him succeed in sowing seeds of hope in the people he met. One of his friends said: "I never brought a sick person to Brother Andre without that person returning home enriched. Some were cured. Others died some time later, but Brother Andre had consoled them."

To live in God's house is heaven, Brother Andre said: "You know, it is permitted to desire death if one's unique goal is to go toward God. When I die, I will go to heaven, I will be much closer to God than I am now; I will have more power to help you."

A few months before his death, those around him heard him cry out, "I am suffering so much, my God! My God!" And then, in a very weak voice: "Here is the grain," as if referring to the Gospel ["Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But If it dies, it brings forth much fruit" (Jn 12, 24)].

"He spent his whole life speaking of others to God, and of God to others," said a friend of Brother Andre's. It is difficult to say at what point in his life work began and ended, and at what point prayer started and ended: the two seemed to flow so naturally one into the other. He died Jan. 6, 1937, at the age of 92, and newspapers reported that more than a million people attended his wake and burial.

His body lies today in a simple tomb in the beautiful basilica that rises gracefully on Mount Royal. To this day, thousands of visitors come to St. Joseph Basilica to receive physical and spiritual healing.

Taken from the "National Catholic Register," July 21, 1996. For subscriptions contact the "National Catholic Register", P.O. Box 260380, Encino, CA 91426-0380, (800) 421-3230.

October 18, 2009

St. Luke the Apostle

Prayer to Saint Luke
Most charming and saintly Physician, you were animated by the heavenly Spirit of love. In faithfully detailing the humanity of Jesus, you also showed his divinity and his genuine compassion for all human beings. Inspire our physicians with your professionalism and with the divine compassion for their patients. Enable them to cure the ills of both body and spirit that afflict so many in our day. Amen.

October 19, 2009

St. Isaac Jogues and his companions

October 28

Sts. Simon and Jude

Patron Saint of the Day

Catholic Answers
About asking the Saints to intercede for us in prayer