Something from Love To Be Catholic...

The pro-life march was last Thursday (and it went really well!) so....

last day of the week...

"Perhaps you and I will find ourselves soldiers of the same regiment, travelers on the same road, bound for the same destination. May His holy will, not ours, be done! Leave your future in His hands, in the heart of Jesus made man. Remember that he too was once a young man, for Jesus Christ is the God-child, the God-youth, the God-man, the God of all ages." ~St. Theophane Venard. His feastday is...February 2nd...I think. :-P

Prayer to Mary Mother of Vocations

O Mary, receive me among those whom you love, nourish, sanctify, and guide. It was you who accompanied Jesus throughout his life. Be with me now as I seek to know God's will. Help me to listen intently to his words of eternal life. Help me to say yes to all that he asks of me. Mary, you have always guided me with love, I now entrust myself entirely to you.

Hope you all had a great week... pictures from Patron Saint Index, the first half of the week's prayers from here, and the rest from a lot of holy cards I was given by the Daughters of St. Paul...

PS~ I didn't post this, or any of the other posts at 6:00 AM for real...:-P ;-)

"Just as every sort of gem when cast in honey becomes brighter and more sparkling, so each person becomes more acceptable and fitting in his own vocation when he sets that vocation in the context of devotion. Through devotion family cares become more peaceful, mutual love between husband and wife becomes more sincere, the service we owe the prince becomes more faithful, and our work, no matter what it is, becomes more pleasant and agreeable." ~St. Francis de Sales. His feast day is January 24...(I think)

Prayer for My Life's Dream
Your dream, O Master, is to lay hold of me, to change me with your divine life.
Your dream is to purify me, to free me from my selfishness and my faults.
Your dream is to re-create me, to make me a new person in your image.
Your dream is to fill me with your charity, to make me love hte Father and all my brothers and sisters just as you do.
Your dream is to bind me to you with the closest bonds, to bind our hearts together as one.
Your dream is to make me strong, to impart to me your divine power, so that I can overcome evil and be constant in doing good.
Your dream is to enflame me with an untiring zeal to spread your kingdom in this world.
Your dream is to possess me in this life and in the life to come.
O Master, may your dream come true.
May I be able to give all that you ask of me.

"He need have no fear of error in believing that God is calling him to contemplation, regardless of what sort of person he is now or has been in the past. It is not what you are nor what you have been that God sees with his all-merciful eyes, but what you desire to be." ~Anonymous

Prayer to St. Paul the Apostle

St. Paul, you traveled the world, never quite knowing where the Spirit would lead you next. You journeyed in faith and accept beatings, imprisonment, shipwreck, and ultimately execution because of your faith in Jesus Christ.

Help me to accept the great adventure of leading a life faithful to the words of Jesus my Master, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. May I ask myself, "Where does God want me to go today?" On the journey, may I love in the way you taught the Corinthian (1Cor.13), and be willing to endure all things for the sake of the Gospel.

Pray with me, that I may heed the voice of the One who called you on the road to Damascus, and set you on the path that leads to life. Amen

"It is not so easy as you may think to take the habit against your parents' wishes, for though you may be resolved to do so now, I doubt whether you are so holy as not to feel unhappy afterwards at being in disgrace with your father. The best way is to pray about the matter to our Lord and leave it to Him. He can change hearts and find means to bring it about." ~St. Teresa of Avila
Her feastday is October 15.


Prayer for My Vocation
Dear Heavenly Father, I believe that you are the Way, the Truth and the Life. You alone love me for who I truly am and for what I am able to become. Though I make repeated mistakes, you continually offer me new opportunities to grow every moment of the day.

Your Son lived the Way that I must choose is I'm to be transformed and to fully develop my potential. His Way is the only path that leads to true personhood.

Attuned to your Truth, Father, I am capable of leading a wholesome and worthwhile life. The depth of my service to others is dependent on my grasp of your Truth.

May your Spirit overflow into my life that I may have your Life to the full. Give me the strength and the courage to be all that I can be and not to settle for less.

Realizing that my life is a precious gift from you, may I integrate Your Way, Your Truth and Your Life, and make it my own. Amen.

"I opened the gospels at random, and the words my eyes fell on were these: 'Then he went up on to the mountainside and called to him those whom it pleased to call; so these came to him.' There it all was, the history of my life, of my whole vocation; above all of hte special claims Jesus makes on my soul. He doesn't call the people who are worthy of it; no, just the people it pleases him to call."

~Therese de Lisieux

Her feastday is October 1.

Prayer to Saint Joseph to Know One's Vocation
O Great Saint Joseph, you were completely obedient to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Obtain for me the grace to know the state of life that God in his providence has chosen for me. Since my happiness on earth, and perhaps even my final happiness in heaven, depends on this choice, let me not be deceived in making it. Obtain for me the light to know God's Will, to carry it out faithfully, and to choose the vocation which will lead me to a happy eternity.

St. Alphonsus Liguori- patron of vocations

God says to each of us: "Give me your heart, that is, your will." We, in turn, cannot offer anything more precious than to say: "Lord, take possession of us; we give our whole will to you; make us understand what it is that you desire of us, and we will perform it."

If we would give full satisfaction to the heart of God, we must bring our own will in everything into conformity with his; and not only into conformity, but into uniformity also, as regards all that God ordains. Confirmity signifies the joining of our own will to the will of God; but uniformity signifies, further, our mkaing of the divine and our own will one will only, so that we desire nothing but what God desires, and his will becomes ours. This is the sum and substance of that perfection to which we ought to be ever aspiring; this is what must be the aim of all we do, and of all our desires, meditations and prayers. For this we must invoke the assistance of all our patron saints and our guardian angels, and, above all, of our divine mother Mary, who was the most perfect saint, because she embraced most perfectly the divine will.

- Saint Alphonsus Liguori, from The Redeeming Love of Christ

His feastday is August 1.

Prayer to Know One's Vocation
Lord Jesus, up until now you have been quietly preparing me to be your disciple. Now the time of preparation is ending. I seem to hear you say to me as once to Peter: Will you also go away?" You were saddened then by friends who failed you. But Peter did not fail. "Lord", he said, "to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."

I stand with Peter. Through prayer and counsel, show me, Lord, where it is in your vineyard that you want me to serve. Then give me strength to be faithful.

Mary, Mother and Model, help me to respond in generous love to the call of your divine Son.

Vocation Awareness Week

...second post of the year! :-P
This year I'll try to post more often... This week I'll also try featuring a quote or prayer each day by a saint about vocations (kinda). Anyway, for this special week, here's a handful of helpful websites if you or anyone else you know is considering a vocation, or even thinking of discerning a possible vocation to the priesthood or religious life... if you know any other ones, please leave a comment!

Holy Vocations Blog: A group blog consisting of people discerning a vocation. I would really recommend the introductions... plus the articles about the religious communities, and the reflections, oh! And the updates, and.... There's a loooong list of vocation links on the sidebar as well.

Vocation.com: Besides all the really awesome information it has, I especially enjoyed the testimonies, and a few other videos as well. There's also a Personal Guidance part where you can ask your own questions about vocations and have them answered by a priest.

Do I Have a Vocation?: Excellent articles about vocations... I'm still looking forward to reading some more... An earlier article was really helpful to me because I usually bake a plateful of cookies for the Daughters of St. Paul as gifts...

Vocation-Station: A blog consisting of many inspiring vocation videos, usually about a specific community. Really fun to watch, but my computer sometimes has a hard time loading up...

First post of the year...

...a video!!!