Pray for Families (Grace to Love)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

When I was young, I would dream of the day I was married with a family. It was a perfect and romantic view of what it would be like to have children and raise them with my husband. Little did I dare to imagine how self-less, joyful, difficult, challenging, humbling, glorious, frustrating, fulfilling, expensive, life-altering, sacrificial, and heart-expanding it would be.       

How blessed I am!  Blessed to have children and blessed to have survived the many challenges that sought to derail my marriage. I was blessed by the Good Shepherd who sought to guide me and then pull me out of the thicket when I got derailed. He mirrored what parental love looked like, always seeking to help the lost, frightened, and misguided. I was blessed by His copious grace and well as the gift of faith. I continue to need this grace, and pray that your journey too will be fortified with grace.

Because you are precious in my eyes and honored, and I love you. 

Isaiah 43:4

Lord, shower parents, especially new ones, with the grace to strengthen them in faith, hope, and love. Give them greater wisdom, humility, gentleness, and self-control. Bless their children and grant them the gift of faith that it may be an eternal flame in their hearts. May they develop a holy hunger to know you, who are Truth personified. Through your Sacred Heart, unify and purify all of our hearts. Jesus, we trust in you. Amen.

Though the mountains fall away and the hills be shaken, my love shall never fall away from you nor my covenant of peace be shaken, says the LORD, who has mercy on you. Isaiah 54:10

Peace, Joy, and Love,

Janet

Prayer is a gift. Double down and pass it on! 

Pray for Marriages (New Life in the Desert)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Isaiah 40:3

Sometimes life feels like a desert.  Sometimes one’s marriage can feel like a deserted desert. Perhaps the Lord brings us to the desert, because it is there we feel acutely aware of our need for Him. 

He must increase, I must decrease. John 3:30

Holy Spirit, come! Help us each to decrease in pride, self-love, and vain-glory.  Renew us and refresh our parched marriages, giving them new life. 

All you who are thirsty, come to the water! Pay attention and come to me; listen, that you may have life. Isaiah 55:1, 3

Whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14

Lord, may we serve and glorify you by reflecting your steadfast love and mercy in our marriages.  May we always turn to you for encouragement, wisdom, and strength and trust in your perfect plan for our marriages. 

Though I thought I had toiled in vain, for nothing and for naught spent my strength, yet my right is with the LORD, my recompense is with my God. Isaiah 49:4

Jesus, we trust in you!

Peace, Joy, and Love,

Janet

Love and mercy, a perfect reflection of His love, is meant to be shared. Pass it on!  

Pray for Families (Necessary Wisdom)

Greeting Prayer Warriors,

Gifts are nice, but not necessary, but gifts of the Holy Spirit are more necessary than nice. Take for example, wisdom. Wisdom can both help and protect us and our families. 

The beginning of wisdom is: get wisdom; whatever else you get, get understanding. Proverbs 4:7

Whether a parent, a child, or both, wisdom should be the guiding light of each and every decision we make daily. One wrong decision can mess up your day, but a careless one can change the course of your and your family’s life for the worse.

Wisdom is as good as an inheritance and profitable to those who see the sun.For the protection of wisdom is as the protection of money; and knowledge is profitable because wisdom gives life to those who possess it.  Ecclesiastes 7:11-12

Lord, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, grant us the gift of wisdom, stirring up this gift in us each and every day. Through this gift, guide us as we make decisions that affect ourselves and others. Send your Spirit to protect us from our own foolishness, by guiding our tongues and our hearts so we do knock each other down, but build each other up in love. Heavenly Father, you desire to give us good gifts, thus we ask that you shower us with wisdom so that all of our decisions can be for the greater glory of God. Amen.

Peace, Joy, and Love,

Janet

Pray for wisdom! Pass it on!

Pray for Marriages (An abundance of fruit, and a little bit more!)

Greeting Prayer Warriors, 

Marriage is as rich and beautiful as an orchard.  Sometimes it gives you lemons. :( Sometimes there is temptation of forbidden fruit. Other times it is very sweet. Sometimes the fruit takes a lot of effort to gain. Occasionally it just seems inaccessible. But what can be called good that doesn’t take some effort to achieve?

To help one another with the daily labor of doing what is good, let us pray that marriages may be blessed with the fruits of the Spirit.

Holy Spirit, shine brightly upon us.  May we draw closer to you and in your generosity, may we be gifted with your fruits.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Galatians 5:22-23

Lord, hear the prayers of your faithful. We want all the fruit, but please add a little spice as well! Jesus, we trust in you!

Peace, Joy, and Love, 

Janet 

Your prayer may make a world of difference today for someone. Pass it on!

Pray for Families (The Gift of a Father)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

This Sunday, we celebrate fathers, those who have stepped up, stepped in, and met the challenge. No father is perfect except our Father in heaven, but we celebrate all those who did their best with what they had, at any given time. We acknowledge those who accepted fatherhood, rather than run from it. We give thanks for all the sacrifices that are involved in raising a family. We praise God that he ordained that no child should enter the world except through the union of a father and mother. We celebrate those who have entered as step-fathers and embraced the challenge to love another’s child. We honor those men who have adopted children who did not have a present father.

We have had our earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. […] They disciplined us for a short time as seemed right to them, but he does so for our benefit, in order that we may share his holiness. At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.

Hebrews 12:9-11

Heavenly Father, we ask for special blessings upon fathers. Pour your grace upon them, that they may be strengthened and affirmed in their fatherhood. Help them to embody the love which you so freely give to them, your children. We also pray for those who are unwilling fathers, who are struggling with their fatherhood. Empower them to be a positive presence for their children. We also pray for those who mourn their lost fatherhood through abortion. Heal their wounds, and may their sufferings be but a fragrant aroma of love before your throne. 

Peace, Joy, and Love,
Janet

Prayer is a healing balm. Keep praying and pass it on!

Pray for Marriages (The Blame Game)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

We all know that Adam and Eve’s first sin was disobeying God and eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Do you know what the second sin was? Blaming another for one’s own actions!

Then God asked: Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat?The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it.”The LORD God then asked the woman: What is this you have done? The woman answered, “The snake tricked me, so I ate it.”Genesis 3: 11-13

Contemplate your own marriage. How often have you fell prey to the blame game? How often has the Evil One encouraged you to throw another barb, blame your actions on your spouse, or even on another person (they made me do it!) and gloat of self-righteousness? How often have you deluded yourselves into thinking that your bad actions might lead to a greater good (albeit fleeting)?

God knows well that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know good and evil.” Genesis 3:5

Indeed, their eyes were opened, but to their nakedness and sin! Sin creates a false illusion, or more appropriately delusion! Repentance and prayer open the eyes our soul to the truth of our actions and the mercy of God’s restorative grace.

Lord, we are the fallen descendants of Adam and Eve. Help us to regulate our own actions and reactions in our marriages, in our homes, and in our workplaces. We thank you for the sacrament of baptism which washes away our Original Sin and opens the gate to the Kingdom of Heaven. We are graced by the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which offers us the graces we need to become detached from sin. Give us the wisdom and courage to take advantage of such graces and not fall prey to the devil’s whispers in the garden of our heart, “You are a good person, so why would you need confession? Why would you need to confess to a priest!” May we humble ourselves and run to the fount of your mercy and grace. Amen.

Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy.
The Lord’s words as documented in St. Faustina’s Diary, 300

Peace, Joy, and Love,
Janet

Offer words of love and affirmation, not blame. Begin with peace in your home! Pass it on!

Pray for Families (Blessed by the Many)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

Some of us came from large families while others from quite small ones. Our birth family, or first family may have taken care of our physical needs, emotional, and/or spiritual needs, but no “one” can ever meet all of our needs in life. That is why the Lord in His great wisdom extended our “family” in Him. He gives us many brothers and sisters in Christ that we might always find an open ear, a warm embrace, an encouraging word, or a bold admonishment. In turn, He also calls us to be the same for others. 

What a blessing this is! Let us pray that we not just seek to have our own needs met, but extend ourselves in brotherly love to all those we meet.  

For you were called for freedom, brothers…serve one another through love.For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:13-14

May the Spirit guide you, move through you, and embolden you to love others as Jesus has loved you.

For this reason I kneel before the Father,from whom every familyin heaven and on earth is named,that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self,and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love,may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth,and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19

Go forth, and share Love, so that one day it may go viral! For where Love abounds, there He is. 

Peace, Joy, and Love,

Janet

His love is meant to be shared. Pass it on!

Pray for Marriages (Faith and Trust)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

Among you are those who are tired, frustrated, and losing hope that their marriage will ever heal, improve, or even be “good”.  For others, they are concerned about someone else's marriage in this state.

He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

Trust in the Lord, for He never leaves your side.

As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself. Those who trust in him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with him in love: Because grace and mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with the elect. Wisdom 3:6, 9

Keep the faith, as our collective prayers will increase His grace which will sustain you.

Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4:8

Give praise, for your never walk alone.

Peace, Joy, and Love,

Janet

Prayer and praise will lead you to Peace.  Pass it on!