Pray for Marriages (Just Do it!)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

 

Reading and meditating on scripture or listening to it proclaimed during Mass is such nourishment for the soul.  It may guide, affirm, reprimand, heal, or even confuse is, but it never is to remain dormant, because it is the living Word of God. We are meant to live it.

 

Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. 

James 1:22

 

With Lent almost upon us, many of you may be contemplating what they should “give up”, but I am going to challenge you to “do” more, especially when it comes to marriage.  And if you happen to be single, then I am going to ask you to do a kindness for a married couple, even if that is only to pray for them, which we know is a precious gift.  

 

Consider what you would like to “do”.  Here are some ideas to get you thinking.

• Affirm your spouse each day with words or acts of appreciation
• Do something for them that you rarely do, but know they would welcome
• Never forget a hello, goodbye, good morning, goodnight, thank you, or I love you, or other simple acknowledgments easily forgotten
• Do what they want, even if it’s not what you want
• Pray with your spouse, even if it’s only at meals

Lord, this Lent, help us grow in humility as we seek to let go of pride, vanity, and self-love.  Help us to embrace our littleness as we recognize the abundant inheritance you have promised us if we only stay the course. Guide each one of us in our journey, as each marriage is so unique with its challenges and the plans you have for them.  May this Lent be a time of blessing and renewal for each and every prayer warrior and for all those they hold in their hearts.  We are indebted to Your love forever! Amen.

 

Peace, Joy, and Love, 

Janet

 

Challenge someone to be a doer!  Pass it on!  

Pray for Families (Battle Strong)

Greetings Prayer Warriors, 

Our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of His children. He desires all to live with Him in eternity, but many reach for false gods instead. He must be weeping as he watches the lack of love his children have for one another. His tears must flow for those who physically and spiritually hunger. The Lord must sob when He sees His children wage war against one another because power and money are their gods. 

While we all should pray for the Ukrainian citizens and all those who have family there, we must also pray for an end to the wars that rage in our hearts. If all humanity did so, do you think there would be wars anywhere? God does not cause suffering, man does.  If we are not moving towards Love, we are moving toward evil.  God calls us.  The desire for power and wealth distract us.

Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. Ephesians 6:11-12

Lord, it is becoming increasingly clear how much we need you. This global spiritual battle is truly between Light and Darkness, Good and Evil. Let us first look within our own hearts. Where do we wound with verbal daggers and tear down with venomous behaviors in the name of power and control? Jesus, send us a downpour of grace that we may renounce all evil. Humble and guide us toward contrition and reparation, and make us beacons of hope. Loving Father, also hear our prayers for one another’s peace and protection, especially where conflict exists. Increase our faith and ability to love. Protect those who seek to end the battles, such as those in the Armed Forces, those who intercede for others such as humanitarian volunteers, and every soldier of Christ who seeks to bring You back into their heart and their home. St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle! Jesus, we trust in You!

What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. 

Romans 8:35, 37

Peace, Joy, and Love, 

Janet

Peace and hope are meant to be shared. Pass it on! 

Pray for Marriages (The Healing Son)

Greetings Prayer Warriors, 

Many of you struggle with your marriage, or perhaps pray fervently for the marriage of a loved one. Your prayer is so important, because in long and difficult struggles, couples are at risk of losing not just their marriage, but their faith, feeling that perhaps the Lord doesn’t hear their prayers. Within this doubt, you may even  hear Jesus say, with a kind and gentle voice,

“O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Matthew 14:31

 We may never know this side of heaven, why the Lord allows for long, painful struggles, or why he reunifies some marriages and not others. What we can be sure of, is that sometimes the Lord uses the difficult journey to bring about some type of healing. Maybe He is stripping away excess pride, earthly delights, self-love, selfishness, or other, so that real healing can begin. With his encouragement, he beckons you to open the old baggage brought into your marriage to expose all the unhealed wounds and memories. He wants to heal them or take them from you, if only you'll weaken your grip. The heavier the baggage the longer it takes to unpack, but the Lord remains unwaveringly by your side.

But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. Malachi 4:2

Do not give up hope that the Lord will bring about some kind of transformation.  Keep your eyes on Christ, and reflect on His Passion.  That’s what love looks like. 

Lord, have mercy on us, the weak, the timid, the fearful, the doubters, the prideful, the angry, the spiteful, and the apathetic.  Do not let us be blinded by hate, frustration, rage, despair, or apathy. You remain with us  during all the highs and all the lows even when we think we are alone. Be the balm for not only our woundedness, but  that of our spouse, and bring us to new life in You.  Whether our wounds be few or many, give us the courage to acknowledge them, and ask for your healing grace. And Lord, we ask not just for us, but that your grace may flow on all, so that marriages around the world will be renewed in joy, love, and peace.

Jesus, the Healing Son, we trust in You!

Peace, Joy, and Love,

Janet

Hope does not disappoint! Pass it on! 

Pray for Families (Willingly Yours)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

Reading scripture, I never used to understand how anyone could deny their knowing Jesus. He was good, kind, loving, generous, merciful, and loyal. What’s not to love? Yet, as time advances and democracy is losing its grip, as people are told what to think and silenced if dare to express an alternate viewpoint, as God has been erased out of society from the classrooms to the public spaces, as rulers are becoming tyrants,  and as logic is no longer tolerated, how much longer before Christianity is outlawed and  persecution creeps across the world?  It may seem far-fetched to some, but is it? And when and if that happens in a small or large way, will you have the strength to identify yourself as one of His?? Do you even identify as His, now?

Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” Mark 8:38

Lord, you gave your life for each one of us, so that we might be released from the shackles of sin and live with You in eternity.  Help us to never throw away that gift. Give us the fortitude to let the world of the gift you offer.  Help us to introduce others to You, pure Truth, unwavering Love.  May the threat of poverty, persecution, or death have no sway on our dedication to Your commands.  Strengthen each family member and bring them close to your Sacred Heart, so that they may hear and recognize the drumbeat of your unconditional love. You have a plan for each one of us, so help each of us to fulfill it.  And when we wander off and get stuck in the thicket, be the Good Shepherd and rescue us, and grant us the humility to ask for Your forgiveness. Amen. 

Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41

Peace, Joy, and Love,

Janet

Prayer can strengthen the weak.  Pass it on!

Pray for Marriages (Love Renewed)

Greetings Prayer Warriors, 

 

Sometimes God’s love is just so subtle.  Even in marriage there are times we think that we are all alone and unloved.  We think the Lord isn’t walking with us let alone helping us carry our cross. We think that with all His power, why can’t he swoop in and save the day, and make our marriage perfect?!  Yet, in hindsight, we can see all the times we didn’t realize he was carrying us!

 

Recently, I celebrated my 38^th wedding anniversary. (Married young ;-) 😉)  What makes the number 38 so amazing, is that I never thought I’d make it to 10 years!  All the Lord ever asked of me was for one more day.  When I wanted to be the sheep that wandered off to a different pasture, He took his shepherd’s hook and said, “Trust me.” 

 

A patient man will endure until the right moment, and then joy will burst forth for him. Set you heart right and be steadfast, incline your ear and receive words of understanding, and do not be hasty in time of calamity. 

Sirach 1:23; 2:2

 

Time has given me perspective and time for contemplation.  What would life have been like for me, for my children, if I had moved on when things got tough? Would I have only traded old issues for new ones? What I do know is that the Lord never fails to stand in the gap.  I know that prayers for self and others make a difference. I know that once children become adults, they have no qualms about revealing the flaws of both of their parents. They are the mirror.

 

So today and each day, I pray for each one of you.  Whether you are single, engaged, or married, have a perfect or not so perfect marriage, I pray for you and those you pray for. 

 

May the Lord renew your heart, expand its capacity to love, bless your marriage, and grant you peace. Amen.

 

Peace, Joy, and Love, 

Janet 

 

Hope and trust.  Pass it on!   

 

 

 

Pray for Families (Healing of Hearts and Minds)

Greetings Prayer Warriors, 

 

One hundred and sixty-four years ago, the Blessed Mother by the title of Our Lady of Lourdes, appeared to a young Bernadette in Lourdes, France.  She gave her a message for the world*.  Lourdes is now a site of many miraculous healings*.

 

On this feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, I sense that the Lord wants to heal.  Heal divisions, heal relationships, and heal hearts. What energy is wasted by holding on to grudges, sulking in our hurt feelings, and dreaming about vindication. While family can be a petri dish where discord can flourish, the Lord calls us to rise above.  We are called to pull out the weeds of animosity and sow love.  Knowing our human frailty and weakness, we can only do this united to Christ.  

 

If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing. Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but [also] everyone for those of others. Philippians 2:1-4

 

Pray for one another!  As inspiration, pray 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.

Amen.

 

Peace, Joy, and Love,

Janet

 

Say a prayer and pass it on!

 

*https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/message-lourdes/

 

Pray for Marriages (Fouls and Assists)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

Basketball is on my mind because frankly, it is on our television a lot. When I think about it, marriage is a lot like basketball. It’s a team sport, it takes humility, confidence, and cooperation to be successful, and when the ball is in your court, you’d better step up to the responsibility. Sometimes we make fouls, and we are called out.  Our offered  reparation is a version of the “free throw”.  However, woe to the spouse that is guilty of a technical! But even in basketball that player isn’t thrown out forever. They are only taken out for a while.

Unlike basketball, marriage is a team you are asked to be on for life, with a coach, (our Lord), that never leaves you nor sends you away. Like basketball, marriage takes lots of practice, and includes a lot of failures before you get it right. You may be in a slump and prefer the bench, because you are tired of battling the full court press.  However, God calls you to keep in the game. In time, you may begin to soar, but until then, draw your inspiration from those marriages you admire.

For I know well the plans I have in mind for you—oracle of the LORD—plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future of hope.  Jeremiah 29:11

Lord, for most, marriage is no slam-dunk. At times it can be grueling, exhausting, and repetitive. But in this journey to perfection, you continue to encourage us, revive us, and refine us. Thank you for our earthly mentors, whose  great marriages we admire and attempt to emulate. While you don’t call everyone to be MVPs, you do call each one of us to be the best teammates we can be, one who encourages and lifts up and assists as able to help their spouse reach their goals.  Give us the grace, Lord, when we are wanting to quit the team.  Hear our humble prayers and answer them, for you are the coach we forever trust. Without you, we will never reach perfection, but because of you we will be shown the path.  Jesus, we trust in You!. Help our distrust! Amen.

The LORD bless you and keep you! The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace! Numbers 6:24-26

Peace, Joy, and Love,

Janet

Ball’s in your court. Pass it on! 

Pray for Families (Remain in Him)

Greetings Prayer Warriors, 

Feeling empty?  Be filled.  

Abide in Me. John 15:4

Feeling overwhelmed by all the stressors in life?  Rest in Him.

You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shade of the Almighty, say to the LORD, “My refuge and fortress, my God in whom I trust.” Psalm 91:1-2

Feeling unloved or unlovable?  Remain with Love.

God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. 

1 John 4:16

Be filled! Seek He who is love and allow yourself to be loved fully.  

Know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  Ephesians 3:19

Pray for one another, that we, God’s beloved children, will be open to abiding in Him and receiving His love and comfort.

Peace, Joy, and Love, 

Janet

Receive, then share His love. Pass it on!