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Hello everyone,

Today, Saturday, September 10th we have over 4600 people from all over the world, and from many Christian and some non-Christian denominations, joining together in prayer. (I'm still trying to catch up - again!! - on all the new members since last March) 

Let's start our reflection from now on with a prayer to the Holy Spirit that we may be receptive to His Truth, His Wisdom, His Guidance and His Courage so that our hearts may be open to conversion and our minds open to all that God wills for us:

" Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful. And kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit, Lord, and they shall be created. And thou shalt renew the face of the earth. 

Let us pray,

O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit did instruct the hearts of your faithful; grant that in the same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in his consolation. Through the same Christ, our Lord. Amen." 

It's been a busy time, a time for reflection and a time for decisions since I last sent out a weekly reflection (months ago - to my shame. I feel I know what it must be like for those who need to go to confession, know they need to go, haven't been for ages and keep putting it off. The longer it is postponed the more difficult it is to go, and so it has been with renewing writing the weekly reflection). 

Our newest grandchild became ill in April and as his Mom, my daughter, was 'nursing him' it meant she had to stay with him for his spell in hospital so I made my third trip to the UK since the start of the year to mind the other two and allow hubby to stay working. My Mother was hospitalised in May which meant spending the days with her and the evenings doing all the stuff at home. Our eldest lad got married in early June. It has been a time when our youngest lad was sitting his Leaving Certificate, our final school exams which dictate his college place based on results - so support and lifts to and from extra study classes were time-consuming too. He starts university here in Galway next week, thanks be to God.

Finally I had to sit down and take stock. My course had fallen behind and there was dreadful pressure to try and get in the monthly essays. Coming to the conclusion that my family is my priority, I realised I had to be able to be there for them whenever and wherever they need me and for as long as I am able to do so, in order to make things a little easier for them all in a world of pressure where both spouses have to work so that they can provide a home for themselves - we now have 4 married, 2 building their own homes and the youngest one getting ready to build. Thank God for my husband's family farm which meant a site for each of them! 

So, all in all the crunch came and the course had to go, sadly. Mind you, now that I am not studying I have more time to study! Going through a massive reading list meant a whistle-stop tour through all the books just to find the relevant quotes for the monthly 3,500 word assignments and not enough leisure time to read the books more in-depth. Funnily enough, it was because of the Circle of Prayer that I started the BA Div. so that I could learn more about my Faith and my Church and to be able to defend both within the reflections. But what happened? The Circle of Prayer took a back seat and has suffered the most because of everything else that was going on. 

My work with the Holy Souls Crusade was also intense earlier in the year as we prepared for our Night Vigil in Knock in May. Printing and promotion from home can be extensive and expensive, and it proved to be so. But the Vigil was wonderful and the rewards for the effort made it all very worthwhile. It is an exercise we aim to repeat annually, with God's Good Help. 

Another area I found suffering from all the activity was my prayer life. I used to attend Eucharistic Adoration each Wednesday in our Parish and every Thursday a Healing the Family Tree Mass and Adoration in Clarinbridge, about 12 miles from us. Both were neglected. So, sometimes, what looks to be a good thing on the surface can have very negative effects and after much prayer the decision was made to quit the course. So here I am - in catch-up mode yet again, with new Circle of Prayer members to be added from last March, almost 2,000 emails to sort through, God Help me! 

So much has happened in the world too since I last wrote - we lost our dearly beloved Pope John Paul II, we have seen more natural disastersand terrorist attacks, more areas of famine, a groundswell of support for third world debt relief at the G8 Summit, yet conveniently interrupted by the bombs in London which took Tony Blair away from the negotiating table and pushed terrorism to the top of the agenda instead. 

What a sad world we are living in these days! It reinforces the need for more and more people praying - for our families, our countries and the world, for decision-makers and world leaders and for conversion of hearts the world over. Here in Ireland we are seeing a push for contraceptives using aborto-facients (the morning-after pill) to be given to 11 year old girls - no talk at all of child protection or statutory rape of minors, or any attempt to introduce education programmes promoting abstinence or including graphic explanation of sexually transmitted diseases as a result of promiscuity. Yesterday we heard of a further push to include Ireland in the 'culture of death', with an Irish branch of Planned Parenthood lobbying the EU to impose legal abortion on our country and a case being brought to the European Court of Justice, using the misnomer of 'human rights' and despite the majority still opposing the taking of human life.

This world needs prayer, prayer and more prayer - the cloud of evil is getting thicker and thicker every day and it's as if most people have completely lost their way. The spiritual aspect of our make-up is being drowned out by a world gone absolutely mad and most of us are immune to the depravity all around us and ignorant of the lack of moral values in today's society. Please keep little Ireland in your prayers, that the Holy Spirit will fall on the hearts of those whose decisions will affect the most vulnerable in society - from the babe in the womb to the frail, incapacitated and elderly, and the poor and disenfranchised here and the world over.

We saw World Youth Day from Cologne in Germany where an influx of a million or so young people from every corner of the world gathered in prayer and worship. The Graces that flowed out from that place will be tremendous, and the legacy of Pope John Paul II in his interaction with young people continues to astound commentators. He drew the young to him and they loved him for it. Rather than a Word for Today reflection this time I thought I'd include his closing address at World Youth Day in Rome 2000. His hope and trust in our young people was reciprocated in their love of him and their obedience to all that Christ teaches us all. These youngsters are our future and thanks be to God we will have a new generation of folk with integrity, justice, truth and honesty in their hearts. We will have an increase in vocations to the Priesthood and Religious life, for without Priests we have no Mass and without Mass and the Eucharist we have no life! Worth thanking about! 

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HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER JOHN PAUL II

Tor Vergata, Sunday 20 August 2000

1. "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (Jn 6:68).

Dear young people of the Fifteenth World Youth Day! These words of Peter, in his conversation with Christ at the end of the discourse on the "bread of life", affect us personally. In these days we have meditated on John's statement: "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14). The evangelist has brought us back to the great mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God, the Son given to us through Mary "when the fullness of time had come" (Gal 4:4).

In his name I greet you all once more with great affection. I greet Cardinal Camillo Ruini, my Vicar for the Diocese of Rome and President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, and I thank him for his words at the beginning of this Mass. I also greet Cardinal James Francis Stafford, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, and the many Cardinals, Bishops and priests gathered here. With gratitude I extend respectful greetings to the President of Italy and the head of the Italian Government, as well as all the civil and religious Authorities who honour us with their presence.

2. We have reached the high point of World Youth Day. Yesterday evening, dear young people, we confirmed our faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God whom the Father sent, as the First Reading reminded us today, "to bring good tidings to the poor, ... to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound ... to comfort all who mourn" (Is 61:1-3).

In today's Eucharistic celebration, Jesus helps us to come to know a particular aspect of his mystery. In the Gospel, we listened to a part of his discourse in the synagogue at Capernaum after the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves. In it he reveals himself as the true bread of life, the bread which has come down from heaven to give life to the world (cf. Jn 6:51). These are words that those who hear him do not understand. Their outlook is too material for them to grasp what Christ really means. They are thinking in terms of flesh, which "is of no avail" (Jn 6:63). Jesus's words, instead, have to do with the unlimited horizons of the spirit: "The words that I have spoken to you - he insists - are spirit and life" (ibid.).

But his hearers are hesitant: "This is a hard saying, who can listen to it?" (Jn 6:60). They consider themselves to be persons of common sense, with their feet on the ground. For this reason they shake their heads and go away muttering, one after another. The initial crowd gradually grows smaller. At the end, only the tiny group of his most faithful disciples remains. But with regard to the "bread of life" Jesus is not prepared to back down. Rather, he is ready to lose even those closest to him: "Will you also go away?" (Jn 6:67).

3. "Will you also?" Christ's question cuts across the centuries and comes down to us; it challenges us personally and calls for a decision. What is our answer? Dear young people, if we are here today, it is because we identify with the Apostle Peter's reply: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (Jn 6:68).

Around you, you hear all kinds of words. But only Christ speaks words that stand the test of time and remain for all eternity. The time of life that you are living calls for decisive choices on your part: decisions about the direction of your studies, about work, about your role in society and in the Church. It is important to realize that among the many questions surfacing in your minds, the decisive ones are not about "what". The basic question is "who": "who" am I to go to, "who" am I to follow, "to whom" should I entrust my life?

You are thinking about love and the choices it entails, and I imagine that you agree: what is really important in life is the choice of the person who will share it with you. But be careful! Every human person has inevitable limits: even in the most successful of marriages there is always a certain amount of disappointment. So then, dear friends, does not this confirm what we heard the Apostle Peter say? Every human being finds himself sooner or later saying what he said: "To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life". Only Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God and of Mary, the eternal Word of the Father born two thousand years ago at Bethlehem in Judaea, is capable of satisfying the deepest aspirations of the human heart. 

In Peter's question: "To whom shall we go?" the answer regarding the path to follow is already given. It is the path that leads to Christ. And it is possible to meet the divine Master personally: he is in fact truly present on the altar in the reality of his Body and Blood. In the Eucharistic Sacrifice, we can enter into contact with the person of Jesus in a way that is mysterious but real, drinking at the inexhaustible fountain that is his life as the Risen Lord.

4. This is the stupendous truth, dear friends: the Word, who took flesh two thousand years ago, is present today in the Eucharist. That is why the year of the Great Jubilee, in which we are celebrating the mystery of the Incarnation, had to be an "intensely Eucharistic" year as well (cf. Tertio Millennio Adveniente, 55).

The Eucharist is the sacrament of the presence of Christ, who gives himself to us because he loves us. He loves each one of us in a unique and personal way in our practical daily lives: in our families, among our friends, at study and work, in rest and relaxation. He loves us when he fills our days with freshness, and also when, in times of suffering, he allows trials to weigh upon us: even in the most severe trials, he lets us hear his voice.

Yes, dear friends, Christ loves us and he loves us for ever! He loves us even when we disappoint him, when we fail to meet his expectations for us. He never fails to embrace us in his mercy. How can we not be grateful to this God who has redeemed us, going so far as to accept the foolishness of the Cross? To God who has come to be at our side and has stayed with us to the end?

5. To celebrate the Eucharist, "to eat his flesh and drink his blood", means to accept the wisdom of the Cross and the path of service. It means that we signal our willingness to sacrifice ourselves for others, as Christ has done.

Our society desperately needs this sign, and young people need it even more so, tempted as they often are by the illusion of an easy and comfortable life, by drugs and pleasure-seeking, only to find themselves in a spiral of despair, meaninglessness and violence. It is urgent to change direction and to turn to Christ. This is the way of justice, solidarity and commitment to building a society and a future worthy of the human person. 

This is our Eucharist, this is the answer that Christ wants from us, from you young people at the closing of your Jubilee. Jesus is no lover of half measures, and he does not hesitate to pursue us with the question: "Will you also go away?" In the presence of Christ, the Bread of Life, we too want to say today with Peter: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (Jn 6:68).

6. Dear friends, when you go back home, set the Eucharist at the centre of your personal life and community life: love the Eucharist, adore the Eucharist and celebrate it, especially on Sundays, the Lord's Day. Live the Eucharist by testifying to God's love for every person.

I entrust to you, dear friends, this greatest of God's gifts to us who are pilgrims on the paths of time, but who bear in our hearts a thirst for eternity. May every community always have a priest to celebrate the Eucharist! I ask the Lord therefore to raise up from among you many holy vocations to the priesthood. Today as always the Church needs those who celebrate the Eucharistic Sacrifice with a pure heart. The world must not be deprived of the gentle and liberating presence of Christ living in the Eucharist!

You yourselves must be fervent witnesses to Christ's presence on the altar. Let the Eucharist mould your life and the life of the families you will form. Let it guide all life's choices. May the Eucharist, the true and living presence of the love of the Trinity, inspire in you ideals of solidarity, and may it lead you to live in communion with your brothers and sisters in every part of the world.

In a special way, may sharing in the Eucharist lead to a new flourishing of vocations to the religious life. In this way the Church will have fresh and generous energies for the great task of the new evangelization. If any of you, dear young men and women, hear the Lord's inner call to give yourselves completely to him in order to love him "with an undivided heart" (cf. 1 Cor 7:34), do not be held back by doubts or fears. Say "yes" with courage and without reserve, trusting him who is faithful to his promises. Did he not assure those who had left everything for his sake that they would have a hundredfold in this life and eternal life hereafter? (cf. Mk 10:29-30).

7. At the end of this World Youth Day, as I look at you now, at your young faces, at your genuine enthusiasm, from the depths of my heart I want to give thanks to God for the gift of youth, which continues to be present in the Church and in the world because of you.

Thank God for the World Youth Days! Thanks be to God for all the young people who have been involved in them in the past sixteen years! Many of them are now adults who continue to live their faith in their homes and work-places. I am sure, dear friends, that you too will be as good as those who preceded you. You will carry the proclamation of Christ into the new millennium. When you return home, do not grow lax. Reinforce and deepen your bond with the Christian communities to which you belong. From Rome, from the City of Peter and Paul, the Pope follows you with affection and, paraphrasing Saint Catherine of Siena's words, reminds you: "If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze!" (cf. Letter 368).

I look with confidence to this new humanity which you are now helping to prepare. I look to this Church which in every age is made youthful by the Spirit of Christ and today is made happy by your intentions and commitment. I look to the future and make my own the words of an ancient prayer, which sings the praise of the one gift of Jesus, the Eucharist and the Church:

"I give thanks to you, Father of us all, 
for the life and the knowledge 
which you have revealed to us through Jesus your servant. 
To you be glory in every age!
Just as this bread now broken 
was wheat scattered far and wide upon the hills 
and, when harvested, became one bread, 
so too let your Church be gathered into your kingdom 
from the far ends of the earth...
You, O Lord almighty, have created the universe 
to the glory of your name; 
you have given people food 
and drink for their comfort, 
so that they may give you thanks; 
but to us you have given a spiritual food and drink 
and eternal life through your Son... 
Glory be to you for ever!" (Didache 9:3-4; 10:3-4)

Amen.
 
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God Bless you all till next time,

Mary in Galway

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Two little reminders again for this week - Eucharistic Adoration for Vocations, let's try and make it 1,000,000 hours of Adoration in 2004! You can log in your hours online at their own website below or do as we did here in our Perpetual Adoration Chapel, print off the poster and the forms and leave them in your own Chapel of Adoration, sending in the numbers every week via the website below.

http://www.circleofprayer.com/vocations-poster.html
http://www.circleofprayer.com/vocations-form.html

Here's the Vocations website:

And don't forget those prayers for the Holy Souls, there are some below. Please keep your deceased relatives, friends, neighbours and especially those who have no one to pray for them, in your prayers and at Masses you attend.

Here's the Holy Souls Crusade website.

And below is a great little morning prayer to start the day off and help us to keep focused on the Lord.

May God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit bless you and yours and may Mary keep you in Her heavenly mother's care.

Mary Mullins in Galway, Ireland

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Morning Offerings

Our Father Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen

Lord Jesus, I give You my hands to do Your work
I give You my feet to go Your way.
I give You my eyes to see as You do.
I give You my tongue to speak Your words.
I give You my mind that You may think in me.
I give You my spirit that You may pray in me.
Above all, I give You my heart that You may love in me, Your Father, and all mankind.
I give You my whole self that You may grow in me, so that it is You, Lord Jesus, who live and work and pray in me. Amen.

"Breathe in me O Holy Spirit that my thoughts may all be holy;
Act in me O Holy Spirit that my work, too, may be holy;
Strengthen me O Holy Spirit to defend all that is holy;
Guard me then O Holy Spirit that I may always be holy."

"O Holy Spirit, beloved of my soul, I adore You. Enlighten me, guide me, strengthen me, console me, tell me what I should do. Give me Your orders. I promise to submit myself to all that You desire of me and to accept all that You permit to happen to me. Let me only know Your will. Amen"

Chaplet of the Holy Souls

This Chaplet can be prayed on a set of Rosary Beads.

Begin with: The Creed, then 1 Our Father, 3 Hail Marys, 1 Glory Be for the Pope's intentions.

On Large Beads Pray: 

O holy souls draw the fire of God's Love into my soul to reveal Jesus crucified in me, here on earth, rather than hereafter in Purgatory.

On Small Beads Pray:

Crucified Lord Jesus have mercy on the souls in Purgatory

End with: Glory Be three times

Cardinal Newman's Prayer for the Holy Souls

O most gentle heart of Jesus, ever present in the Blessed Sacrament, ever consumed with burning love for the poor captive souls in Purgatory, have mercy on the souls of Your servants. Bring them from the shadows of exile to Your bright home in Heaven, where we trust You and Your Blessed Mother have woven for them a crown of unfolding bliss. Amen.

Prayer of St. Gertrude for the Holy Souls

Eternal Father, I offer you the Most Precious Blood of your Divine Son, Jesus, in union with all the masses said throughout the world today for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the Universal Church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen."

Prayer for Your Family

"O Dear Jesus, I humbly implore You to grant Your special graces to our family this day. In Your Divine Mercy make our home a shrine of peace, love and faith. I beg You, Dear Jesus, to protect and bless all of us and our families absent and present, living and dead. O Mary loving Mother of Jesus and our Mother, pray to Jesus the Divine Mercy for our family, and for all the families of the world. Ask Him to guard the tiny infant in the womb, the cradle of the newborn, the young in the schools and those about to start their vocations in life. Amen"

Prayer for Your Adult Children

"Heavenly Mother, keep us always in mind of Your Son's great mercy and understanding as we pray for our children. They are grown up now and have left us and are living their own lives according to their own ideals. We feel anxious and worried because they do not seem to feel the need for Christ, to understand the wisdom of His ways, or to be fully at ease with us or themselves. Intervene, dearest Mother, in their lives at the moment You know to be right and help them to understand the things that lead to their peace. Help them to see the need of Christ and to experience the greatness of His love, so that we may all proclaim as You did, that His mercy truly is from generation to generation. Amen"

Prayer to Saint Joseph, Patron Saint of Families

"Good Saint Joseph, Your life and love protected and nourished the Mother of God and Jesus Christ, her son. Your fatherly care led to maturity He through whom all creation began. Through your intercession, may God guide and protect all human life from conception to natural death, and lead our nation in the ways of truth and love. Pray for us, good Saint Joseph, that joined with Christ Jesus, we might give praise to God forever.  Amen"

ACT OF CONSECRATION TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS & THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary, I consecrate myself and my whole family to You. We consecrate to You our very being and all our life, all that we are, all that we have and all that we love. To you we give our bodies, our hearts and our souls. To You we dedicate our home and our country.

Mindful of this consecration we now promise you to live the Christian way by the practice of Christian virtues without regard for human respect. O most Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary accept our humble confidence and this act of consecration by which we entrust ourselves and our family to you. In you we put all our hope, we shall never be confounded. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus have mercy on us. Immaculate Heart of Mary pray for us.

Prayer for the World

"JESUS of NAZARETH has triumphed over Death. His Reign is Eternal. He is coming to conquer the world and the time.

"Mercy, my God on those who blaspheme You,
Forgive them, they know not what they do.

"Mercy, my God, for the scandal in the world,
Deliver them from the spirit of Satan.

"Mercy, my God, on those who run away from You
Give them an appreciation for the Holy Eucharist.

"Mercy, my God, on those who come to repent at the foot of the Glorious Cross. May they find Peace and Joy in God our Saviour.

"Mercy, my God, so that Your Kingdom may come, but save souls, there is still time; for the time is near, behold, I am coming. 
Amen

Come, Lord Jesus."

Recite one decade of the Rosary

"Lord, pour out on the whole world the treasures of Your Infinite Mercy."

"Through the Mystery of Your Holy Incarnation,
deliver us from all evil, Lord.

Through Your Nativity,
deliver us from all evil, Lord.

Through Your Baptism and Holy Fasting,
deliver us from all evil, Lord.

Through Your Cross and Passion,
deliver us from all evil, Lord.

Through Your Death and Burial,
deliver us from all evil, Lord.

Through Your Holy Resurrection,
deliver us from all evil, Lord.

Through Your Admirable Ascension,
deliver us from all evil, Lord.

Through the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete,
deliver us from all evil, Lord.

Through Him whose Name reigns eternal,
deliver us from all evil, Lord."

Prayer of Protection

Blessed Michael the Archangel, protect us in the hour of conflict. Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God restrain him, we humbly pray, and do thou, Oh Prince of the Heavenly Hosts, by the Power of God, thrust satan down to hell and with him all the wicked spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen

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The Current Reflection and all of the Reflections to date are available to read in the Archives on the website for anyone who's interested.

The Prayer Intentions are available in the prayer book on the website but please say the two wee prayers below. The Loving Father knows the heart of each person requesting prayer.

"Father, bless all those who have requested prayers in whatever it is that You know they may be needing this day! Father, we ask You to heal the broken bodies, broken minds, broken spirits, broken hearts and broken marriages and may all their lives be full of Your peace, prosperity, and power as they seek to have a close relationship with You. Amen."

"Thank You Jesus for answering our prayers because we know You hear every prayer and never refuse to answer. You are providing answers and healings from the prayers of all these wonderful people. Praise God!"

May God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit bless and guide you and yours and may Mary keep you in Her heavenly mother's care.

Mary in Galway

'The fruit of silence is prayer; the fruit of prayer is faith; the fruit of faith is love; the fruit of love is service; the fruit of service is peace.' (Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta)