18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

God of majesty, look with compassion upon us, your servants. Raise us up to participation in your heavenly kingdom, that we may pass all our days giving praise to you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Prayer taken from Magnificat—Morning Prayer, Sunday, July 31, 2022.

Photo by Fabrizio Lunardi on Unsplash

Set us afire with Your Love

O God, no power on earth can silence your enduring Word of love, born of the Virgin, put to death on the cross, buried in the earth, raised to eternal glory. Pour forth upon your people the Spirit who set the first disciples afire with your praise and with zeal to proclaim the Gospel. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Prayer taken from Magnificat—Morning Prayer, Saturday, July 30, 2022.

Photo by Elia Mazzaro on Unsplash

Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus

O Lord our God, you have called all those who bear the name of your Son to serve one another and the world around us by the works of faith and love. By the intercession of Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, renew our zeal for the tasks you have given us, that we may serve the coming of your kingdom, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer taken from Magnificat—Morning Prayer, Friday, July 29, 2022.

Guide Along the Right Path

O God, you are our guide and guard along life’s paths. Lead us in the ways of justice and love, righteousness and peace, through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Prayer taken from Magnificat—Morning Prayer, Thursday, July 28, 2022.

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

In a World of Shadows

O God, you have kept your covenant with every generation. In a world shadowed by the many infidelities of frail humanity, grant us faith in your enduring love, through Christ our Lord. Amen

Prayer taken from Magnificat—Morning Prayer, Wednesday, July 27, 2022.

Photo by Na Inho on Unsplash

Rooted and Grounded in Love

God our Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, grant us in accord with the riches of your glory to be strengthened with power through your Spirit in the inner self. Grant that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith; and that, rooted and grounded in love, we may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. (cf. Eph 3:14-19)

Prayer taken from Magnificat—Morning Prayer, Tuesday, July 26, 2022.

Photo by Clint McKoy on Unsplash

Saint James the Apostle

O God and giver of all good gifts, you sent your Apostle James to prepare the earth’s soil to receive the good seed who is your Word made flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ. Through the works of evangelization, prepare all hearts to welcome with joy the Word of life, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen

Prayer taken from Magnificat—Morning Prayer, Monday, July 25, 2022.

Saint Bridget of Sweden

A prayer to Christ our Savior

Blessed are you, my Lord Jesus Christ. You foretold your death and at the Last Supper you marvelously consecrated bread which became your precious body. And then you gave it to your apostles out of love as a memorial of your most holy passion. By washing their feet with your holy hands, you gave them a supreme example of your deep humility.

Honor be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ. Fearing your passion and death, you poured forth blood from your innocent body like sweat, and still you accomplished our redemption as you desired and gave us the clearest proof of your love for all men.

Blessed may you be, my Lord Jesus Christ. After you had been led to Caiaphas, you, the judge of all men, humbly allowed yourself to be handed over to the judgement of Pilate.

Glory be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ, for the mockery you endured when you stood clothed in purple and wearing a crown of sharp thorns. With utmost endurance you allowed vicious men to spit upon your glorious face, blindfold you and beat your cheek and neck with cruelest blows.

Praise be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ. For with the greatest patience, you allowed yourself like an innocent lamb to be bound to a pillar and mercilessly scourged, and then to be brought, covered with blood, before the judgement seat of Pilate to be gazed upon by all.

Honor be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ. For after your glorious body was covered with blood, you were condemned to death on the cross, you endured the pain of carrying the cross on your sacred shoulders, and you were led with curses to the place where you were to suffer. Then stripped of your garments, you allowed yourself to be nailed to the wood of the cross.

Everlasting honor be to you, Lord Jesus Christ. You allowed your most holy mother to suffer so much, even though she had never sinned nor ever even consented to the smallest sin. Humbly you looked down upon her with your gentle loving eyes, and to comfort her you entrusted her to the faithful care of your disciple.

Eternal blessing be yours, my Lord Jesus Christ, because in your last agony you held out to all sinners the hope of pardon, when in your mercy you promised the glory of paradise to the penitent thief.

Eternal praise be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ, for the time you endured on the cross the greatest torments and sufferings for us sinners. The sharp pain of your wounds fiercely penetrated even to your blessed soul and cruelly pierced your most sacred heart till finally you sent forth your spirit in peace, bowed your head, and humbly commended yourself into the hands of God your Father, and your whole body remained cold in death.

Blessed may you be, my Lord Jesus Christ. You redeemed our souls with your precious blood and most holy death, and in your mercy you led them from exile back to eternal life.

Blessed may you be, my Lord Jesus Christ. For our salvation you allowed your side and heart to be pierced with a lance; and from that side water and your precious blood flowed out abundantly for our redemption.

Glory be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ. You allowed your blessed body to be taken down from the cross by your friends and laid in the arms of your most sorrowing mother, and you let her wrap your body in a shroud and bury it in a tomb to be guarded by soldiers.

Unending honor be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ. On the third day you rose from the dead and appeared to those you had chosen. And after forty days you ascended into heaven before the eyes of many witnesses, and there in heaven you gathered together in glory those you love, whom you had freed from hell.

Rejoicing and eternal praise be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ, who sent the Holy Spirit into the hearts of your disciples and increased the boundless love of God in their spirits.

Blessed are you and praiseworthy and glorious forever, my Lord Jesus. You sit upon your throne in your kingdom of heaven, in the glory of your divinity, living in the most holy body you took from a virgin’s flesh. So will you appear on that last day to judge the souls of all the living and the dead; you who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

Photo — A statue (c.1470) by the Master of Soeterbeeck. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Saint Mary Magdalene

O God of glory and of love, Mary Magdalene stood by the cross of your Son Jesus Christ and witnessed the wonder of his Resurrection. Through her example and her prayer, inspire all those whom you have brought to new life in the waters of baptism with the zeal to ­proclaim the Gospel in freedom and in joy. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen

Prayer taken from Magnificat—Morning Prayer, Friday, July 22, 2022.

TRUST

O Lord our God, you sent into the midst of faithless humanity the living Bread, your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to nourish and strengthen us on the road. Through the mystery of the cross you poured forth upon us the Spirit, the water of life. Have mercy on our lack of trust, and lead us in your ways today, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer taken from Magnificat—Morning Prayer, Thursday, July 21, 2022.

Photo by Ronda Dorsey on Unsplash