July-August 2023: Prayers and Reflections
Prayers and Reflections
July – August 2023
The Pope’s Monthly Intention
July – For a Eucharistic life: We pray that Catholics may place the celebration of the Eucharist at the heart of their lives, transforming human relationships in a very deep way and opening to the encounter with God and all their brothers and sisters.
August – For World Youth Day: We pray the World Youth Day in Lisbon will help young people to live and witness the Gospel in their own lives.
* * *
World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly
23 July
Prayer for Grandparents (Pope Benedict)
Lord Jesus, you were born of the Virgin Mary, the daughter of Saints Joachim and Anne. Look with love on grandparents the world over. Protect them! They are a source of enrichment for families, for the Church and for all of society. Support them! As they grow older, may they continue to be for their families strong pillars of Gospel faith, guardian of noble domestic ideals, living treasuries of sound religious traditions. Make them teachers of wisdom and courage, that they may pass on to future generations the fruits of their mature human and spiritual experience. Lord Jesus, help families and society to value the presence and roles of grandparents. May they never be ignored or excluded, but always encounter respect and love. Help them to live serenely and to feel welcomed in all the years of life which you give them. Mary, Mother of all the living, keep grandparents constantly in your care, accompany them on their earthly pilgrimage, and by your prayers, grant that all families may one day be reunited in our heavenly homeland, where you await all humanity for the great embrace of live without end. Amen
* * *
St Benedict (548-547) Father of Monasticism – Patron of Europe
11 JulyThe sleepy like to make excuses.’
‘Be careful to be gentle, lest in removing the rust, you break the whole instrument.’
‘Prayer ought to be short and pure, unless it be prolonged by the inspiration of Divine grace.’
‘Idleness is an enemy of the soul.’
‘One who never stops talking cannot avoid falling into sin.’
‘Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ, for He is going to say, ‘I came as a guest, and you received Me’
(Matt. 25:35).
* * *
St Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
31 July
We must speak to God as a friend speaks to a friend, now asking some favour, now acknowledging our faults and communicating to Him all that concerns us, our thoughts, our fears, our projects, our desires, and in all things seek His counsel.
* * *
Official Prayer for World Youth Day 2023, Lisbon, Portugal
1-6 August
The official prayer for World Youth Day Lisbon 2023 was presented on Saturday, 21 November, Memorial of the Presentation of Mary.
Our Lady of the Visitation,
you who left in haste towards the mountain to meet Elizabeth,
lead us also to meet all those who await us
to deliver them the living Gospel:
Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord!
We will go in a hurry, with no distraction or delay,
but with readiness and joy.
We will go peacefully, because those who take Christ take peace,
and welldoing is the best wellbeing.
Our Lady of the Visitation,
with your inspiration, this World Youth Day
will be the mutual celebration of the Christ we take, as You once did.
Make it a time of testimony and sharing,
fraternisation, and giving thanks,
each of us looking for the others who always wait.
With you, we will continue on this path of gathering,
so that our world will gather as well,
in fraternity, justice and peace.
Help us, Our Lady of the Visitation,
to bring Christ to everyone, obeying the Father, in the love of the Spirit!
* * *
St Clare of Assisi (1193-1253)
11 August
Happy the soul to whom it is given to attain life with Christ, to cleave with all one’s heart to him whose beauty all the heavenly hosts behold forever, whose love inflames our love, the contemplation of whom is our refreshment, whose graciousness is our delight, whose gentleness fills us to overflowing, whose remembrance makes us glow with happiness, whose fragrance revives the dead, the glorious vision of whom will be the happiness of all the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem. For he is the brightness of eternal glory, the splendor of eternal light, the mirror without spot.’