June 2023: Prayers and Reflections
Prayers and Reflections
June 2023
The Pope’s Monthly Intention
For the abolition of torture: We pray that the international community may commit in a concrete way to ensuring the abolition of torture and guarantee support to victims and their families.
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World Day of Prayer for Priests
16 June 2023
Prayer of St Thérèse of the Child Jesus
O Jesus, I pray for your faithful and fervent priests;
for your unfaithful and tepid priests;
for your priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields;
for your tempted priests;
for your lonely and desolate priests;
for your young priests;
for your dying priests;
for the souls of your priests in purgatory.
But above all, I recommend to you the priests dearest to me:
the priest who baptised me;
the priests who absolved me from my sins;
the priests at whose Masses I assisted and who gave me your Body and Blood in Holy Communion;
the priests who taught and instructed me;
all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way (especially …).
O Jesus, keep them all close to your heart,
and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity.
Amen.
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St Columba (521-597 AD)
Feast 9 June
Be thou a bright flame before me,
be thou a guiding star above me,
be thou a smooth path below me,
be thou a kindly shepherd behind me,
today, tonight and forever.
Attributed to St Columba
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Prayer to St Anthony of Padua (1195-1231)
Patron of the poor and a Doctor of the Church, asking for his aid, particularly in finding lost articles.
Feast 13 June
Saint Anthony, perfect imitator of Jesus, who received from God the special power of restoring lost things, grant that I may find (mention your petition) which has been lost. At least restore to me peace and tranquility of mind, the loss of which has afflicted me even more than my material loss.
To this favor I ask another of you: that I may always remain in possession of the true good that is God. Let me rather lose all things than lose God, my supreme good. Let me never suffer the loss of my greatest treasure, eternal life with God. Amen.
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St Kevin of Glendalough (498-618 AD)
Feast 3 June
It is said that once upon a time St Kevin was kneeling with his arms stretched out in the form of a cross in Glendalough … As Kevin knelt and prayed, a blackbird mistook his outstretched hand for some kind of roost and swooped down upon it, laid a clutch of eggs in it and proceeded to nest in it as if it were the branch of a tree. Then, overcome with pity and constrained by his faith to love all creatures great and small, Kevin stayed immobile for hours and days and nights and weeks, holding out his hand until the eggs hatched and the fledging grew wings, true to life if subversive of common sense, at the intersection of natural process and the glimpsed ideal, at one and the same time a signpost and a reminder. Manifesting that order of poetry where we can at last grow up to that which we stored up as we grew.
Seamus Heaney
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An Exam Prayer
Lord, I know you are with me and love me. Give me peace of mind as I prepare for this time of study. Help me to focus on my books and notes. Keep me from all distractions so that I will make the best use of this time that is available to me. Give me insight that I might understand what I am studying and help me to remember it when the time comes. Above all, I thank you for the ability to be able to study and for the many gifts and talents you have given me. Help me always to use them in such a way that they honour you and do justice to myself. Amen
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