November 2024: Prayers and Reflections
Prayers and Reflections
The Pope’s Monthly Intention
For anyone who has lost a child: We pray that all parents who mourn the loss of a son or daughter find support in their community and receive peace and consolation from the Holy Spirit.
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Prayer for the Dead for November
Into your hands, O Lord,
We humbly entrust our brothers and sisters.
In this life you embraced them with your tender love;
deliver them now from every evil
and bid them enter eternal rest.
The old order has passed away:
welcome them into paradise,
where there will be no sorrow,
no weeping nor pain,
but fullness of peace and joy
with your Son and the Holy Spirit
forever and ever. Amen.
www.catholicbishops.ie
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Winter Road Safety
Bishop Fintan Monahan of Killaloe recommends two prayers to help people change their driving behaviour, and to stay safe on roads across the island:
17th century paidir as Gaeilge
In ainm an Athar le bua,
In ainm an Mhic a d’fhulaing an phian,
In ainm an Spiorad Naoimh le neart,
Muire is a Mac linn inár dtriall.
Áiméan!
A contemporary prayer in the English language
Holy Mother, hear our prayer,
Keep us in your loving care,
Whatever the perils of the way,
Let us not add to them this day.
So to our caution and attention,
We add a prayer for your protection,
To beg God’s blessing on this car,
To travel safely near and far. Amen.
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Saint Martin de Porres (1779-1639) | Memorial 11 October
O Lord Jesus Christ,
Who inflamed the heart of Saint Martin with an ardent love of the poor and Who taught him the wonderful joy of true humility and the wisdom of always submitting to God’s Holy Will, grant that, like him, we may be ever truly humble of heart and full of Christlike charity for suffering humanity.
Amen.
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Excerpts from a ‘Letter to a Young Disciple’ by St Columbanus (543-615) • Feast: 23 November
Be helpful when you are at the bottom of the ladder and be the lowest when you are in authority.
Be simple in faith but well trained in manners.
Be demanding in your own affairs but unconcerned in those of others.
Be guileless in friendship, astute in the face of deceit.
Be tough in times of ease, tender in hard times.
Be pleasant when things are unpleasant, and sorrowful when they are pleasant.
Disagree when necessary, but be in agreement about the truth.
Be slow to anger, swift to learn, slow also to speak, as St James says, equally swift to listen.
Be gentle to the weak, firm to the stubborn, steadfast to the proud, humble to the lowly.
www.holycelticchurch.com
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St Margaret of Scotland, Patroness of Mothers & Learning (1043-93) • Feast: 16 November
Dear St Margaret of Scotland, I turn to you today in need of your intercession. You were known for your deep love of God, your compassion for others, and your commitment to serving others, and I ask that you intercede for me and for all those in need of your help.
Please pray for those who are struggling in their faith, that they may find comfort and hope in their trials. Pray for those who are seeking a deeper relationship with God, that they may find what they are looking for. And pray for all of us, that we may grow in our faith and deepen our own relationships with the Lord. Amen.
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St Laurence O’Toole (1128-1180) • Feast: 14 November
Reflection from Saint Lawrence O’Toole, bishop: ‘I thank God that I have not a penny in the world to dispose of.’ Said on his deathbed when someone asked him if he had made a will.
Prayer
Saint Lawrence O’Toole. You, as a holy and poor bishop, gave all you had to the poor and the needy, putting your trust in God alone. Pray that I may have the same trust in God, despite my financial woes and lacks, that you had. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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