Welcome to the Athboy Parish Prayer Space
Prayer is an essential and life giving part of our faith. Spontaneous prayer together with traditional prayers are important in our lives. One can be enriched by the other and our faith can be helped to grow and develop by using both.
This space is dedicated to prayers, scripture and inspirational thoughts that you may find useful.
PRAYER TO THE HOLY SPIRIT
We come before you, Holy Spirit,
conscious of our sinfulness,
but aware that we gather in your name.
Come to us, remain with us,
and enlighten our hearts.
Give us light and strength to know your will,
to make it our own and to live it in our lives.
Guide us by your wisdom,
support us by your power,
for you are God,
sharing the glory of the Father and Son.
Unite us to yourself in the bond of love
and keep us faithful to all that is true.
You live and reign,
with the Father and the Son
one God,
forever and ever. Amen
HOLY SPIRIT,
give me wisdom and the courage of my convictions,
as I make life decisions today and every day.
Some may be simple, others complex,
but all require honesty and quiet reflection.
I pray that, with your help and guidance,
my heart will be open to God’s will
in whatever choices I am asked to make.
Amen
PRAYER BEFORE EXAMS
Dear Lord, sometimes I feel a little strange praying to you because of an exam. It doesn’t really seem all that significant when you consider the “big picture.” But right now, the test looms so large that it is all I see before me. I pray to you for three things: – the strength to handle the pressure that I feel, – the confidence to feel secure in my knowledge and preparation, – and the ability to keep an appropriate perspective on it all. Help me to keep in mind what is really important, even as I focus all of my time and energy on this test in the immediate future. Amen.
PRAYER FOR THOSE DOING EXAMS
Lord pour out your spirit of Wisdom on those students doing exams.
Help them to remain calm, to attend carefully to the questions asked,
to think clearly, to remember accurately and to express themselves.
Grant that they may reflect the best of the work they have done
and the best of teaching they have received.
Accept their best efforts in these examinations
and in the great test of life on Earth.
May your love be upon them, O Lord,
as they place their trust in you. Amen.
THE NOVENA TO THE SACRED HEART
O Divine Jesus, who said,
“Ask and you shall receive”,
I kneel at your feet.
From whom shall I ask if not from you,
whose heart is the source of all blessings.
With a lively faith in you, I come to ask…
Share your petitions silently with the Sacred Heart.
I admit I am most unworthy of your favours, Jesus,
but this is not a reason for me to be discouraged.
You are the God of mercies
and you will not refuse a contrite heart.
Look with pity on me,
I beg you, and your compassionate Heart
will find in my weakness a motive for granting my request.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on me. Amen.
TO MARY FOR THE SICK
Mary, health of the sick,
be at the bedside of all the world’s sick people;
of those who are unconscious and dying;
of those who have begun their agony;
Of those who have abandoned all hope of a cure;
Of those who weep and cry out in pain;
Of those who cannot receive care because they are poor;
of those who need to be resting;
but who are forced to work;
for those who seek in vain for a less painful position in their beds;
for those who pass long nights sleepless;
of those who are tormented by the cares of a family in distress;
of those who must renounce their plans for the future;
of those, above all,
who do not believe in a better life;
of those who rebel and curse God;
of those who do not know that Christ suffered like them and for them.
PRAYER TO THE VIRGIN MARY AFTER HOLY COMMUNION
Mary, Holy Virgin Mother,
I have received your Son, Jesus Christ,
With love you became his mother,
gave birth to him, nursed him,
and helped him grow to manhood.
With love I return him to you,
to hold once more,
to love with all your heart,
and to offer to the Holy Trinity
as our supreme act of worship
for your honour and
for all the good of all pilgrim brothers and sisters.
Mother, ask God to forgive my sins
and to help me serve him more faithfully.
Keep me true to Christ until death,
and let me come to praise him with you
for ever and ever. Amen.
POPE FRANCIS’ PRAYER TO OUR LADY UNDOER OF KNOTS
Holy Mary, full of presence during the days of your life,
you accepted with full humility and Father’s will
and the Devil was never capable of distracting you with his confusion.
Once with your Son you interceded for our difficulties
and full of kindness and patience
you gave us an example of how to untie the knots of our life.
By remaining forever Our Mother,
you make it more clear how to put in order
the ties that link us to the Lord.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, and our Mother,
to you, who untie with motherly love the knots of our life,
we pray to you to receive into your hands (the name of the person)
and to free him/her of the knots and confusion
with which the enemy attacks him/her.
Through your grace,
your intercession and your example,
deliver us from all evil and untie the knots that prevent us from being united with God,
so that we, free from sin and error,
may find Him in all things,
and that we may place our hearts in Him,
and may serve Him always in our brothers and sisters. Amen
Prayer to Our Lady
O Mary, my Mother and my hope,
I take refuge under your mantle.
There I will live and die.
Deliver me from sin and grant me your holy blessings. Amen
My Rosary
What comfort just to clasp it, my rosary so dear.
Each mystery brings fresh courage and drives away all fear.
In prayer so oft repeated, yet never growing old,
I read the wondrous story of God’s love untold.
Each chaplet forms a garland, to place at Mary’s feet.
Fair buds and full bloom roses, exhaling fragrance sweet.
The crucifix which crowns it, reminds me, day by day
Bravely to bear my crosses along earth’s rugged way.
I hope when life is ended and death shall set me free,
Still twined around my fingers will be my rosary.