S E P T E M B E R
A Prayer in Time of Debt
ALMIGHTY, everlasting God, we beg of You to help us soon to pay off our debts to our fellowmen. Give us strength and courage to persevere until the last penny is paid. Give patience to those to whom we are in debt, and let them not treat us unjustly. Help us have great confidence in You and in the workings of Your providence, trusting that You will always direct things to our greatest good.
Make us also fully realize that no debt to our fellowmen can begin to equal the debt that we owe You on account of our sins, to say nothing of the immense debt we owe You for the gifts of Your divine grace. These we could never pay at all but for the coming of Your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. To Him be all honor and thanksgiving, now and forever. Amen.
Saint Francis of Assisi's Prayer for Peace
(Feast of the Stigmata, September 17)
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
That where there is hatred I may bring love,
That where there is wrong--I may bring the spirit of forgiveness,
That where there is discord--I may bring harmony,
That where there is error--I may bring truth,
That where there is doubt--I may bring faith.
That where there is despair--I may bring hope,
That where there are shadows--I may bring Your light,
That where there is sadness--I may bring Joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort--than to be comforted;
To understand--than to be understood;
To love--than to be loved:
For it is by giving--that one receives;
It is by self-forgetting--that one finds;
It is by forgiving--that one is forgiven;
It is by dying--that one awakens to eternal life.
A Prayer to the North American Martyrs
(Feast, September 26)
DEAR Saints Isaac Jogues, John Brebeuf, Noel Chabanel, Gabriel Lalemant, Anthony Daniel, Charles Garnier, Rene Goupil and John Lalande, we beg of you, pray for the people of this vast country ours.
You are the first canonized saints of the United States and Canada. We are glad to have you. We are happy to honor you. You know our country and its needs, and we know you are in heaven praying for us.
There is one very special favor we wish to ask of you. Dear Saints of North America, pray God to send us another saint, or better still, a number of them. Ask Him to have soon--a man or a woman, a boy or a girl from this country of ours raised to the honors of the altar. Let it be a farmer or a laborer, a housewife or a schoolboy, born and bred in these United States. Let it be some one who lived his whole life here--a Saint Joseph of Carville County, or a Saint Mary of Middletown, or a Saint William of New York.
We do not wish to displace you in our affections, but to add to your glorious number. You understand our desires in this, and we feel sure that we will obtain this great blessing for the salvation of the people of this land. Remember us now, and obtain this great blessing for us from God. Help us always to cooperate with the graces that God so richly and generously gives us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.