April: Month of the Holy Spirit

Virtue: Patience

Prayer to the Holy Ghost for Priests

O Holy Ghost, Thou Friend of priests, send them daily Thy seven gifts, that they may live worthy of their calling, and become all to all in order to win souls for heaven. Give them patience with children, pity for the sick, humility toward the poor, and generosity toward the enemies of Thy holy Church. Make them active in teaching, untiring in the tribunal of penance, and zealous in distributing Holy Communion. Let them be terrible to the demons of hell and messengers of peace to all who are of good will.

May Thy blessing accompany them wherever they may go; may Thy peace enter with them in the dwellings they may visit; mayest Thou bless all whom they may bless. Make them true apostles and saints. Amen. Come Holy Ghost, a compilation of prayers in honor of the Divine Spirit.

1932 Fr. Lester Martin Dooley.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit by Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier (1851-1926)

"I am going to reveal to you the secret of sanctity and happiness. Every day for five minutes control your imagination and close your eyes to the things of sense and your ears to all the noises of the world in order to enter into yourself Then, in the sanctity of your baptized soul (which is the Temple of the Holy Spirit), speak to that Divine Spirit, saying to Him:

Oh, Holy Spirit, beloved of my soul, I adore You.

Enlighten me, guide me, strengthen me, console me.

Tell me what I should do; give me your orders.

I promise to submit myself to all that You desire of me

and to accept all that You permit to happen to me.

Let me only know Your will. Amen.

If you do this, your life will flow along happily, serenely, and full of consolation, even in the midst of trials. Grace will be proportioned to the trial, giving you the strength to carry it, and you will arrive at the gate of Paradise, laden with merit. This submission to the Holy Spirit is the secret of sanctity."

March: Month of Saint Joseph

Virtue: Mortification

The first step to be taken by one who wishes to follow Christ, is, according to our Lord's own words, that of renouncing himself, that is, his own senses, his own passions, his own will, his own judgment, and all the movements of nature, making to God a sacrifice of all these things, and of all their acts, which are surely sacrifices very acceptable to the Lord. And we must never grow weary of this; for if anyone, having, so to speak, one foot already in heaven, should abandon this exercise, when the time should come for him to put the other there, he would run much risk of being lost.— St. Vincent de Paul.

St. Joseph, (Mother of Mercy Catholic Church, Washington, NC)

Prayer to St. Joseph for Persecuted Priests

Dearest St. Joseph, be the protector and defender of those priests undergoing persecution for being faithful to their Lord and Sovereign Priest, Jesus Christ. See in them the image of thy beloved child, and cherish them with that tender solicitude which God places in Thy paternal heart. Obtain for them the good graces of thy Queen and Spouse, for such graces of predilection will surely lighten their burdens and render their crosses sweet. Amen.

  ●   To St. Joseph for a Particular Priest
  ●   Prayer to Saint Joseph for the Church
  ●   Illustrious Patriarch
  ●   Prayer to St. Joseph Patron and Protector of the Universal Church
  ●   Prayer to Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Virgin Mary and Patron of the Holy Church

Holy Family, Saint Joseph Catholic Church Raleigh NC ©CAPG

February: Month of the Holy Family

A prayer to the Holy Family for the fulfillment of our Christian duties.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, bless us and grant us the grace to love our Holy Church as we ought above all earthly things, and to show our love for it always and with the evidence of deeds. Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be to the Father

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, bless us and grant us the grace to profess, as we ought, openly, with courage and without human respect, the faith we received as a gift with holy baptism. Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be to the Father

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, bless us and grant us the grace to co-operate in the defense and propagation of the faith, as we ought, in the manner proper to us, by means of our words, our substance, and even the sacrifice of life itself. Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be to the Father

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, bless us and grant us the grace to bring our life, as we ought, into perfect conformity with the precepts of the law of God and of the church, that so we may always live by the charity of which they are the expression. Amen. The New Raccolta 1903 Pope Leo XIII, May 17, 1890

Virtue: Humility

O, to have dwelt in Bethlehem

When the star of the Lord shone bright!

To have sheltered the Holy wanderers

on that blessed Christmas night;

Tho have kissed the tender way worn feet

Of the Mother undefiled,

And with reverent wonder and deep delight,

To have tended the Holy Child!

Hush! such a glory was not for Thee;

But that care may still be Thine;

For are there not little ones still to aide

For the sake of the Child divine?

Are there no wandering pilgrims now

To thy heart and thy home to take?

And are there no mothers whose weary hearts

You can comfort for Mary's sake?

The best wish I can make is that you may obtain from God, not what you wish, but what He wishes for you. St. Francois de Sales

Devotion for the month of January: Holy Childood

Prayer to the Holy Infant for priests:
Jesus, Divine Infant, I bless and thank Your most loving Heart for the institution of the priesthood. Priests are sent by You, as You were sent by the Father. To them You entrusted the treasures of Your doctrine, of Your Law, of Your Grace, and souls themselves.
Grant me the grace to love them, to listen to them, and to let myself be guided by them in Your ways. Jesus, send good laborers into Your harvest. May priests be the salt that purifies and preserves; may they be the light of the world; may they be the city placed on the mountain. May they all be formed after Your own Heart. And in heaven may they be surrounded by a joyous throng of those they shepherded on earth. Amen.
Glory Be three times. Infant Jesus, make me love You more and more!

Virtue for the month of January: Perfection

"Be  ye  perfect  as your  Heavenly  Father  is  perfect." St.  Matt., v: 48. 

To  be  perfect  in  one's  vocation,  is  nothing  else  than  to perform the  duties  and  offices  to  which  one  is  obliged,  solely  for  the  honor and  love  of  God,  referring  all  to  His  glory.  Whoever  works  in  this manner,  may  be  called  perfect  in  his  state,  a  man according  to  the heart  and  will  of  God.— St.  Francis  de  Sales. 

Devotion for the Month of December:  the Immaculate Conception

Virtue for the month of September: Union

Qui manet in eharitate, in Deo manet, et Deus in eo — Whoabidethin charity, abideth in God, and God in him. — I John, iv : 16.

 The object of all virtues is to bring us into union with God, in which alone is laid up all the happines that can be enjoyed in this world. Now, in what does ibis unioa properly consist ? In nothing save a perfect conformity and resemblance between our will and the will of God, so that these two wills are absolutely alike — there is nothing in one repugnant to the otber ; all that one wishes and loves, the other wishes and loves ; whatever pleases or displeases one, pleases or displeases the other. — St. John of the Cross.

December's Poetry:

December thou wert named              
By whom the wise remember
As fighting warrior famed
To fill Ambition's blighting.

Thy frozen runes appear,
As slanting sun has chosen,
Directing icy cheer
And life of Bloom dissecting.

The smitten hearts are sad
By wind and cold much bitten,
But cheerful is and glad
The soul of bliss less fearful.

Thy mornings shine not bright
Nor fill the daytime yearnings,
Yet glory's thy delight
And shows the festive stories.

The purest feast of her
Who was of bliss the surest
Engages days that stir
The virtuous of all ages.

Thy sainted list is grand
As Nature white is painted
In glowings joys that stand
Above all human knowing.

The manger saw the Light
The inn foretold a danger,
And heaven, in the night,
Announced the saving Leaven.

The Glorious of the meek,
Who spent His days laborious,
Remembers them who seek 
His love in sorrow's embers.

First Martyr, John, and they
Who gave their life as charter
The hated sword to stay
Are in they rolls related.

Let cherished be thy days!
Thought Nature now has perished,
December still we praise 
Our birthright to remember.

Rev. T.F. Kramer, C.PP.S.

1923  Messenger of the Most Precious Blood, Volumes 28-29

"Oh, my friends, let us pray much, and let obtain many prayers from others, for the poor dead; the good God will render us back the good we do to them a hundredfold. Ah! if every one knew how useful this devotion to the holy souls in purgatory is to those who practice it, they would not be forgotten so often; the good God regards all that we do for them as if it were done to Himself." -- St. John Mary Vianney (Blessed Sacrament Book, Fr. Francis X. Lasance)

Devotion for the month of November: Souls in Purgatory

Virtue of the month of November: Charity

This is the first and greatest commandment: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart; but the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Matthew, xxii: 88

"My God and my Lord! What need was there of commanding us to love Thee? Art Thou not most lovely in Thy infinite perfections? and for the infinite love Thou bearest to us, dost Thou not deserve our love? How, then, is it possible that any one should not love Thee? if there is such a person, it must be because he has not deserved to know Thee. For, a soul that knows God, cannot help loving Him, and loving Him in proportion to his knowledge of Him; so that is he loves Him but little, it  is a sign that he knows Him but little; and the more his knowledge increases, the more his love will go on growing. St. Teresa."

"Among all those who are included under the title of neighbor, there are none who deserve it more, in one sense, that those of our own household. They are nearest of all of us, living under the same roof, and eating the same bread. Therefore, they ought to be one the principal objects of our love, and we should practice in regard to them all the acts of true charity, which ought to be founded not in flesh and blood, or upon their good qualities, but altogether upon God. St. Francis de Sales"

November's Daily Thoughts:

November's leaden skies are stretched above the fields
That Autumn's sun from flaming gold turned gray;
How faint they gleam in gossamered delight that yields
The grandeurs of Saint Martin's summer day.
True hearts are awed, yet fain, to see that Nature died;
True souls rejoice to know that not in vain they sighed.

As verdure passed, so man who is of earth, but part,
Lays down his life like wilted garden blooms,
And flowered clay, like pall, enshrouds the frozen heart,
But not the soul that Justice then illumes.
What naught was held, is vivid splotch in vision pure,
And in the purgatorial flames finds cleaning cure.

Like babes, they helpless mourn to burn away their stains,
And know beyond the bars beams heaven's light
That God will show, like sun-lit sheen, when pardon reigns.
While yet our days are clear, they live in night;
The merits of Christ-blest November's daily prayer.
Rev. T.F. Kramer, C.PP.S.

1923  Messenger of the Most Precious Blood, Volumes 28-29

Only two means are left to save Her (the Church) amidst so much confusion: Frequent Communion and Devotion to Mary most holy, making use of every means and doing our best to practice them and having them practiced everywhere and by everybody. -- Don Bosco

Devotion for the month of October: Rosary for the Sanctification of Priests

Virtue of the month of October: Confidence

Whoever serves God with a pure heart, and, setting aside all individual and human interests, seeks only His glory, has reason to hope for success in all he does, and especially under circumstances, when, according to human Judgment, there is no help ; for the divine works are above the sight of human prudence, and depend upon a loftier principle. — St. Charles Borromeo