Star of Heaven
The town of Coimbra (Portugal) having been visited by a violent pestilence, the nuns of St. Clare offered their prayers in the following form, whereupon the contagion instantly ceased. This ancient holy prayer, left to the above-named monastery, has preserved many places from contagion where it is recited daily with confidence in God and the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It has arrested this scourge in many places. The prayer is known as Stella Coeli (Star of Heaven).
Stella Coeli
The Star of Heaven that nourished the Lord drove away the plague of death which the first parents of man brought into the world. May this bright Star now vouchsafe to extinguish that foul constellation whose battles have slain the people with the wound of death. O most pious Star of the Sea, preserve us from pestilence; hear us, O Lady, for Thy Son honors Thee by denying Thee nothing. Save us, O Jesus, for whom Thy Virgin Mother supplicates Thee.
V: Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.
R: That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray
O God of mercy, God of pity, God of benign clemency, Thou Who hast had compassion on the affliction of Thy people, and hast said to the angel striking them, “Stop thy hand;” for the love of this glorious Star, whose breasts Thou didst sweetly drink as antidote for our crimes, grant the assistance of Thy grace, that we may be safely freed from all pestilence, and from unprovided death; and mercifully save us from the gulf of eternal perdition: through Thee, Lord Jesus Christ, King of Glory, who lives and reigns, world without end. Amen.
May God bless us and keep us.
May the prayers of the Blessed Mother protect us in this time of Agony!
Love and Prayers!
Father George
“Master, the One You Love is Ill.”
At this time in our lives, Martha’s words in this Sunday’s Gospel cut to the heart. In our state and nation, round the world, they speak for so many of us right now who are anxious, worried, frightened, and sick.
Many of us know someone, or know of someone, battling COVID-19. My cousin’s wife, and her young friend, mother of a seven-year-old baby, are sick after tending to Covid-19 patients in the city of New York. We all feel helpless. We can only communicate by phone or text or FaceTime, on Facebook or whatever. We’re quarantined, sheltered, cut off, alone under lockdown!
All of us are, in one way or another, crying out to the God who loves us, speaking the same words, asking for intercession: “Master, the one you love is ill.”
We are facing an illness we’ve never known before, fighting with it in ways we have never had done before, grieving in ways we have never grieved before. And into all this comes this Gospel.
The illness in the Gospel didn’t end as Martha expected, Lazarus dies. But to everyone’s amazement, that isn’t the end of the story.
“I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus tells Martha. He challenges her, and every Christian believer, to believe, to have faith, to know hope. To never let go of that simple truth: “Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
And then, to prove his point, to the amazement of all gathered at the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus cries out to his dead friend, who answers Christ’s call by literally rising from the dead, leaving his tomb, and beginning a new life.
Life goes on. Incredibly. Miraculously. By the grace of God.
This past Friday, the Holy Father offered an extraordinary blessing from the Vatican, as we all watched. It was a historic moment of grace: the pope standing before an empty St. Peter’s Square in twilight, as rain fell, raising the monstrance to show Jesus to the world — and offering his blessing.
Earlier in his sermon, Pope Francis said: “This is God’s strength: turning to the good everything that happens to us, even the bad things. He brings serenity into our storms, because with God life never dies.”
The priest Henri Nouwen says: “Jesus said to Lazarus, ‘Live ecstatically. Move out of that place of death and toward life because I am the God who is living. Wherever I am, there is life, there is change, there is growth, there is increase and blossoming and something new. I am going to make everything new.’”
Litany of Supplication
During the solemn hour of prayer led by Pope Francis on March 27, the Holy Father led a special litany.
Open us to hope, O Lord.
Prayer of Intercession to the Virgin of Guadalupe During Corona Epidemic
Holy Virgin of Guadalupe, Queen of the Angels and Mother of the Americas. We fly to you today as your beloved children. We ask you to intercede for us with your Son, as you did at the wedding in Cana. Pray for us, loving Mother, and gain for our nation and world, and for all our families and loved ones, the protection of your holy angels, that we may be spared the worst of this illness. For those already afflicted, we ask you to obtain the grace of healing and deliverance. Hear the cries of those who are vulnerable and fearful, wipe away their tears and help them to trust. In this time of trial and testing, teach all of us in the Church to love one another and to be patient and kind. Help us to bring the peace of Jesus to our land and to our hearts. We come to you with confidence, knowing that you truly are our compassionate mother, health of the sick and cause of our joy. Shelter us under the mantle of your protection, keep us in the embrace of your arms, help us always to know the love of your Son, Jesus. Amen.
Here is Hope
“The message of hope should not be confined to our sacred places but should be brought to everyone. For everyone is in need of reassurance, and if we, who have touched “the Word of life” (1 Jn 1:1) do not give it, who will? How beautiful it is to be Christians who offer consolation, who bear the burdens of others and who offer encouragement: messengers of life in a time of death! In every Galilee, in every area of the human family to which we all belong, and which is part of us – for we are all brothers and sisters – may we bring the song of life!”
- Pope Francis: homily at the Easter Vigil Saturday
Saint Patrick’s Breastplate
I arise today through
God’s strength to pilot me,
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to see before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s host to secure me –
against snares of devils,
against temptations and vices,
against inclinations of nature,
against everyone who shall wish me
ill, afar and anear,
alone and in a crowd...
Christ, be with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit,
Christ where I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
May your salvation, O Lord, be ever with us.
[St Patrick’s Breastplate is a prayer beseeching protection. It is also known as “The Deer’s Cry”, the “Lorica of St Patrick”, or “St Patrick’s Hymn”. Tradition attributes it’s authorship to St Patrick who composed it during his ministry to the people of Ireland in the 5th century.]