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The Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a synthesis of various litanies dating back to the 17th century. The current litany was approved for public use by Pope Leo XIII in 1899, and it includes 33 invocations: one for each year of the life of Christ. Find the full text at: https://www.usccb.org/prayers/litany-sacred-heart-jesus Support Let Us Pray

St. Thérèse of Lisieux, often called "the Little Flower," promised to spend her time in heaven doing good on earth. Though she lived a hidden life, after her death the 24-year-old French Carmelite became a Doctor of the Church and a beloved friend and intercessor for countless Catholics. It is often said that she sends down "showers of roses" to those who ask for her intercession. Join us in prayer: O Little Therese of the Child Jesus, please pick for me a rose from the heavenly gardens and send it to me as a message of love. O Little Flower of Jesus, ask God to grant the favors I now place with confidence in your hands . . (mention in silence here) St. Therese, help me to always believe as you did in God’s great love for me, so that I might imitate your “Little Way” each day. Amen. Support Let Us Pray

Ask St. Christopher, patron of traveling, for his intercession before your next journey! Dear Saint Christopher, protect me today in all my travels along the road’s way. Give your warning sign if danger is near so that I may stop while the path is clear. Be at my window and direct me through when the vision blurs From out of the blue. Carry me safely to my destined place, like you carried Christ in your close embrace. Amen. Support Let Us Pray

Listen to the Salve Regina, sung by Bishop Robert Reed. The Salve Regina is a Marian antiphon composed during the Middle Ages, and it is often prayed at the end of the rosary and during some hours of the Divine Office depending on liturgical season. The Hail, Holy Queen is the English translation of this Latin antiphon. Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae; vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve. Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevae. Ad te suspiramus gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle. Eia ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte. Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende. O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria. English: Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn, then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. Support Let Us Pray

Pray the Hail, Holy Queen prayer, which is the English translation of the Latin Salve Regina. The Hail, Holy Queen is typically prayed at the end of a Rosary. Hail, Holy Queen: Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn, then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God. R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, Who by the working of the Holy Spirit didst prepare both body and soul of the glorious Virgin Mother, Mary, that she might deserve to be made a worthy dwelling for Thy Son, grant that we who rejoice in her memory, may, by her loving intercession, be delivered from present evils and from lasting death, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. Support Let Us Pray

The Litany of Loreto, also called the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, originated in the Middle Ages. The prayer was approved by Pope Sixtus V in 1587, and it is currently the only approved Marian Litany. The Pope has the exclusive ability to add invocations to the Litany, which many have done throughout history. "Loreto" refers to the Holy House of Loreto in Italy, which is believed to be the house where the Blessed Virgin was born and raised. Tradition holds that the house was brought from the Holy Land to Italy in the 13th century. Read more about the Holy House of Loreto here: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/40109/did-angels-really-carry-the-holy-house-of-mary-to-loreto-italy Support Let Us Pray

In his message for the 43rd World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope Benedict XVI encouraged all the faithful to pray this prayer. It invokes God to raise up and sustain vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life: O Father, raise up among Christians abundant and holy vocations to the priesthood, who keep the faith alive and guard the blessed memory of your Son Jesus through the preaching of his word and the administration of the Sacraments, with which you continually renew your faithful. Grant us holy ministers of your altar, who are careful and fervent guardians of the Eucharist, the sacrament of the supreme gift of Christ for the redemption of the world. Call ministers of your mercy, who, through the sacrament of Reconciliation, spread the joy of your forgiveness. Grant, O Father, that the Church may welcome with joy the numerous inspirations of the Spirit of your Son and, docile to His teachings, may she care for vocations to the ministerial priesthood and to the consecrated life. Sustain the Bishops, priests and deacons, consecrated men and women, and all the baptized in Christ, so that they may faithfully fulfill their mission at the service of the Gospel. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen. Mary, Queen of Apostles, pray for us. Support Let Us Pray

Listen to and meditate on this Easter Sunday homily written by St. John Chrysostom, an early Church Father and Doctor of the Church. "Chrysostom" comes from the Greek word meaning "golden-mouthed," and refers to St. John's incredible gift of preaching and public speaking. Support Let Us Pray

The Exsultet, also known as The Proclamation of Easter, is a poetic hymn sung at the beginning of the Easter Vigil to bless the Paschal candle. The Exsultet’s beautiful words express the joy of Christ’s victory over death and recount God’s faithfulness through the ages. Prayerfully listen to the Exsultet sung by Fr. Jonathan Gaspar. Full text of the Exsultet: https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year-and-calendar/easter/easter-proclamation-exsultet Support Let Us Pray

Meditate on this ancient homily for Holy Saturday, written by an unknown author. The sermon refers to Jesus' descent into Hell, which according to Church Tradition was when he preached the Gospel to the dead and delivered the righteous who had died before him. Full text: "What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled. Truly he goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep; he wishes to visit those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains, he who is God, and Adam's son. The Lord goes in to them holding his victorious weapon, his cross. When Adam, the first created man, sees him, he strikes his breast in terror and calls out to all: 'My Lord be with you all.' And Christ in reply says to Adam: ‘And with your spirit.’ And grasping his hand he raises him up, saying: ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light. ‘I am your God, who for your sake became your son, who for you and your descendants now speak and command with authority those in prison: Come forth, and those in darkness: Have light, and those who sleep: Rise. ‘I command you: Awake, sleeper, I have not made you to be held a prisoner in the underworld. Arise from the dead; I am the life of the dead. Arise, O man, work of my hands, arise, you who were fashioned in my image. Rise, let us go hence; for you in me and I in you, together we are one undivided person. ‘For you, I your God became your son; for you, I the Master took on your form; that of slave; for you, I who am above the heavens came on earth and under the earth; for you, man, I became as a man without help, free among the dead; for you, who left a garden, I was handed over to Jews from a garden and crucified in a garden. ‘Look at the spittle on my face, which I received because of you, in order to restore you to that first divine inbreathing at creation. See the blows on my cheeks, which I accepted in order to refashion your distorted form to my own image. 'See the scourging of my back, which I accepted in order to disperse the load of your sins which was laid upon your back. See my hands nailed to the tree for a good purpose, for you, who stretched out your hand to the tree for an evil one. `I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side, for you, who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side healed the pain of your side; my sleep will release you from your sleep in Hades; my sword has checked the sword which was turned against you. ‘But arise, let us go hence. The enemy brought you out of the land of paradise; I will reinstate you, no longer in paradise, but on the throne of heaven. I denied you the tree of life, which was a figure, but now I myself am united to you, I who am life. I posted the cherubim to guard you as they would slaves; now I make the cherubim worship you as they would God. "The cherubim throne has been prepared, the bearers are ready and waiting, the bridal chamber is in order, the food is provided, the everlasting houses and rooms are in readiness; the treasures of good things have been opened; the kingdom of heaven has been prepared before the ages." Support Let Us Pray

At a Mass for Families during the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Redemption in 1984, Pope St. John Paul II led those present in a “Consecration of All Individuals and Peoples of the World to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.” At the end of the consecration he offered this powerful prayer for deliverance from evil: Immaculate Heart! Help us to conquer the menace of evil, which so easily takes root in the hearts of the people of today, and whose immeasurable effects already weigh down upon our modern world and seem to block the paths towards the future! From famine and war, deliver us. From nuclear war, from incalculable self-destruction, from every kind of war, deliver us. From sins against the life of man from its very beginning, deliver us. From hatred and from the demeaning of the dignity of the children of God, deliver us. From every kind of injustice in the life of society, both national and international, deliver us. From readiness to trample on the commandments of God, deliver us. From attempts to stifle in human hearts the very truth of God, deliver us. From the loss of awareness of good and evil, deliver us. From sins against the Holy Spirit, deliver us, deliver us. Accept, O Mother of Christ, this cry laden with the sufferings of all individual human beings, laden with the sufferings of whole societies. Help us with the power of the Holy Spirit to conquer all sin: individual sin and the "sin of the world", sin in all its manifestations. Let there be revealed, once more, in the history of the world the infinite saving power of the Redemption: the power of merciful Love! May it put a stop to evil! May it transform consciences! May your Immaculate Heart reveal for all the light of Hope! Amen Support Let Us Pray

Pray for St. Joseph's intercession with this prayer composed by Bishop Robert Reed: St. Joseph, you held the Son of God close you, and when the child Jesus was lost you felt the concern and worry of a parent. Be like a father and counselor to me; protect me by your prayers in time and in eternity. With the same care that you had for Jesus, intercede for me that I might grow in wisdom and grace before God. Preserve me from the corruption of this world, and pray that I may, in one eternal day, see Jesus' face and be united with you, Holy Mary, and all the saints in Heaven. We ask this in the name of Jesus, Who rested in your arms and Who is Lord, forever and ever. Amen. Support Let Us Pray