Blog Posts - OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP

October 7th - St. Libaire The Great By: Venassa Jijo

10/2/2020

Saint Libraire the Great was born into an imperial Roman patrician family with 9 other siblings. She worked for her family as a shepherdess and spent her time with the flocks spinning, praying, and singing hymns. While traveling, emperor Julian the Apostate found her in the field and tried to get her to renounce her faith by showing her a golden statue of Apollo. Saint Libaire struck the statue with her staff and it fell apart. She was murdered and became a martyr. Legend has it that a healing spring sprang up in the place of her murder.

INTERCESSORY PRAYER
Oh, Saint Libraire, you lived a peaceful life and you praised the Lord daily. When temptation presented itself in front of you, you stayed strong in your faith. Help us to have the strength that you had to overcome those obstacles and temptations. Amen

October 6th - St. Faith By: Venassa Jijo

10/2/2020

Saint Faith was known as a very beautiful woman who was very dedicated to the Lord. She was arrested for her faith, tried, cooked on a brazier, and eventually persecuted. She was martyred with Saint Alberta. Some of the spectators said that they felt sympathetic for Faith as she was beheaded. Saint Faith is the patron saint of pilgrims, prisoners, and soldiers.

INTERCESSORY PRAYER
Lord Jesus, who art always ready to assist your servants, fortify me at this hour, and enable me to answer in a manner worthy of you.

October 5th - St. Faustina By: Jonathan Alapatt

10/2/2020

St Faustina was born Helena Kowalska on August 25, 1905. She was the third of ten children of Stanislaw Kowalski and Marianna Kowalska. The family was poor but very religious. At the age of 19, Helena and her sister attended a dance in a park in Lodz. At the dance, Helena saw a vision of the suffering Jesus. Immediately she went to the Lodz Cathedral and saw Jesus telling her to join a Convent in Warsaw, the capital of Poland. At Warsaw, she tried entering into many convents but none accepted her. Finally, she found was accepted to the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. At first, she worked as a housemaid to earn the money she needed and after lots of work, she paid and got into the convent. On April 30, 1926, she became a nun and was given the name Maria Faustina. She was transferred to the convent in Plock, Poland. When she arrived in May 1930, she had her first signs of illness and was sent to rest. On that night, she saw Jesus appear to her and said to paint a picture of what she saw and sign it, “Jesus, I Trust in You.” She couldn’t paint, so she asked for help, but no one could help her. She met a priest named Michael Sopocko who she confessed to and he said to meet a psychiatrist named Helena Meciejewska who told Faustina to write down her visions in a diary. Soon, Fr. Sopocko introduced her to a painter named Eugene Kazimierowski. After the completion of the image, Jesus appeared to Faustina saying that she should show off the picture publicly. On September 13, 1935, Faustina saw another vision of Jesus telling her to make a chaplet of the Divine Mercy and to spread it all around. Soon the Chaplet was spreading and it was spreading. Sadly, Faustina was getting ill and died on October 5, 1938, at the age of 33.

INTERCESSORY PRAYER

O St. Faustina, you followed the will of God even through hard times and sufferings. Help us to pray and not give up on Jesus even through these times. We ask this through Christ Our Lord, Amen

October 4th - St. Francis Of Assisi By: Venassa Jijo

10/2/2020

Saint Francis of Assisi was the son of a rich cloth merchant. He had a good education and became part of his father’s business. Francis was also a street brawler and some-time soldier. Captured during a conflict in Italy, he spent over a year as a prisoner of war. During this time, Francis had a conversion experience. It was a message from Christ calling him to leave this worldly life. Once Francis was released, he began to take his faith seriously. He took Jesus as his role model and followed the rules of the Gospel. Saint Francis dressed in rough clothes and preached purity and peace; his family disapproved and his father disinherited him. Saint Francis visited hospitals, served the sick, and preached in the streets. He gained many followers and founded the Franciscans. After some time, he left to meditate in the mountains where he received the stigmata, which periodically bled during the remaining two years of his life.

INTERCESSORY PRAYER
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. And where there is sadness, joy
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood, as to understand. To be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. And it's in pardoning that we are pardoned. And it's in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Amen.

October 3rd - St. Theodore By: Venassa Jijo

9/25/2020

Saint Theodore joined the Sisters of Providence on August 18, 1823 and took her final vows on September 5, 1831. She was sent to Indiana, USA with 5 other sisters. They established the Academy of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, the first Catholic women’s liberal-arts college in the US. She also founded an orphanage for girls and one for boys in Vincennes, Indiana. She opened pharmacies and oversaw construction of a motherhouse for the Sisters of Providence. She is the patron saint of Indiana.

INTERCESSORY PRAYER

Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, valiant woman of God, intercede for us in our needs. Implore us through Jesus, the Christ, the gifts of a living faith, abiding hope and steadfast charity, so that through a life of prayer and service with others we may aid in promoting the Providence of God among all peoples. Amen

October 2nd - Feast of Guardian Angels By: Venassa Jijo

9/25/2020

Guardian angels represent individuals before God, watch over them, aid their prayer, and present their souls to God at death. Jesus once said, “See that you despise not one of these little ones for I say to you, that their angels in heavens always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.”Mathew 18:10. Guardian angels help and pray for us to stay close to God at all times. A feast in honor of the guardian angels was first observed in the 16th century. In 1615, Pope Paul V added it to the Roman calendar.

INTERCESSORY PRAYER

Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God's love commits me here, ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Keep us safe from the darkness and stay by our side, amen.

October 1st - St. Therese of Lisieux By: Venassa Jijo

9/25/2020

Saint Therese of Lisieux was born to a pious middle-class French family of tradesmen; all four of her sisters became nuns. At age 8, she was cured of an illness when a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary smiled at her. Just before her 14th birthday, Therese had a vision of the Child Jesus and from then on, had unshakeable faith. She had tried to join the Carmelites but was unable to until she turned 17. Saint Therese was told not to fast due to her health problems with tuberculosis. She eventually died from her illness and was declared a doctor of the church in 1997 by Pope John Paul II.

INTERCESSORY 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...(think about intention)... 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.

September 30th - St. Jerome By: Venassa Jijo

9/25/2020

Saint Jerome was born into a rich pagan family and he led a wild and misspent life. He studied in Rome and became a lawyer. He was baptized in 365 and spent his life in prayer. He became a monk and also a priest after some time. Jerome lived in the Holy Land for the last 34 years of his life where he wrote and translated works of history, biography, the writings of Origen, and much more. He was known as the Doctor and Father of the Church. Saint Jerome is the patron saint of archeologists, archivists, Bible scholars, translators, and more.

INTERCESSORY PRAYER

O blessed St. Jerome, our Patron, and our guide, we humbly ask that you intercede for us before God and that our petitions this day will be answered. We ask your blessing on the poor, the sick, and the unemployed of our parish. Pray for us, St. Jerome, that our parish community will always remain united in the love that only Christ can bring. May your word and example be our strength and our consolation. Amen.

September 29th - The Three Archangels By: Venassa Jijo

9/25/2020

Saint Gabriel the archangel is the messenger of God. He is mentioned several times in the Old and New Testaments either by name or anonymously. Saint Gabriel was the one who informed Mary that she had conceived. Saint Michael the archangel is known as our protector from God. He was present in the story of Daniel in the Old Testament. Saint Raphael is the healer from God. His name means “God heals” and he is also one of the seven archangels who stand before the throne of the Lord. In the Bible, Saint Raphael claims he “healed” the earth when it was defiled by the sins of the fallen angels. Saint Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael aren’t the only archangels of the Lord, but they’re the only ones mentioned in the Bible.

INTERCESSORY PRAYER

Heavenly King, You have given us archangels to assist us during our pilgrimage on earth. Saint Michael is our protector; I ask him to come to my aid, fight for all my loved ones, and protect us from danger. Saint Gabriel is a messenger of the Good News; I ask him to help me clearly hear Your voice and to teach me the truth. Saint Raphael is the healing angel; I ask him to take my need for healing and that of everyone I know, lift it up to Your throne of grace and deliver back to us the gift of recovery. Help us, O Lord, to realize more fully the reality of the archangels and their desire to serve us. Amen.

September 28th - St. Wenceslaus of Bohemia By: Venassa Jijo

9/25/2020

Saint Wenceslaus of Bohemia was the Duke of Bohemia. His daughter was baptized on her wedding day, though apparently she never took her faith seriously. Wenceslaus was murdered by his brother, Boleslaus, at the door of a church for political reasons. He was still listed as a martyr because the politics arose from his faith. Many miracles were reported at his tomb and his memorial is also Statehood Day in the Czech Republic. Saint Wenceslaus of Bohemia is the patron saint of brewers and Bohemia.

INTERCESSORY PRAYER

O God, who taught the Martyr St Wenceslaus to place the heavenly Kingdom before an earthly one, grant through his prayers that, denying ourselves, we may hold fast to you with all our heart. Through Christ our Lord, amen.