LORD, IF THOU WILT, THOU CANST MAKE ME WHOLE

THE FOLLOWING INVOCATIONS ARE THOSE USUALLY SAID AT LOURDES DURING THE BLESSING OF THE SICK:

We adore thee, O Lord. We hope in thee, O Lord. We love thee, O Lord.

Health of the Sick, pray for us. Mother of our Saviour, pray for us. Mother most pure, pray for us. Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

Let us adore for ever the Most Holy Sacrament.

Blessed be He that cometh in the Name of the Lord.

Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.

Thou art my Lord and my God.

Hosanna! Hosanna to the Son of David.

Mother of Jesus, pray for us. Mother of the Author of grace, pray for us. Comforter of the afflicted, pray for us.

“Show thyself a mother:

May the Word Divine,

Born for us thine Infant,

Hear our prayers through thine.”

Lord, we believe, do thou increase our faith.

Thou art the Resurrection and the Life.

Jesus, save us, we perish.

Jesus, Son of Mary, have pity on us.

Virgin most powerful with God, pray for us. Virgin most merciful, pray for us. Gate of Heaven, pray for us.

O God, come to our assistance, make haste to help us.

Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me whole.

Jesus, Who hast so loved us, have mercy on us.

Jesus, meek and humble of Heart, have mercy on us.

Jesus, our Refuge, have mercy on us.

Mother of our Saviour, pray for us.

“Show thyself a Mother” etc. (thrice) 

Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us.

Jesus, Father of the poor, have mercy on us.

Jesus, Comforter of the afflicted, have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us. Refuge of sinners, pray for us. Help of Christians, pray for us.

“Spare, O Lord, spare thy people;

Be not angry with us for ever.”

Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick. Lord, let me but see.

Lord, let me hear. Lord, let me rise and walk.

Lord, say but the word, and I shall be healed.

Queen of the most Holy Rosary, pray for us.

Blessed be the Holy and Immaculate Conception.

“Let us adore,” etc. (thrice) 

– From: St Anthony’s Treasury, 1916

 

PRAYER TO PADRE PIO FOR HEALING

PRAYER TO PADRE PIO FOR HEALING

Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, obedient father, you loved the sick and infirm more than yourself because in them you saw Jesus. In the name of God you performed miracles of healing in body, soul and mind.

Your intercession with God healed the ills of past and present and strengthened people to respond with confidence to future challenges. Those who came to you regained a sense of spiritual integrity as you rekindled hope in their lives, and encouraged them to renew the spirit in their hearts.

Through the intercession of Our Heavenly Mother, may we experience your powerful assistance and be healed in our bodily and spiritual needs, particularly (name it) and gratefully give praise and thanks to God for all His blessings. Amen.

 

CAN A PERSON BE CURED AT LOURDES IF SHE HAS NO FAITH?

“Question: Can a person be cured at Lourdes if she has no faith?

Answer: We cannot place bounds or limits on what Our Lady will or will not do. It is her privilege to intercede for and cure a person who has no faith, just as she intercedes for all those who believe in her son Jesus Christ and who, though weak and sinful, persevere in trying to live according to the teaching of Christ and his Church.”

– This article was published in St Martin Magazine’s feature “Question Box”; issue June 2015. For subscriptions please visit http://www.stmartin.ie (external link)

 

TODAY’S GOSPEL READING (LUKE 9:1-6)

(Week 25 of the year: Wednesday)

JESUS SENT THEM OUT TO PROCLAIM THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND TO HEAL.

Jesus called the Twelve together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey: neither staff, nor haversack, nor bread, nor money; and let none of you take a spare tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there; and when you leave, let it be from there. As for those who do not welcome you, when you leave their town shake the dust from your feet as a sign to them.” So they set out and went from village to village proclaimed the Good News and healing everywhere.

V. The Gospel of the Lord.
R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

 

TODAY’S GOSPEL READING (LUKE 6:6-11)

(Week 23 of the year: Monday)

THEY WERE WATCHING JESUS TO SEE IF HE WOULD CURE A MAN ON THE SABBATH.

On the sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees were watching him to see if he would cure a man on the sabbath, hoping to find something to use against him.

But he knew their thoughts; and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Stand up! Come out into the middle.” And he came out and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I put it to you: is it against the law on the sabbath to do good, or to do evil; to save life, or to destroy it?” Then he looked round at them all and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was better. But they were furious, and began to discuss the best way of dealing with Jesus.

V. The Gospel of the Lord.
R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

 

TODAY’S GOSPEL READING (LUKE 4:38-44)

(Week 22 of the year: Wednesday)

I MUST PROCLAIM THE GOOD NEWS TO THE OTHER TOWNS, TOO, BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT I WAS SENT TO DO.

Leaving the synagogue Jesus went to Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever and they asked him to do something for her. Leaning over her he rebuked the fever and it left her. And she immediately got up and began to wait on them.

At sunset all those who had friends suffering from diseases of one kind or another brought them to him, and laying his hands on each he cured them. Devils too came out of many people, howling, “You are the Son of God.” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ.

When daylight came he left the house and made his way to a lonely place. The crowds went to look for him, and when they had caught up with him they wanted to prevent him leaving them, but he answered, “I must proclaim the Good News of the kingdom of God to the other towns too, because that is what I was sent to do.” And he continued his preaching in the synagogues of Judaea.

V. The Gospel of the Lord.
R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

 

TODAY’S GOSPEL READING (MATTHEW 15:21-28)

(20. Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A)

WOMAN, YOU HAVE GREAT FAITH.

Jesus left Gennesaret and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. Then out came a Canaanite woman from that district and started shouting, “Sir, Son of David, take pity on me. My daughter is tormented by a devil.” But he answered her not a word. And his disciples went and pleaded with him. “Give her what she wants,” they said, “because she is shouting after us.”

He said in reply, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.” But the woman had come up and was kneeling at his feet. “Lord,” she said, “help me.” He replied, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs.” She retorted, “Ah yes, sir; but even house-dogs can eat the scraps that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, you have great faith. Let your wish be granted.” And from that moment her daughter was well again.

V. The Gospel of the Lord.
R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

 

TODAY’S GOSPEL READING (MATTHEW 17:14-20)

IF YOU HAD FAITH, NOTHING WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE TO YOU.

A man came up to Jesus and went down on his knees before him. “Lord,” he said “take pity on my son: he is a lunatic and in a wretched state; he is always falling into the fire or into the water. I took him to your disciples and they were unable to cure him.” “Faithless and perverse generation!” Jesus said in reply “How much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.” And when Jesus rebuked it the devil came out of the boy who was cured from that moment.

Then the disciples came privately to Jesus. “Why were we unable to cast it out?” they asked. He answered, “Because you have little faith. I tell you solemnly, if your faith were the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’, and it would move; nothing would be impossible for you.”

V. The Gospel of the Lord.
R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

 

HOW MARVELLOUS IS GOD’S FATHERLY LOVE FOR US!

“A few years ago I was in a church in Worcester and at about half past six one morning a man came in. I knew he wasn’t a Catholic because he tried to come in through the door that was always locked. He was looking for his son aged nine, who’d been missing all night and had been seen playing around our church the evening before. He’d stolen some money from his father and he must have been too frightened to come home. The father thought that he might have come into our church and hidden somewhere and gone to sleep. So we looked all through the church, in the confessionals and everywhere, but the boy was nowhere to be found and the father went out.

It was now time for me to go and say Mass in the convent, so I got the car out and went out of the gates. I saw the man sheltering in a shop doorway, lighting a cigarette. It was beginning to rain and he did not have a raincoat, so I pulled up and asked if I could give him a lift. He turned and said it was alright thanks, and there in the daylight I could see that his eyes were red-rimmed with want of sleep and filled with tears.

I drove on and thought to myself: There you have the love of a human father; what must not God’s love for us be like? The little boy of nine who’d stolen money – he thought it was all finished now between him and his father; he’d stolen money and his father wouldn’t want him back; he didn’t dare come home. But the father had forgotten all about the money. He wouldn’t have minded if the boy had stolen much more. All he wanted was to get his child back, safe and sound.

Sure, we’ve sinned. But you could almost say that our sins are nothing to God. He’s paid the price already. What he wants is to get us back, and when we go to confession he helps us realise how much we mean to him.

SPIRITUAL GROWTH

This awareness that God loves us deeply even though he knows all about us is needed for our spiritual growth. We poor sinners do need to be aware of this truth about God, that he is good and that he loves us.

There was a priest called Father Dan Considine who was quite well known in his day. He was our Jesuit novice master and he once wrote that if he had to assess the holiness to which any individual would come, he would base his assessment on the quality of that person’s hope, in the confidence he had in God’s love for him. It’s the basis of St Therese’s Little Way, this awareness of the Fatherly love that God has for us, and that we are just his little children. One of the fruits of confession is that it makes us still more aware of this.

In fact, it seems to me that just as our offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass helps increase our faith and receiving Christ in Holy Communion helps increase our charity, so receiving this sacrament of reconciliation should help increase our hope. I repeat, it’s a growth sacrament.”
– Fr Hugh S. Thwaites

 

TODAY’S BIBLE READING (JEREMIAH 15:10, 16-21)

WHY IS MY SUFFERING CONTINUAL?
IF YOU COME BACK, I WILL TAKE YOU BACK INTO MY SERVICE.

Woe is me, my mother, for you have borne me
to be a man of stife and of dissension for all the land.
I neither lend nor borrow,
yet all of them curse me
and avenge me on my persecutors.
Your anger is very slow: do not let me be snatched away.
Realise that I suffer insult for your sake.
When your words came, I devoured them:
your word was my delight
and the joy of my heart;
for I was called by your name,
Lord, God of hosts.
I never took pleasure in sitting in scoffers’ company;
with your hand I held myself aloof,
since you had filled me with indignation.
Why is my suffering continual,
my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?
Do you mean to be for me a deceptive stream
with inconstant waters?
To which the Lord replied,
“If you come back,
I will take you back in my service;
and if you utter noble, not despicable, thoughts,
you shall be as my own mouth.
They will come back to you,
but you must not go back to them.
I will make you
a bronze wall fortified against this people.
They will fight against you
but they will not overcome you,
because I am with you
to save you and to deliver you
– it is the Lord who speaks.
I mean to deliver you from the hands of the wicked
and redeem you from the clutches of the violent.”

V. The word of the Lord.
R. Thanks be to God.