I looked up the saints whose feast days are today, hoping to find something inspiring to tell you amongst their life stories, such as "You should totally imitate this saint's awesome homilies," but while most of them were priests or monks, they were also mostly martyred by methods such as the drawing and quartering...

So, I'm not going to pray for you to follow in their footsteps exactly, because I would be praying for one of my best friends to be tortured in the Tower of London and then drawn and quartered.

So, instead, I pray that they will intercede on your behalf and that God will grant you fortitude and perseverance in whatever you face, be it physical martyrdom or annoying parishioners.

Blessed William Filby, St. Luke Kirby, Blessed Richard Newport and your companion Blessed William Scott, St. Joan of Arc, Blessed Thomas Cottam and your three companions, Blessed Lawrence Richardson, Blessed Maurus Scott, and all other martyrs, pray for Josh, that the Holy Spirit may strengthen him throughout his entire life.

Amen.

P.S. You should really go look up all those holy martyrs' stories!

Since you did not approve of my kitten picture as being sufficiently cute, here is a video my mom showed me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSZwhI4HOHE

I googled "cutest picture in the world," and this is what came up:

Anyway, thought you might enjoy it. I'm praying for you! :)

Today, my family threw me a surprise birthday party. It was especially surprising because I already had a birthday party on Friday and a few of my friends had already been here all weekend.

God throws us surprise second birthday parties all the time, though!

Just when you think that life is pretty awesome, or that God's done all He will ever do to bless you, you get an even greater blessing.

Take Noah, for instance. God had given him a family, and he probably thought that was the greatest blessing God would ever give him. Then, God saved him and his family from the flood, and he probably thought that was the end of the blessings. Of course, God then gave him a rainbow and a covenant, which was an even more epic blessing.

So, if you ever feel like God's done working in your life, think again.

And, when you feel like God's abandoned you because you don't hear His voice, don't get scared.

He probably just doesn't want to ruin the surprise.

:)

I know you've probably already read this, but it is one of the coolest reflections on beauty and the Eucharist which I have ever seen.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/badcatholic/2012/05/on-wanting-to-eat-your-baby.html#disqus_thread

So, today I pray for your life to always be filled with Beauty you want to eat, especially the Eucharist.

Jesus is so beautiful! I want to eat him! <--This sounds to me like something Kayla would say.

If you want to hear what Blessed JPII had to say about your vocation, CLICK HERE!

Anyway, I'm praying for you!

:)

I know the date says "May 26," but this blog post is for May 25, because I refuse to acknowledge that my birthday is over.

Anyway, I found this picture online:



When you feel yourself drowning in the sea marshmallows of life, may you find renewed trust in God, because He will always be there to save you.

He's kinda awesome like that.

I found this:



at justlittlethings.net (as you can tell from the bottom right corner).

It made me think of that day when we sat in Rand and sang the Death Star Gangsta Rap and Weird Al's Star Wars song.

And then I found this, which says laughter is a prayer.

Awesome! I just found out I pray* a lot more than I thought I did.

*Apparently, Genesis specifically frowns on laughing sometimes:

But the LORD said to Abraham: “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really bear a child, old as I am?’

Is anything too marvelous for the LORD to do? At the appointed time, about this time next year, I will return to you, and Sarah will have a son.”

Sarah lied, saying, “I did not laugh,” because she was afraid. But he said, “Yes, you did.”

- Genesis 18:13-15

But only if you laugh for the wrong reasons. Other times, laughter is amazing:

Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

Sarah then said, “God has given me cause to laugh, and all who hear of it will laugh with me.

 - Genesis 21:5-6

In fact, the name Isaac actually means laughter.

As The Society of the Sacred Heart says, "The History of Israel begins with a joke, a Divine joke."

Anyway, this is becoming a very long footnote, so today I offer up all my laughter for your intentions and for the intentions of all seminarians.

May you always be blessed with joy and laughter, and may you always have friends to laugh with you.

Amen.

Daily Prayer for a Seminarian Until His Ordination to the Priesthood

(Used by the Curé D'Ars Prayer Group Members)

O Jesus, Eternal High Priest,
I offer You through Your Immaculate Mother Mary,
Your own Precious Blood, in all the Masses throughout the world, as petition for graces for all seminarians, Your future priests, especially for Josh.

Give them humility, meekness, prudence, and a burning zeal for soul. Fill their hearts with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Teach them to know and love the church, that they may always and everywhere speak, act, and think with her, the glorious spouse of Christ.

Teach them generosity and detachment from wordly goods; but above all, teach them to know You and to love the One and Only Eternal Priest. good Shepherd of Souls, hear this my prayer for saintly priests.
Amen.

I found this prayer online. Apparently, it is prayed by the Diocese of Corpus Christi for their seminarians.

O Lord Jesus Christ, great High Priest, I pray that You call many worthy souls to Your holy priesthood. Enlighten the Bishop in the choice of candidates, the Spiritual Director in molding them, and the professors in instructing them. Lead the seminarians daily in Your unerring footsteps; so that they may become priests who are models of purity, possessors of wisdom and heroes of sacrifice; steeped in humility and aflame with love for God and man; apostles of Your glory and sanctifiers of souls.

Amen.

Mary, Queen of the Clergy, pray for us.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux once said, "At last I have found my vocation. My vocation is love!"

May you be filled with love always, but first and foremost, may you come to recognize how deep the love is that God has for you. 

As Fr. Baker is always saying, "When somebody gives you a gift, what's the first thing you do? You don't say thank you first - You take it!" 

So, may you dwell in God's love during your years in seminary and beyond. 

This is my first day of blogging about prayer, and I don't want to get too over-ambitious and flowery in the first real post, so I'll just end with a Bible verse. 

"Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; For Love is strong as Death, longing is fierce as Sheol. Its arrows are arrows of fire, flames of the divine. Deep waters cannot quench love, nor rivers sweep it away. Were one to offer all the wealth of his house for love, he would be utterly despised." - Song of Songs 8:6-7

That's God's definition of true love - AWESOME!

Hi, Future Pope Altonji!

I don't know if you ever got the piece of mail I sent you (the one promising you a year of daily prayers for your vocation discernment), but this is me, attempting to keep that promise.

So, first of all, you may share this blog with anyone you like, but I'm only sharing it with you, so I'm only kinda publicly blogging about/for you.

Every day, you shall find a new prayer/quote/picture/other piece of inspiration on here. Rest assured that I am praying for you even when my posts are not in prayer form.

Also, I thought about calling it "Prayers for the (future) Pope," but then thought you might kill me.

Anyway, best of wishes to you in seminary and beyond. You are going to be a WONDERFUL priest, and I'm praying for you constantly!

Enjoy your personal prayer blog!

Love,

Katie