Praying with the Saints Every Day
Saints Resources to Help Make the Saints Part of Your Devotional Life Every Day
Five Easy Ways to Connect Your Family to the Saints (FREE)
The saints are here to help us with their prayers and examples. Let the saints help you raise your kids in the Catholic faith. As your kids connect to the saints, the saints will connect them to Jesus and His Church.
The guide is a quick read, but filled with easy-to-implement ideas that work.Inspiring Saint Stories (FREE)
Sign up for free weekly emails that share inspiring stories about the saints. Each Sunday, you will receive an email which includes a story about both familiar and new saints. They are called "Post Cards" because they are notes about the saints written to you just like a friend would share news in post card.
Be inspired. (Be challenged, too.) Let the saints help you learn and live the Catholic faith.
Resources for Advent
St. Andrew Novena Mobile Phone Wallpaper (FREE)
The Christmas Anticipation Prayer aka St. Andrew Novena
The St. Andrew Novena is also known as the Christmas Anticipation Prayer. It is popularly known by the saint's name because it begins on his feast day which is November 30th. The devotion, the origin of which is not exactly known, is to pray the prayer fifteen times each day from the Feast of St. Andrew through Christmas Eve in order to prepare your heart for receiving the Child Jesus in His Nativity.
Wait. Before you think to yourself, "I cannot pray something 15 times per day!", keep reading. I have some tips to help make it easier.
Why Pray this Prayer?
It is easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of Christmas preparations during Advent. This beautiful prayer reminds us of the purpose of Advent which is to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit in order that they might be readied for celebrating the first coming of Jesus in Bethlehem and to be prepared for His second coming at the end of time or at end of our time here on earth.
Tips for Praying the Prayer
It might seem a challenge to pray a prayer fifteen times a day. And, it certainly can be. Here is what has helped me. First, I remember that the prayer is short. (But, it is powerful if you meditate on the words.) Second, I pray it in groups of five prayers, three times a day. My goal is to do it in the morning, around noon, and in the evening. Third, I have started to use the following phone wallpaper to help me to remember to pray it and to have the prayer easily available. Just download the image by clicking on the button below and add it as your wallpaper to help you pray this holy prayer.
And, use your phone's calendar to set a reminder for you to pray the prayer. Just set up a reminder three times per day throughout Advent. You will find it does not take long to pray the prayers.
The Prayer
Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of Our Savior Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen.
Advent Meditations by St. Alphonsus Liguori (FREE)
Advent is a time to help us prepare for the coming of the Lord in His Nativity in Bethlehem. Let a Doctor of the Chuch help you prepare with eight brief, but profound meditations which will assist you in readying your heart to give itself completely to the Holy Child of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In these reflections, St. Alphonsus Liguori, a Doctor of the Church, provides three brief points that include acts of love for God, thoughts on contrition for sin, and a petition for final perseverance. The meditations generally include a quote from Scripture, and, because of his great devotion to Our Lady, they conclude with a prayer to her asking for her intercession.
With eight meditations, these could be made on the morning and evening of each Sunday of Advent. Or, they can be made on the eight days preceding December 25th, by starting on December 17th.
Resource for Christmas
Christmas Meditations by St. Alphonsus Liguori (FREE)
The Christmas season is a time to reflect upon the Incarnation and Nativity of Jesus. We rejoice in the birth of the Child Jesus and we consider how He would grow up to to offer us salvation through His ministry, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension.
Let a Doctor of the Chuch help you reflect on what the Incarnation means for all of creation and in our own lives.
Each meditation on an aspect of Jesus' life is followed by a section, the saint entitled “Affections and Prayers".
With nine meditations, these could be made on the first nine days of Christmas as a novena or on any nine days during the Christmas season.
Resources for Lent
Stations of the Cross by St. Alphonsus Liguori (Free Resource)
One devotional practice that is associated with Lent is making the Stations of the Cross. The Stations of the Cross are fourteen moments in Jesus' Passion that go from His being condemned to die to being buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimithea. Through meditating on these stations, we can unite ourselves more closely with Our Suffering Savior Who gave everything for us.
One of the best known meditations for the Stations of the Cross was penned by St. Alphonsus Liguori who is a Doctor of the Church. His meditations are suitable for making the Stations of the Cross at your parish or in your home.
To get your own copy, just click the image above or the button below to download a free copy of this holy saint's reflections. The Stations include a picture and meditation for each of the fourteen stations along with verses from the well-known poem Stabat Mater Dolorosa (At the Cross Her Station Keeping).
Read through a Gospel during Lent (Free Resource)
One of the three pillars of Lent is prayer, and one way to increase your prayer life is to spend more time listening to God by reading His Word. He speaks to us through Scripture. Although we hear a Gospel passage every Sunday and at weekday masses, it can be a very fruitful experience to read through one of the Gospels from start to finish. The Evangelists wrote their Gospels as story and there is flow to each one of the accounts. When you read through a Gospel, you will pick up more of the sense of order that the Evangelists wanted to share.
Download the Lenten Gospel guide which has four plans--one for each Gospel--to lead you through a Gospel during Lent. The breaks are made a natural stopping points, and each section gives you enough to read and reflect on for one day.
Download the guide. Grab your Bible. And, listen to God's Word as you read through a Gospel during Lent.Gospel Readings for Every Day of Lent (Free Resource)
If you prefer to read from different Gospels during Lent, this resource has you covered. It is a selection of Gospel readings from all four Gospels that present passages that are good for reflection throughout Lent.
The free daily Gospel Lenten reading plan has readings for all the days of Lent (including Sundays), Holy Week, and the first Sunday of Easter.
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Featured Course: The "Why" and "How" of Saints (Free Resource)
Why are there saints? How does someone become a saint? How do you explain the saints? Learn the answers to these questions and much more in this 5-day email course.
