By Chris Sparks
One of my earliest memories is lying in my bed at night being led in bedtime prayers by my mom. She would show me how to make the Sign of the Cross, talk me through the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be, and then give me a kiss and say good night.
Over the years, I developed the habit of turning to those prayers if ever the darkness got too deep, initially as a child in a dark room alone, but as time passed, as a teen and an adult, as well. I'd pray whenever the going got rough in my day to day life, in my studies, or in my work. Indeed, one habit I've developed is to ask for prayers whenever I feel my concentration is scattered to the four winds, the ideas for stories are dry, or in any way, I've just hit a wall in my writing. I also learned that I absolutely need to have a habit of prayer. It's like eating, sleeping, or breathing: If you wait to do it until you're in a crisis, you've waited much too long. Prayer needs to be as common in our lives as any basic bodily function if we are to live happy, healthy, holy lives. It's amazing the difference prayer makes.
I've also learned from some great teachers the extraordinary importance and power of prayer. Read the lives of the saints for any length of time, and you'll see that they all talked to God on a regular basis. Some, like St. Faustina Kowalska, also talked to the angels and saints fairly regularly, as well.
Those conversations were an indispensable part of their relationship with the Communion of Saints, with the whole rest of the Body of Christ. Without those prayers, they could not have lived the lives of extraordinary love and heroic virtue that elevated them head and shoulders above their contemporaries and eventually caused the Church to canonize them as saints.
Why is prayer so necessary in our lives?
Well, Scripture and Tradition tell us that from the beginning of time, we were meant to live drawing on the strength of grace as well as nature. God created Adam and Eve in the state of grace, bringing Adam to life with His own breath; that is, with His own Spirit. Eve shared that same supernatural life with Adam before the fall. Living our lives according to our state of nature, then, means living lives full of grace, full of God's life and love animating us, full of divine strength.
Humans are not made to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps or to be stoic in the face of trials. We are made to imitate Jesus, the New Adam and the one who reveals man fully to man's self, as St. John Paul II taught in his encyclical Redemptor Hominis (The Redeemer of Man, 8). Throughout Jesus' ministry, He would frequently spend long hours in prayer, often by Himself, but also within sight of His disciples. It was witnessing Jesus in prayer that caused one of them to say, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples” (Lk 11:1). And He taught them the Our Father.
Prayer is an indispensable element of the Christian life, and so, of course, an indispensable part of living the Divine Mercy message and devotion. Saint Faustina transmits through her Diary many calls from Christ for prayer, most obviously in the Chaplet He gives her and the Novena He asks her to pray. Indeed, prayer is one of the greatest works of mercy open to us. Jesus told her, "Many souls … are often worried because they do not have the material means with which to carry out an act of mercy. Yet spiritual mercy, which requires neither permissions nor storehouses, is much more meritorious and is within the grasp of every soul" (Diary, 1317).
With all of that in mind, let me share with you a prayer that I've written. As you may know, the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception have been in the forefront of spreading the Divine Mercy message and devotion for over 60 years, and they've been assisted by many Marian Helpers. That work has only been made possible, though, by much prayer across the decades.
I ask you to be merciful to us, and offer up this prayer for the Marian Fathers, Marian Helpers, and all our many apostolic labors. May it be a source of blessing for you, as well.
Prayer to the patrons of the Marian Congregation and their associated works
Patrons of the Marian Fathers and the Association of Marian Helpers, we ask
you to come between the Marian Family and all evils—the world, the flesh,
and the devil. Be our first line of defense against the forces of hell. We
know that some measure of suffering is unavoidable in the Christian life,
and that here below we will inevitably face some measure of spiritual
combat. But we beseech you, patrons of the Marian Congregation and the
Association of Marian Helpers, be our first line of defense. Let the
suffering and spiritual warfare that befalls us be governed by the divine
love and mercy in which you live and move and have your being, not by the
malice of the devil.
Come between us and the devil. Come between us and the forces of hell. Be
our protectors and our guides through the traps and snares of hell, our sure
help and consolation in the midst of suffering and desolation. Pray us
safely home to God as we seek to serve Christ and His Church, all under the
mantle of the Immaculate Conception, Mother of the Church.
Our Lady, the Immaculate Conception, pray for us.
St. Joseph, Universal Patron of the Church and Terror of Demons, pray for
us.
St. Stanislaus Papczynski, pray for us.
Blessed George Matulaitis, pray for us.
Marian Martyrs of Rosica, pray for us.
Venerable Casimir Wyszynski, pray for us.
St. Faustina Kowalska, pray for us.
Bl. Michael Sopocko, pray for us.
St. John Paul II, pray for us.
All you holy men and women, patrons of priests, consecrated religious, the
Church, and of the Marian Congregation and all their affiliated works, pray
for us.
Please take on yourselves the spiritual combat faced by the Marian Fathers,
the Association of Marian Helpers, and all their affiliated apostolates,
ministries, families, friends, and good works.
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
We ask this through the Divine Mercy of the Father, Rich in Mercy, who
brings us all together into the Mystical Body of Christ, animated by the
Holy Spirit, one family, for ever and ever. Amen.
Pray this prayer for us every so often, please. Help us to continue to help the Church and the world receive the message and devotion of Divine Mercy, and to prepare all of us for the Lord's final coming (see Diary, 848; see also 635, 1146, 1588).
Chris Sparks serves as book editor for the Marian Fathers. He is the author of the Marian Press book How Can You Still Be Catholic? 50 Answers to a Good Question.
Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash.
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